The sound
of drumming rang through the ballroom of the Kappa Alpha Psi
Fraternity House, 500 N. Vandeventer Ave.
A few of
the mothers and relatives of the drummers started to move. Fourteen
pre-adolescent African-American boys lined up in the back of the
room with their parents, a majority of them single
mothers.
The boys
were dressed in white-collared shirts and ties, with purple sashes
draped over their shoulders. Most had tense faces and eyes filled
with questions.
Finally,
they all proceeded down the center aisle to a powerfully booming
African drum beat.
It was
their wake-up call.
“The only
way to make our dreams come true is to first wake up,” said Phillip
Berry, the lead facilitator of the Boys to Men Training
program.
“We’ve
seen people who are asleep with their sagging pants. Today, young
men, it’s time to wake up. Are you ready to become the man you were
destined to be?”
On Feb.
19, the youth were inducted into the Boys to Men Training, a
program with Imani Rites of Passage & Company. Over the next
four months, they will go through a series of activities to
recognize the boys’ passage from childhood to
adolescence.
They will
focus on topics including family, character, creative arts,
entrepreneurship, college, careers and community.
The boys
already had met with the program’s eight mentors once, and
fifth-grader Cordell Barrett said he understood what he was getting
into.
“It’s all
about becoming a man and handling your responsibility and
succeeding in all your goals,” Barrett said. “You don’t have to
like everyone, but you do have to respect them if you want them to
respect you.”
Barrett
meets with the group twice a week after school at Scholar’s
Academy, 4500 Pope. Some of his peers go to the Confluence Academy
charter schools. Others are from the Riverview Gardens School
District and Scholar’s Academy.
Retired
school social worker Mary Ann Dunlap organized Imani last year. She
has done rites of passage training for 20 years, she said, starting
at Stevens Middle School.
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Barrett
admitted he was a little nervous at the beginning of the ceremony,
but as the program went on, it felt like a dream.
“It was so
fun,” he said. “Getting inducted was like meeting the president.
The best part was signing the commitment letter, because I made a
commitment to transform from a boy to a man.”
Barrett’s
signature committed him to the program until high school
graduation. During the boys’ high school years, the program will
focus on college scholarships, with the expectation that 100
percent of the boys will enroll in college, Dunlap said. They will
also be involved in internships starting at ninth
grade.
Before
they signed their names, the boys wrote something they wanted to
shed from their lives, such as a bad habit, onto a piece of paper.
Then they all put the papers in a box and promised to work to
eliminate the habit. Just like a wedding ceremony, they made the
promise before the whole community, said Ameer Ali, a
mentor.
“And your
community is your support,” Ali said.
Ali said
the mentors will bury the pieces of papers following the
ceremony.
Finally
the boys recited a long list of attributes and characteristics of
strong men.
“A young
man is brave,” said Martin Dunlap, a mentor. “He is brave enough to
be his own person and not follow the crowd. A young man is a
leader. He leads the way for others by always doing what is right
by any means necessary.”
As part of
the ceremony, each parent stood up and announced that they were
presenting their child to manhood training. Several fathers
presented their sons, and Ali spoke about the importance of the
African tradition of the village raising the children
together.
“As
fathers, we work together as a team,” he said. “My son is your son.
It’s important for the boys to see other strong men other than
their fathers.”
Naeem
Whitaker, program director, also spoke about the importance of
being involved in other children’s lives.
“As you
see a young person in need, it’s very important that you ask, ‘Are
you okay?’” Whitaker said. “That’s what we want to do
here.”
To seal
the ceremony, mentor Kunama Mtendaji played the drum
again.
In their
first session, Mtendaji talked to the boys about slavery, Barrett
said. “African Americans were owned, and now they’re free,” he
said.
Because of
this history, African Americans cannot afford to be asleep, Berry
said.
“When my
brother went to sleep, we used to play jokes on him,” Berry said.
“We could do that all because he was asleep. It’s time for us to
wake up. That’s why we’re here.”
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