Recap: Black Boys Dreaming Launch Event
In fall 2021, Shout Mouse published Black Boys Dreaming, a collection of imaginative stories that share messages of resilience, self-expression, and staying true to your dreams. Over the past two life-changing years, the young authors behind this project met with Shout Mouse story coaches Drew (Droopy) Anderson, Bomani Armah, and Alexa Patrick to work on their projects, first in-person at Beacon House and then virtually throughout the pandemic.
Beacon House, a longstanding partner of Shout Mouse, is a nonprofit organization that provides afterschool education and youth development programs to children and families in Northeast Washington, DC. Its mission is to provide children in the greater Edgewood community of Washington, DC's Ward 5 with a safe, nurturing, life-expanding community in which to increase their academic achievement, discover their talents, and to grow into healthy adults who achieve their greatest potential. Beacon House's programs focus on closing the education achievement gap, and thus improving the economic trajectories of children in Ward 5 for whom generational poverty is most persistent.
Since 2014, Shout Mouse Press has facilitated writing workshops with students participating in Beacon House’s Education Program to produce books centering the lived experiences of Black youth. This partnership has previously produced a novel-in-stories, Trinitoga (2014), about the lives of young people living in a fictionalized DC neighborhood, as well as the award-winning The Day Tajon Got Shot (2017), a poignant view into the world of Black teens dealing with grief and rage in the wake of police violence.
Black Boys Dreaming is the latest fruit of that partnership. “Every week we met with these brilliant boys and asked them to author their own universes,” says Shout Mouse program manager Alexa Patrick. “The result was a truly vibrant and imaginative book.”
To celebrate the launch in October, Shout Mouse Press and Beacon House came together to release Black Boys Dreaming: Virtual Verse & Pandemic Prose. The launch highlighted the joyous work of the authors—Khalil Barnes, Chase Cooper, Kevin Crawford and Josiah Ouabo—while also affirming the lives of Black men and boys as they continue to play, imagine, and dream in a world where they are so often stifled and weaponized.
Hosted by Alexa Patrick and Bomani D. Armah, the young authors were joined at the launch by acclaimed writers and poets Rasheed Copeland, Tony Keith Jr., Julian Randall, as well as a founding member of the Shout Mouse Megaphone Board, Jason Reynolds. Together, these eight writers shared what Black Boys Dreaming means to them, particularly amidst the challenges of the recent years.
“This story is for those who need guidance to follow their own dreams.”
The four young authors brought their own brand of energy, enthusiasm and humor to the event. Paired with one of the boys, each guest author read from both their own work, as well as an excerpt from Black Boys Dreaming. Guest authors also followed the boys’ lead, asking them questions, discussing themes from the book and their own lives, and connecting around the differences and similarities in each other’s families, shared backgrounds, and hobbies.
Art by Rob Gibsun
Both guests and Shout Mouse staff counted themselves grateful for bearing witness to the camaraderie that occured in this space. One audience member shared, “I can’t say enough how moved I am as a Black man, to see this level of mentorship. You all are changing lives.” Another audience member called the event a “a testament to strength and love.”