Shaka Senghor
Bestselling author, speaker, investor, and head of diversity, equity, and inclusion at TripActions
Lolly Bowean
Writer, award-winning journalist, and community storyteller
Letters to the Sons of Society: A Father’s Invitation to Love, Honesty, and Freedom
BONUS AFTER-HOURS EVENT: Attendees who purchase a copy of Letters to the Sons of Society from FAN’s partner bookseller The Book Stall are invited to attend an AFTER-HOURS event hosted by Senghor that will start immediately after the webinar. Details on the webinar registration page.
Shaka Senghor has lived the life of two fathers. With his first son, Jay, born shortly after Senghor was incarcerated for second-degree murder, he experienced the regret of his own mistakes and the disconnection caused by a society that sees Black lives as disposable. With his second, Sekou, born after Senghor’s release, he has experienced healing, transformation, intimacy, and the possibilities of a world where men and boys can openly show one another affection, support, and love.
In Letters to the Sons of Society: A Father’s Invitation to Love, Honesty, and Freedom, a collection of beautifully written letters to Jay and Sekou, Senghor traces his journey as a Black man in America and unpacks the toxic and misguided messages about masculinity, mental health, love, and success that boys learn from an early age. He issues a passionate call to all fathers and sons—fathers who don’t know how to show their sons love, sons who are navigating a fatherless world, boys who have been forced to grow up before their time—to cultivate positive relationships with other men, seek healing, tend to mental health, grow from pain, and rewrite the story that has been told about them.
Senghor is a lecturer at universities, a leading voice on criminal justice reform, and the New York Times bestselling author of Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death, and Redemption in an American Prison. He is a former MIT Media Lab Director’s Fellow, a former fellow in the inaugural class of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Community Leadership Network, and a member of Oprah’s SuperSoul 100.
Senghor will be in conversation with Lolly Bowean, a writer, an award-winning journalist, and community storyteller. Bowean currently manages the Journalism portfolio with the Creativity and Free Expression team at the Ford Foundation. Before joining Ford, she curated the Media & Storytelling portfolio at the Field Foundation. Bowean also worked as a general assignment reporter at the Chicago Tribune for more than 15 years and had a particular focus on urban affairs, youth culture, housing, minority communities, and government relations.
This event suitable for youth 12+. It will be recorded and available on our website and YouTube channel.
Event Sponsors
- Baker Demonstration School
- Beacon Academy
- Bennett Day School
- Catherine Cook School
- Chiaravalle Montessori School
- Christ Church Winnetka
- Compass Health Center
- Connections for the Homeless
- Evanston Scholars
- Evanston Township High School D202
- Family Service of Glencoe
- Foundation 65
- Francis W. Parker School
- Fusion Academy
- Lake Forest Academy
- Lake Michigan Association of Independent Schools
- Latin School of Chicago
- Loyola Academy
- New Trier High School D203
- New Trier Parents’ Association
- North Shore Country Day
- Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy
- Regina Dominican College Preparatory High School
- Roycemore School
- Science & Arts Academy
- Stevenson High School D125
- Wolcott College Prep
- Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart
- Youth & Opportunity United (Y.O.U.)
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