Black Men Smile® Leads Atlanta Hawks Fearless Leaders Academy Trip
Black Men Smile® founder Carlton Mackey accompanied 50 Black, Atlanta youth from the Atlanta Hawks Fearless Leaders Academy on a visit to view artist Fahamu Pecou’s exhibit, DO or DIE: Affect, Ritual, Resistance at Emory’s Carlos Museum.
The Atlanta Hawks Fearless Leaders Academy is a joint leadership program for 9th and 10th grade students, sponsored by the Hawks, designed and led by Fearless Dialogues, and supported by Atlanta’s Department of Parks and Recreation. Pecou’s acclaimed exhibit uses performance, painting, drawing and video in an attempt to re-frame views of Black mortality.
“The exhibit bears powerful witness to a truth these young folks need to know because it is their own. Exploring Black Masculinity and functioning both as resistance and transformation, this work is perfectly in line with our mission. I was geeked to tell the youth that I know the artist personally and so warmed by their ability to see themselves reflected in the work as they began to see their own potential to “do the impossible.””