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When men talk or don’t!

Silenced. Told our voice doesn’t matter. Crying is for girls. Be a man. Man up. Can’t take a punch? Are your feelings hurt? Punk. Wus. Grow a pair. Why are you so emotional? You are so sensitive! These are things that I’ve heard or men have shared they have heard from early childhood into adulthood. Strangely, I’ve heard this more from men in my adult life than from women.

On a small scale, I’ve been able to help young people and some adults express themselves through the spoken word arts. The things young people have shared with me about their experiences over the years have been remarkable. Sitting down with them through successive writing sessions and helping them bring their words through poetry and dance is a gift. In working with boys, I easily engaged with young men who had fathers in their lives. To make it relative, while the T’Chala’s had great expressions of fathers, the Killmongers had the opposite.

My desire is to engage men in writing sessions that are built on sharing, meaningful, affirming, real, and transformative writing (SMART-W). I am not a counselor or psychologist. I have a pen and a pad that lead to my first book Drops of Ink: Trials of the Endurer. I share openly and unashamedly as I believe that is what will help me begin to heal, seek the purpose in life that Dr. Nicholas Pearce shares in the Purpose Path, and will help them be accountable and responsible to live a life of no excuse.

A wounded child only grows to a man in age. We must work on the child inside so the man can flourish. It’s not popular but it’s necessary.

~ ALB