2014 Optimal Health for Black Men Conference

Rites of Passage as Preparation Rites of Passage as Prevention

November 4th 2014 8:30am-4:30pm

Sponsored by the Black Men’s Optimal Health Collective, and the Morgan State University Institute for Urban Research

AGENDA

8:30-8:45 Registration

8:45-9:00 Opening Remarks

9:00-9:20 Education or Incarceration| Dr. Keith Jawara Hunter

9:30-10:30 Poro Society and Male Rites | Dr. Raymond Winbush Rites and African Spirituality| Nana Kwabena Brown Panel Discussion/ Q&A

10:30-11:30 Ankobea Rites Lessons from 25 years | Dr. Atiba Coppock National Rites of Passage Institute: Lessons Learned| Paul Hill, Jr. Panel Discussion/ Q&A

11:30-1:00 Lunch Break

12:40-1:00 Short Film on Youth in Riker’s Island

1:00-2:00 Environmental Inputs into our Consciousness |Dr. Jared Ball Rites of Passage as Community Education 101 |Ayize Sabater Panel Discussion/ Q&A

2:00-3:00 Initiation: Behind the Veil of Secrecy | Dr. Jeff Menzise Traditional African Socialization to create modern Afrikan Warriors Asafo, Jagun- Jagun, Ishakulu.| Tshango Mbilishaka Panel Discussion/ Q&A

3:00-4:15 How to Run a Mentoring Program and Why Mentoring is important | Cameron Miles Strategies and Best Practices for Program Success | Fanon Hill | Program Graduates Panel Discussion/ Q&A

4:15-4:30 Closing Remarks/ Next Steps

2 Nana Kwabena Brown, M.Ed, MRS

Priest, father, son, anthropologist, consultant, educator, instructor, counselor, trainer/coordinator, Nana Kwabena Aboagye Brown had little choice in being what he is today. Born in the midst of a world changed by the Second World War, he was nurtured in a proud West Indian household that stressed a sense of culture and identity. From a mother whose strong guiding hand and smiling supportive face molded and shaped him, he grew into a young man in the 1950s and 60s who had a desire to explore the intricacies of culture and spirit that bonded people together. This natural-haired woman whom we know as Iyalode, not only gave him life, but also she gave him and others so much more. Through her, he got his jump-start that propelled him into a journey along the spiritual path that has taken him all over the world. Through his mother and her mother, he gained a sense of what is right, what is decent, and what is culture.

The myth that had been propagated by white racist anthropologists and sociologists that people of color had no culture to speak of fell on deaf ears in their household. Nana’s grandfather, a Garveyite, would never allow their offspring to fall victim to the racial trap of inferiority. Preaching the doctrine of “Africa for the Africans,” this West Indian family personified the positive attributes of Garveyism. They sunk their roots deep into the earth of racial identity and culture pride. Migrating from New York to Washington, DC, the family brought this cultural awareness and desire to educate their people to Eighth Street Southeast to Zaro’s House of Africa. This mecca of African art and artifacts became one of the focal points of the establishment of the Akan religion in the Washington Metropolitan area. Their vision was further fueled by Nana’s mother, who introduced Nana Kwabena to Nana Yao Opare Dinizulu, who was one of the chief architects for the introduction of African culture to the United States. It was this association that helped Nana shape the foundation of his beliefs for the development of study groups and then the African Cultural and Religious Society.

Nana Kwabena’s studies of the religious and the spiritual have taken him from the esoteric to the metaphysical to the scholastic realms of knowledge. His teachers have been many and varied. In his quest to introduce people to a spiritual path, he has studied under a variety of masters. They include: Yete Tete, a Bukor who taught him the ethical nature of spiritual work; Okyeame Donkoh, who first introduced him to Nana Oparabeah, the Chief Priestess of Akonedi, who taught him about divination, working with the spirits and with the various shrines in Ghana, and is still a teacher to him. There was Dr. Don Eubanks of the Howard University Divinity School, an outstanding scholar who helped Nana to develop into a scholarly and spiritual man. Professor Rema Karifa Smart of Howard University showed Nana the essence of religion as an agent for social change. Dr. Leon Wright gave Nana the metaphysical understanding of applied spirituality. Nana Kofi Donkoh from Techiman gave him the knowledge of herbs and medicines for spiritual work. Kofi Ifa, son of Kofi Donkoh, provided Nana with a greater understanding of the skills and techniques of spiritual work. Also there was Perizade Nyak Khan, a Sufi mystic with whom Nana spent two wonderful summers at the age of twenty-one; from him he learned meditation techniques and concepts of spiritual evolution. As a result of his studies, Nana has attained two Masters degrees, one in Community Education, the other in Religious Studies. He has also become an ordained Traditional African priest and instructor.

As a man who became involved in the African Cultural Revolution to achieve black pride in the 60s and 70s, Nana has strived to show that God has a plan for the Black man. His beliefs are focused on the concept that every culture has something mystical, something to address the spiritual needs of its people. He envisions African culture and religion as the catalyst for African people to empower themselves. This can be achieved through aligning themselves with the primordial forces of the cosmos. His belief in the African’s innate spirituality is the driving force behind his dedication to developing social programs for at-risk youths. His desire is to assist them in preparing for a positive future that is devoid of drugs, violence, and disease.

As the Chief Priest of the Temple of Nyame, Nana Kwabena Aboagye Brown has been a tireless servant to the people. He continues to provide counseling, Rites of Passage, and consultations on African religions and cultural practices. He continues to be a committed, compassionate, passionate and emotional servant of the people.

3 Atiba Coppock, PhD Atiba Coppock Ph.D., co-founder and president of Baobab Associates, is an independent consultant, educator, curriculum designer, researcher, evaluator, trainer, author and speaker. He received his BA in history and M. Ed. in Special Education—Emotional and Behavioral Disorders from The . He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan—Ann Arbor in Special Education. His dissertation was an analysis of suspension rates of special education students in a Midwestern school district. Dr. Coppock, has taught and severed as full time graduate faculty at Howard University (Washington, DC) and Fayetteville State University, (Fayetteville, NC). His primary focus in this capacity was the educational preparation and training of personnel to work with special needs students in urban and rural communities with African American and racially and ethnically diverse populations. He has also taught classes at The American University, The University of Michigan, and Bowie State University. Dr. Coppock also worked as a Sr. Analyst, researcher and/or trainer with private firms providing services and conducting research for Health and Human Science (HHS) government agencies such as Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and Administration on Developmental Disabilities (ADD)/Administration for Children and Families. He provided program analysis and evaluation, training services to various constituencies including government staff, participants of funded government programs and community members. Some of Dr. Coppock’s published works include: Coppock, B.A. (1994). The process of technical assistance. In National HIV/STD Technical Assistance Project: A training project for community-based organizations. Washington, DC: Progressive Life Institute/Association of Black Psychologists. Warfield-Coppock, N., and Coppock, B.A. (1992). Afrocentric theory and applications, volume 2: Advances in the adolescent rites of passage. Washington, DC: Baobab Associates, Inc. Coppock, B.A., and Wood, F (Eds.). (1980). Issues in education and mental health of Afro-American children and youth with behavior and emotional problems. Minneapolis, MN: Advanced Training Institute. Dr. Coppock’s interest and work in male rites of passage began in 1986 with the design and implementation of a collective rites program for his son and family friends. Since that time he has specialized in Rites of Passage and the application of African centered strategies to problems facing African children, youth, families, and communities. He has designed, conducted, consulted with and trained adults interested in designing and conducting their own or existing rites of passage activities with youth and adults for the past thirty years. He has served for the past 25 years as the Akyemfohene, male co-minister in the Akyemfo Asomfo (Ministry of Education) of the Ankobea Abusua Society. His primary responsibility is the supervision and management of the society’s adolescent and adult male rites of passage program and other educational activities.

Favorite Quotes/Proverbs: o “The man who uses his brother as his barber needs no mirror.” -Akan- o “One needs the eyes of another man to see what the shadow of the tree hides”. --Dagara— o “A weak man goes where he is smiled at.” -Herero- o “If we stand tall, it is because we stand on the backs of those who came before us.” --Yoruba-- o “Where you sit when you are old, shows where you stood in youth.” --Yoruba-- o “Follow in the footsteps of your ancestors, for the mind is trained through knowledge.” -Kemet- o “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.” o “It is better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.”

4 Fanon Hill Fanon Hill is no stranger to community transformation. Recognizing a need for youth cultural organizing in City to confront the issues surrounding isolated community and youth programming that could not sufficiently address issues of violence, generational trauma, inadequate educational attainment and unemployment, he sought to create a movement, a way of life that could effectively and permanently create change for children, youth and their families. As co-founder of the Youth Resiliency Institute, Hill provides community-centric programming through a performance and creative arts-based rites of passage process. Hill continues to organize and strategize for community and youth equality in Baltimore City and throughout the country. His work has been featured in the Justice Policy Institute’s Bearing Witness Report, the national newspaper, Youth Today and a 2010 documentary funded by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, which highlights the role of rites of passage in urban communities. Hill has been featured on the nationally syndicated Michael Eric Dyson radio show, published by the National College Board, and has received a Congressional Citation from the U.S. House of Representatives for his work as a cultural organizer dedicated to the application of Resilience Theory in Baltimore’s most disinvested communities. Hill serves as community practice lead for the National Rites of Passage Institute and is a Case Western Reserve University Treu-Mart Fellow. Most recently, Hill secured half-a-million dollars in funding for cultural organizing efforts led by black families residing in public housing in Baltimore City. Equally important, in July 2014 Hill was invited to the White House’s Symposium on Transformative Family Engagement where he introduced a micro- documentary focusing on the Youth Resiliency Institute’s cultural arts rites of passage process in Baltimore City. Hill is author of the forthcoming book, “The Autobiography of 1001 Baltimore City Youth: Organizing With Black Youth in the Valley of Dry Bones.”Hill lives in Baltimore City and is happily married

Ayize Sabater Ayize Sabater is a dynamic social entrepreneur, author and twenty year veteran educator. He co- founded several non-profits, including an independent school and a Montessori Public Charter school. Mr. Sabater graduated from Morehouse and Wesley Theological Seminary. His life was transformed at Morehouse college where he was initiated in a rites of passage into an African fraternity called KMT Asen (or brotherhood). Mr. Sabater, for nearly a decade through MOMIES TLC, has used KMT's Akhenti rites of passage program to provide positive manhood training to adolescents. Ayize and his amazing wife Rhonda are the proud parents of five children. Favorite Quotes/Proverbs: o “I am because, WE are and because we are, therefore I am” o “No matter how far the river flows, it always remembers it's connected to a source” o “Man, Know thyself” o “Knowledge is like a garden: if it is not cultivated, it cannot be harvested” “If you offend, ask for forgiveness; if offended, forgive”

5 Paul Hill, Jr. Paul Hill Jr. Founder/President of the National Rites of Passage Institute will be presenting on Rites of Passage at this year's conference! Paul Hill, Jr was the first university graduate of the Hill/Porter family. His American maternal and paternal lineage is Alabama and Georgia. His African lineage, according to a DNA test by African Ancestry, Inc., is West African; specifically, Igbo, Maternal and Dogon, He and his wife's zawadi (gift) to their children in 2000 was the DNA test results of family ancestry. The American story of Paul Hill, Jr., who lost both grandfathers before his birth, began with the migration of his parents from the South to the North during the late 30's. His family’s migration was part of the epic story of America's great migration as told by Pulitzer Prize winner, Isabel Wilkerson in the book, “The Warmth of Other Suns.” Hill's life work in service to community has followed the path and legacy of his family. The local , Ohio newspaper's obituary headline of his father and Uncle- who died a week apart- was "A Legacy of Trust and Service to Community.” His father Paul Hill, Sr. was co-founder during the early 40's of the Future Outlook League. The organization's motto was "Do Not Buy Where You Cannot Work.” Paul and His younger brother Ron marched the picket line in the boycotts of the turbulent 50’s and 60’s against businesses that discriminated against African American's with his father and other proud black men and women. Two favorite memories of Paul was accompanying his father on the 1963 Washington, DC, Civil Rights March and hearing Malik El Shabazz speak (Ballots or Bullets) at Cory Baptist Church in 1964. His roots are firmly entrenched in service to community and community activism. Paul Hill, Jr's, service to community has been accomplished as an educator and community activist. His activism and practice were always culture driven and nature based. Paul's Rites of Passage experience into adulthood was emulated for his children, and children and youth of the community. He has been a pioneer in the Rites of Passage movement for over 30 years; he is one of the premier researchers, writers, and practitioners of Rites of Passage in the Western Hemisphere. His work in the area of Rites of Passage began in the early 80's and resulted in the creation of the National Rites of Passage Institute (NROPI) in 1993. Since 1993, NROPI has trained over 1000 individuals from 20 states, the District of Columbia and Canada. The individuals trained through NROPI have served over 10,000 youth from North America and Canada. Besides his phenomenal community service, for 45 years, Paul has been a devoted husband to Marquita McAllister Hill, a proud father of seven children, grandfather of 6 and a mentor to countless people throughout the United States and the World. Favorite Quotes: We cannot escape our origins, History is clock that people use to tell their political and cultural However hard we might try, time of day. It is a compass they use to find themselves on the those origins contain the key map of human geography. It tells them where they are but, -----could we but find it------more importantly, what they must be. to all that we later become. -John Henrik Clarke -James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son

Suggested Reading: o Harvest New Generations: The Positive Development of Black Youth, Second Edition, Useni Eugene Perkins o The Warrior Method: A Parents' Guide to Rearing Healthy Black Boys, Raymond A. Winbush o Coming of Age: African American Male Rites of Passage, Paul Hill, Jr o Facing MT Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta o Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture, Maulana Karenga o The Strengths of Black Families, Robert Hill

6 Keith Jawara Hunter, MD

Keith Hunter, MD Jawara Keith Hunter , a product of the New York City Public School System attended Tufts University and Howard University College of Medicine. He has trained in the areas of Rehabilitation Medicine and in Anesthesiology. Dr. Hunter has been an academic physician and researcher having worked at several locations in the Washington DC area including Howard University Hospital, Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Hunter has been a part of basic science and clinical research and has published in the areas of Critical Care Medicine, Rehabilitation Medicine and Transplantation. While a section head of the National Medical Association in Anesthesiology he began to develop an interest in Community Medicine and Public health and began organizing conferences and forums. In 2006 he formed the Metropolitan DC Health Consortium to promote health literacy. He has been presenting conferences on Optimal Health For Black Men as a tribute to one of his mentors, Dr. John Chissel.

Suggested Reading: o Understanding Black Adolescent Male VIolence Its Remediation and Prevention o The Developmental Psychology of the Black Child o Black-on-black VIolence the Psychodynamics of Black Self-annihilation in Service of White Domination -Amos Wilson

Favorite Quotes/Proverbs: o Many others soon realized the profitability in driving Black men crazy- Amos Wilson o Difficulty is one thing history never understood- Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy o Tell no lies, claim no easy victories- Cabral o The organized minority will defeat the disorganized majority every time - Bulhan o So exactly what are we educating our children for?- Amos Wilson o If our education does not prepare us to materially improve the lives of our people than of what use is it? - Amos Wilson o In the 1960s white folks didn't change, We Changed- Alton Maddox o It is better to light just one candle than to shout into the darkness- Ayi Kwei Armah o Prepare your children for times other than your own- Anonymous o The Black Man must be made to fee significant- Fanon

Jared Ball, PhD Dr. Jared A. Ball is the father of two brilliant and adorable daughters, Maisi and Marley, and the fortunate husband of Nelisbeth Yariani Ball. After that he is an Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Morgan State University. Ball’s research interests include the interaction between colonialism, mass media theory and history, as well as, the development of underground journalism and cultural expression as mechanisms of social movements and political organization. Ball is also producer and host of the “Super Funky Soul Power Hour” which airs Fridays 10:00 am. – 11:00 a.m. (EST) on Washington, DC’s WPFW 89.3 FM Pacifica Radio. He is also the founder and producer of FreeMix Radio: The Original Mixtape Radio Show, an emancipatory journalistic political mixtape about which he published his first book I MiX What I Like: A MiXtape Manifesto (AK Press, 2011). He can be found online at IMIXWHATILIKE.ORG. Favorite Quotes/Proverbs: o “The settler’s work is to make even dreams of liberty impossible for the native. The native’s work is to imagine all possible methods for destroying the settler.” – Frantz Fanon o "{Revolutionary ideas have been invisibilized… within the logic of our present order of discourse and its symbolic representations.” – Sylvia Wynter

7 T’shango Mbilishaka

T'Shango Mbilishaka is an Afrikan with undying love for his people. He is dedicated to the mental liberation and unification of Afrikan families spread throughout the world. Currently, he is an organizer for Reawakening the Afrikan Genius Mind, a husband and a social studies teacher in Washington D.C. T'Shango has worked with Rites of Passage programs in Boston, Baltimore/ Oyotunji Village and Washington D.C. He has taught at two of the top Afrikan centered private schools in the country Nationhouse Positive Action Center (in existence for 40 years) and Kuumba Learning Center (in existence for 30 years). For the past decade T’Shango has taught or been an administrator for every grade from Pre-K through college in public, private and charter schools. T’Shango Mbilishaka has traveled extensively to the Caribbean, Europe, South and Central America as well as to Afrika, 7 times. T'Shango follows the life lessons of the Honorable Marcus Garvey to read 4 hours a day. He is focused on the study of traditional African socialization and enculturation, the aims, skills, methods, and content that is necessary to create healthy, whole, productive sovereign Afrikan people.

Favorite Quotes/Proverbs: o "Never talk cheese with rats, break bread with birds, nor make moves with snakes." o "Small mice are so focused on the cheese they forget about the trap." o “People are consumed by evil because of keeping close to it, but not because of keeping away from it.” ~Kikuyu (Afrikan) Proverb o "Truth walks through fire and doesn't get burned"- Afrikan Proverb o One who causes others misfortune also teaches them wisdom. ~ African Proverb o Advice is a stranger; if he’s welcome he stays for the night; if not, he leaves the same day. ~Malagasy Proverb o Money can’t talk, yet it can make lies look true. ~ South Africa o Dogs do not actually prefer bones to meat; it is just that no one ever gives them meat. ~ Akan o Having a good discussion is like having riches ~ Kenya o The wealth which enslaves the owner isn’t wealth. ~ Yoruba o Bad friends will prevent you from having good friends. ~ Gabon proverb o If there is character, ugliness becomes beauty; if there is none, beauty becomes ugliness. ~Nigerian Proverb o Patience is the mother of a beautiful child. ~Bantu Proverb o Good words are food, bad words poison. ~Malagasy Proverb o http://afritorial.com/the-best-72-african-wise-proverbs/ o “This is a battle for the mind and souls of our people, and like any sustained battle, the advantages and ultimate victory lies with the morally righteous, the best prepared and the most determined.” ~Kwame Agyei Akoto

o "I know now that the most damaging thing a people in a colonial situation can do is to allow their children to attend any educational facility organized by the dominant enemy culture....We send our children to places of learning operated by men who hate us and hate the truth." ~George Jackson

o "A people losing sight of origins are dead. A people deaf to purposes are lost. Under fertile rain, in scorching sunshine there is no difference: their bodies are mere corpses, awaiting final burial....Have we not seen the devotees of death? They are beyond the source’s beckoning. Purpose has no power to draw them forward from dead todays. Make way for them along the easy road. Those with their guts cracked out of them, those with minds so minced all their remembrance would turn to pain, leave them along the easy road. Do not condemn, do not pity them. Let them go. Or would you try reminding them of their murdered selves? As well graft back blighted leaves. Some restful night after the first thousand and the second thousand seasons the loss of such, devoted to whiteness in their souls, will appear justly: again." ~Ayi Kwei Armah

8 Cameron Miles Cameron Miles currently is a grant writer for Resident Services Inc. in Baltimore City. He formerly worked in Washington DC at the Pentagon and is a child advocate. Prior to that, he was the Organizing Director with Advocates for Children and Youth, has a Bachelor’s Degree from Coppin State University in Business Management and received a Master’s Degree from the University of Baltimore in Legal and Ethical Studies. He retired from the Maryland National Guard after 20 years of service and served in the War on Terrorism for 18 months.

Mr. Miles is a member of the New Shiloh Baptist Church. He is also the Director of Mentoring Male Teens in the Hood, a group mentoring program for Kings between the ages of 8 and 18 who live in the Baltimore Metropolitan area. The program has been in existence since 1996 and the meetings are held at New Shiloh two Saturday’s per month.

The mentoring program focuses on respect, attitude, behavior, expressing yourself without calling names, staying away from gang involvement, eye contact and a firm handshake, the importance of reading and pronouncing words correctly, as well as many other things. The importance of good school habits, staying in school, staying away from drugs, building self-esteem, and respecting women is also a major focus. The Kings come from all over the State of Maryland, from any background or ethnicity. They all must have a willingness to learn and all who come, do so voluntarily. The mission statement is to be honest, respectful, and to model positive behavior at all time to all people. Mr. Miles has mentored at various schools around the city and state and has gotten hundreds of tickets to sporting events each year for children who could not otherwise afford them. Mr. Miles works hard to get the young Kings to realize their potential and always do their best.

As the former Organizing Director for Advocates for Children and Youth, Mr. Miles was responsible for organizing and informing the legislature, business community, faith community, parents and youth for a safer juvenile justice system where youth are challenged, trained, mentored, and prepared for a life that will allow them to compete, and realize the “American Dream”.

“Young people in the Juvenile system must receive the proper mental health treatment, proper programming, apprenticeship programs, and other therapeutic enhancers that will assist them in competing, striving, and beginning to become whole citizens that are positively contributing to society. The main focus is to keep children from going into the system but, if they go into the system, they should be safe. Too many children are not receiving the services that are needed to allow them to be rehabilitated, succeed, and make a life in society.

Favorite Quotes/Proverbs: o “I love myself” o “A setback is a setup for a comeback” o “Failure is not an option” o “For good better or best, never let it rest until my good gets better and my better gets best”

Jeff Menzise, PhD

Jeff Menzise is a doctor of clinical psychology, certified hypnotist, professor, holisitic health consultant, initiated and ordained multi-faith priest/minister, author, certified Kemetic Yoga teacher (level 1), reiki master, life coach and consultant. He has worked extensively in matters concerning holistic health, mind, body & spirit alignment, marriage and family planning, self-development, initiation and rites of passage program development, life purpose guidance, meditation, yoga and pranic healing.

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Ray Winbush, PhD Raymond A. Winbush is the Director of the Institute for Urban Research at Morgan State University in Baltimore Maryland. He is the former Benjamin Hooks Professor of Social Justice at and Director of the University’s Race Relations Institute. He also served as Assistant Provost and Director of the Johnson Black Cultural Center at . A native of Cleveland Ohio, Dr. Winbush, is a product of public school education, K through 12. In 1970, he graduated with honors in psychology from Oakwood College in Huntsville Alabama, and during his undergraduate education there, won scholarships to both Harvard and Yale Universities. After graduation he won a fellowship to the and received both his Masters and Ph.D. in psychology in 1973 and 1976 respectively.

From 1973 to 1980, Dr. Winbush taught at Oakwood College and Alabama A & M University in Huntsville before coming to Vanderbilt University in the fall of 1980. At Vanderbilt he was Assistant Provost of the university, held an adjunct professorship in the Department of Psychology and was Associate Professor of Human Resource Development at Peabody College . His research interests include infusing African American studies into school curricula, African American adolescent development, Black male and female relationships and the influence of hip hop on contemporary American culture. He is the author of numerous articles on the “politics” of Afrocentricity and the resistance it encounters among scholars who wish to maintain existing intellectual paradigms. A recent article for the Baltimore Urban League coauthored with his colleague Dr. Tracy Rone at the Institute for Urban Research, cited the hidden dangers of environmental lead poisoning in Baltimore City.

He is the author of three books, including his latest, Belinda’s Petition: A Concise History of Reparations for the Transtlantic Slave Trade, (Xlibris, 2009) a “prequel” to his book, Should America Pay?: Slavery and the Raging Debate on Reparations which was published by HarperCollins in 2003 and hit Essence Magazine’s bestsellers list shortly after its release. It has been called by Cornel West a “must read” when it comes to understanding the struggle for reparations. His book, The Warrior Method: A Program for Rearing Healthy Black Boys, (Harper Collins, 2001), is a comprehensive African-centered program for rearing healthy Black boys in a racist society.

He received a five-year $2.6 million grant from the Kellogg Foundation and he revitalized the historic Race Relations Institute at Fisk University. The 32nd Institute was held July 6-12, 1998 at Fisk with 250 attendees including actor James Earl Jones, the children of Kwame Nkrumah, W. E. B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey and Richard Wright, Dr. John Hope Franklin, Congressman John Conyers and Naomi Tutu of South Africa. Rap stars Chuck D and other members of the hip-hop community attended, as well as well-known psychiatrist Dr. Frances Cress Welsing. The Race Relations Institute is the only institute of its kind housed at a historically Black university. Another grant from the Will and Jada Pinkett-Smith Foundation is helping to establish The Warrior Institute in Baltimore that teaches the Warrior Method to parents, teachers and community activists.

His consultations are numerous. He is a former member of the Executive Board of the National Council for Black Studies. He is former President of the Southern Region of the Association of Black Culture Centers, and has consulted widely with organizations ranging from the Joint Center for Economic and Political Studies, National Research Council and the Ford Foundation and several American universities. He currently sits on the Advisory Board of both the Journal of Black Studies, and Africalogical Perspectives the most prestigious journals in their field. He has held Board memberships on the Center for Democratic Renewal chaired by Rev. C. T. Vivian and the National Vanguard Leadership Program, chaired by Camille Cosby which has been instrumental in recording the lives of elders in the American African community.

His travels include Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, France, England, Holland, Barbados, Belgium, Honduras, Ecuador, Senegal, Cote D'Ivoire and Jamaica, where he seeks to understand how African people have influenced world culture. He has made appearances on CNN, the CBS Morning Show and Black Entertainment Television and the Oprah Winfrey Show with the cast of the critically acclaimed film, Crash.

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2014 Optimal Health for Black Men Conference thanks this year’s generous sponsors:

The Black Men’s Optimal Health Collective

The Collective, based in DC, was formed when several men gathered at the funeral of a friend and colleague who had died prematurely from a preventable disease. We began to agree that as we were aging that all of us were losing friends too soon.

We committed to meeting and discussing ways of sharing knowledge and insights utilizing the people that we knew were healers in our community. Through a number of conferences and workshops over the years we have been able to reach hundreds of men and their loved ones. “Optimal Health is the highest level of vitality and aliveness that one can obtain”- Dr. John Chissell

The Morgan State University Institute for Urban Research

The Institute for Urban Research is the primary social science research and training arm of Morgan State University. The Institute has a core staff of experienced researchers who seek to improve the response of governmental, non-governmental, private, and other institutions to the challenges of poverty, unemployment, poor health, truancy, and other urban and regional problems. Through its Community Development Resource Center, Family Life Center, and Survey Research Center, the Institute provides a wide range of research and outreach services that include technical assistance to community-based agencies in Baltimore and Central Maryland. The Institute provides many opportunities for students to develop research skills and to gain hands-on experience through stipends, internships, and research assistantship. It also assists faculty in preparing grant proposals, designing research studies, and analyzing research data.

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2014 Optimal Health for Black Men Conference