Men of Brilliance Literacy Club

1. Men of Brilliance Literacy Club

2. School: Scott’s Branch High School, located in rural Summerton, South Carolina in Clarendon County. Advisor: Byron Brown Membership: The Men of Brilliance Reading Club will consist of students who volunteer to participate in an extra curricular activity.

3. Purpose This club is designed to enhance the educational experience of thirty African-American male students at Scott’s Branch High. Members will engage in a guided reading of Richard Wright’s Eight Men and participate in lectures and outside reading by visiting scholars and community leaders.

4. Meetings Members will meet eight times throughout the semester to undertake and explore Richard Wright’s short story collection Eight Men. The meetings will take place through Early Bird/Afternoon discussion sessions.

5. Week One: • Reading: “The Man Who Was Almost A Man” • Discussion Topic: What Makes a Man? • Guest: An Adolescent Psychologist or Coach with a spirited side

6. Week Two: • Reading: “The Man Who Killed a Shadow” • Discussion Topic: Has America Transcended Race? • Guest: College Professor or Governmental Leader

7. Week Three: • Reading: “Big Black Good Man” • Discussion Topic: Perception vs. Reality, The Media and the Black Family • Guest: A prominent figure from the community

8. Week Four: • Reading: “The Man Who Saw the Flood” • Discussion Topic: Overcoming Adversity • Guest: A Black Businessman

9. Week Five: • Reading: “Man, God Ain’t Like That” • Discussion Topic: Mythology and Systems • Speaker: An Intelligent Minister

10. Week Six: • Reading: “Man of All Work” • Discussion Topic: “So what do you know about Women?” • Guest: Counselor

11. Week Seven: • Reading: “The Man who went to Chicago” • Discussion Topic: Why Black Men Leave the South? • Guest: A Native Son who returns home to live

12. Week Eight: • Reading: “The Man W ho Lived Underground • Discussion Topic: Write Me A World—Being an Experiencing America

13. Lesson 1: “The Man who Almost was a Man” Dave is poised between boyhood and adulthood. Characters threaten Dave’s fragile sense of manhood. His lack of social and economic powers makes him acutely aware that he is not quite a man. Dave’s quest for a gun symbolizes power, maturity, and manhood. Dave’s impulsive decision to break free from the setting that belittles him by jumping on a northbound train suggests a successful passage towards maturity and independence. He fantasizes about buying a gun and knows that if he had a gun his fellow workers would no longer threat him like a boy. David is excited that Joe is only asking two dollars for the gun and resolves to convince his mother to let him buy it.

14. Activity Two: • Teacher will have students to write a response to the following question and have it posted on the 28 Men of Brilliance Website. • What does the gun symbolize for Dave?

15. Activity Three: • Students will define what a man is and have a discussion on what makes a man. In the discussion, students will address the following: • What factors distinguish a man from a boy? • Describe an object that would define their manhood.

16. Activity Four: • Students will write a poem, a song, a narrative, a timeline or draw a picture of the concept “manhood.” • The teacher will model an original narrative poem and have students to construct, create and post a poem about manhood, a song about becoming or being a man, draw a picture that depicts the image of a man with written caption.

17. In my mom’s house, I am a boy—a male child. Eating at the table where she provides daily By working from sun up to sun down— I remain the same—just a boy. I am a boy living in the humble home Which my father—yes my dad—built with His own hands, his own sweat, and his own tears; Still I am nothing but a boy all these years. When I walk into the small tilted kitchen In the family’s home and begin to smell The spicy and delicious aroma that is gently seeping from the pot my sister is stirring, I realize sadly then that I am yet a boy. With a cautious smile, when I walk across the stage Of my high school stadium to receive my hard earned papers I shake many hands with the witty thought I am almost a man. When I look into the mirror That rests on the wall of my living room In the house that I built, I see a maturity of that boy And the world sees a MAN. Narrative Poem: The Window of Boyhoodby Byron Brown