Tonight at 6:30 pm The Hope Center presents Healing Conversations Men and Mental health part 2 in Harlem NYC at 1912 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd 116st and 7th Ave on the corner. Harlem historians know this as the Regent theatre until 1964. This is incredible for the Harlem Community and New York City. Having a sense of peace in your mind is essential piece for any living being to survive ESPECIALLY in today’s times of society. Violence has been marketed to us 24 hours a day 7 days a week. It’s so rampant you can find yourself watching violence and violent images of information from games ads on your phone, tablet and laptop, movies, tv shows and music. Your mind is being manipulated and programmed all day long. I call them distractions and mentally it takes a toll on everyone subtly everyday. Men and young men are being videoed displaying violent behavior and it’s sensationalized and promoted over and over again. The positive image of Men are reduced to comedy, dance and reaction videos for the most part. The loving, romantic, respectful, family loving and leading a household MAN is not seen at the same rate or even not at all. Young boys particularly of color are trained and Raised to not cry due to past generations of our Men of color not having respect as a Man. The thought is my child will not cry in front of anyone to show weakness or perceived weakness from the wailing sound. It could be that maybe no one wanted to hear sounds of crying since we are now free from that bondage. I personally had a hard time crying I have recently allowed myself to experience all the human emotions without barriers. I still find it hard to cry in front of others I have to really be able to know it’s safe for me. My Daughter’s (D’Asia’s) mother scolded me for crying during 911 September 11, 2001 around 10am when the last building felled. We watched it LIVE from 101 park Ave Peter Kalikow building and I lost it. I just envisioned what was going on and the lives of the people below. I started crying left the window and was on the floor by the elevator and she only thought about how her co-workers would think of me crying. In her mind I was soft! By the time I got myself together her job let everyone off as NYC was in a state of emergency. We had to walk over the Brooklyn bridge as the trains were stopped. I just got off work in Connecticut Bridgeport Holiday Inn took the metro north and got stuck coming across Harlem river as they said a plane hit the building. We all thinking on the train it’s a small Cessna plane oh it nothing too bad. Well weren’t all wrong. I knew if she wasn’t going to grow as a woman this may not work out. A lot of Men suffer from this not be able to cry or show any feminine emotions. This makes us unbalanced and you unbalanced. Tonight is going to be interesting. Comment Respectfully. I Speak and listen with dignity. This is how I start my conversations. Peace and Blessings, I Speak and Listen with Dignity. Rules of Engagement 1. Speak without being Offensive 2. Listen without being Defensive 3. Always let your opponent leave with their Dignity. Try this in your conversations. #SpeakListenDignity!Challenge
