Empowering Black Fathers: A Conversation on Impact and Community | Jewel Woods

What drives a man to create a movement celebrating the bond between Black fathers and their daughters? Our guest, a passionate community leader, opens up about the inception of Black Girl Dad Week and the Black Father Daughter Dance, born from a desire to carve out a supportive space amidst challenging political times. Listen as we explore the collaborative journey with influential allies like former Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rollins-Blake and mentor Tony Porter, who helped shape this vibrant occasion into a heartfelt celebration of joy, unity, and empowerment for Black men and their daughters.

As we reflect on the triumphs of the past year, we shine a light on the inspiring initiatives that emerged, such as "Take Your Daughter to School Day" and efforts to boost Black male representation in educational settings. The genuine smiles and laughter shared between fathers and daughters at these events are a testament to the powerful connections fostered. Join us as we discuss what lies ahead for these pivotal gatherings, aiming for even greater community impact and affirming the essential role of Black fathers in advocating for and supporting the leadership of Black women.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:40

I got to get you out of here. I know you exhausted, man. You're the man with the plan. You're the man with the plan, man. Thank you for coming in and hanging out with me, man.

Speaker 2: 0:49

You are a beautiful brother. I support everything you do.

Speaker 1: 0:51

Yeah, man here, let me get you this microphone.

Speaker 2: 0:53

There you go, okay.

Speaker 1: 0:55

Yeah, yeah. So tell me what inspired you to create this here?

Speaker 2: 1:00

So I wish I had like for this particular event. I wish I had a better answer, but you know it started off more on the political side. I knew, for example, when Roe v Wade was going to be overturned, that there was an opportunity to create space for black men to figure out how they could, what their role was in this whole conversation around. You know women's rights and women's issues, and so at that time I had been having a conversation with an old homie of mine, college friend, who was the former mayor of Baltimore, stephanie Rollins-Blake, and I said you know, I'd like to create space for brothers to have a conversation about how do they support Black women leadership. My apologies.

Speaker 1: 1:35

No, that's all right, that's all right.

Speaker 2: 1:37

And so she said that she was good, right, and once I had her, I thought always to bring my mentor, your beautiful brother by the name of Tony Porter, to deal with questions around masculinity and manhood. But so to answer your question was once I had those two locked down. You know, the reality is this felt heavy, felt deep, and so I said we need something actually can kind of lighten this up and the idea of a father daughter dance. But you know, it was very intentional about using the word black, because I think that black fathers and black community have some unique issues, and so that was it. It was just really to actually be the thing that, in the context of other issues, allowed for what we see now, which is this incredible opportunity for brothers to actually just have a good time.

Speaker 1: 2:20

Yeah. So I mean, I interviewed a lot of families today and all of them a lot of them, if not all of them have said that it's not only a beautiful time to spend with their, with their daughter, but they also get to be here in the camaraderie of all these brothers doing the exact same thing. How does that make you feel?

Speaker 2: 2:39

And now, more than anything else, I feel grateful and humbled because I can just sit back and just say you know what, man, there's no other space that I can think of where brothers get a chance to actually just come hang out with other men.

Speaker 1: 2:50

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 2:50

And around their daughters in particular, let alone their kids in general, so I can just sit back and just see cats smile and relax.

Speaker 1: 2:58

Yeah, it's beautiful.

Speaker 2: 2:58

It's a lot of stuff that a lot of black men have opportunities for, because everything else again is just so heavy. You got to keep it moving. You got to fix our face, yeah so yeah, brother, smile here more than I ever see, brothers yeah, yeah and it's authentic.

Speaker 1: 3:09

Thanks, man. I have seen some, some fathers blushing when the daughters gave some answers to the question they were just blushing. I look over there all right, jesus man, it's a beautiful thing, it's a beautiful thing. So what's next for the black girl dad week? Yeah and black father daughter dance I appreciate.

Speaker 2: 3:24

So last year was more about, you know, community goodwill. I'm almost brother, even a sort of proof of concept, you know, I think we did well, in fact I know we did well. But this year it was more about community impact and so, specifically like sort of areas, tuesday was Take your Daughter to School Day. We had a wonderful event over at East High School, but I, your daughter to school day. We had a wonderful event over at East High School, but I had approached Columbus City Schools and said hey, you know what are the numbers of black males in PTOs and PTAs? They didn't have that, but what they did have was the number of black males that were school ambassadors. So when I got that number, I think it was only 12, believe it or not in the entire school system. So we get six. You know, we increase, you know, the number of black males as school ambassadors by 50%.

Speaker 1: 4:03

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 4:03

So that, in addition to Take your Daughter to Work Day, which was that following Wednesday that was sponsored by the Columbus Chamber of Commerce and again giving the system an opportunity to say hey, as a company or as a VP, I am going to be committed to the lives of black women, black girls. So this year was about impact and I think next year is just to be bigger and better, to really take all those sectors education, the economy, behavioral health and actually figure out how we can create infrastructures, benchmarks, targets and things like that for our people. So, yeah, it's just to get bigger, have more impact, get more brothers involved. And the last thing I'll say because I really appreciate you While the title is Black Girl Dads Week and certainly this is Black Father Daughter Dance people miss the fact that this is a real organizing opportunity for us to get brothers together, right.

Speaker 2: 4:51

So, no doubt, for example, it's about supporting women and girls, but we do it by organizing men. Yeah, we do it by bringing brothers together in fraternity and fellowship for them to actually be seen and heard in ways that they just haven't.

Speaker 1: 5:05

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 5:05

So that's, that's the other thing to actually. So I say, what's next? Get more platform for brothers to be seen and do be the great fathers like you yeah, man, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 1: 5:13

I I truly appreciate you allowing us to be a community, uh sponsor for this event. We I mean I enjoy, we look forward to this event every year because we that's what 15 minutes with dad is about is about creating a platform for, and giving them a place to speak and a place to talk about. So I truly, truly appreciate you.

Speaker 2: 5:32

Um, brilliant young brother part of this, what old heads supposed to do?

Speaker 1: 5:35

is for it, but no 100%.

Speaker 2: 5:37

So and what happens, man, on a real simple level, is, if you know, you see it, then perhaps you can aspire to it. And the reality is that many of our communities just don't have that example of what you're doing, and so, again, just creating space like this, so, you know, a younger cat growing up can say, you know, I might not have it, but that's what it kind of looks like. Yeah, I want to be like that, I want to smile like that, yeah, so, yeah, we appreciate you.

Speaker 1: 6:01

It's beautiful. Thank you for sitting down with me. I'm going to let you go, but thank you, it's been a long time coming. You've been prepping for almost a year. Yeah, if not a year, I know you probably took like two days off after the last one that you started up On to 2025 already.

Speaker 2: 6:16

Oh man yeah Beautiful beautiful People could be amazed at the amount of talent that we're bringing next year.

Speaker 1: 6:22

I'm excited for it.