Do you have an Instagram account? Is it filled with selfies, pictures of you partying with friends, inspirational messages, and clever hashtags? Do you have loads of followers and regularly get tons of "likes" and supportive messages? Or do you have no clue as to what an Instagram account is or what you do with it? When your sons' [...]
Joe Brewster and Perri Peltz, the folks who brought you the powerful short documentary "A Conversation With My Black Son" (see our earlier GCP post about it here) are back with "A Conversation About Growing Up Black", in which a group of young men discuss the impact of race and racism on their lives. These thoughtful young men talk [...]
Today's Thoughtful Thursday presents the work of award-winning poet Terrance Hayes. Born in 1971 in Columbia, South Carolina, Hayes received a BA from Coker College and an MFA from the University of Pittsburgh, and is a professor at the University of Pittsburgh. "Lighthead", his collection of poems published in 2010, won a National Book Award, and Hayes received a [...]
After a wonderful Spring Break, is GCP back in action with this week's Thoughtful Thursday. Today we feature a classic Gwendolyn Brooks poem, "We Real Cool", written in 1960, and "The Golden Shovel", a poem written in response by Terrance Hayes in 2010. Hayes is a poet who considers themes of popular culture, race, music, and masculinity in his [...]
"Little Ballers", Crystal McCrary's wonderful documentary, follows a group of young AAU basketball teammates (including her son Cole) as they pursue their hoop dreams and a championship season. It premiered on Nick Sports TV (a programming block on Nicktoons) last week and will be shown again tonight at 9pm and tomorrow (March 1) at 10pm (EST). McCrary gives us [...]
We have all heard and seen the aftermath of the Ferguson grand jury's decision not to indict Darren Wilson for killing Michael Brown. We've had many conversations with our friends and colleagues about what a failure to indict means for the Brown family, for Ferguson, for black boys everywhere. But as time passes after this decision, we at GCP [...]
Even though Election Day has come and gone, we can continue to have conversations with our sons about the importance of voting. Today's Thoughtful Thursday is the poem "Vote of Die", written by Margaret Block, a civil rights activist and member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. In this poem she champions some of the unsung heroes of the civil [...]
Greetings GCP'ers! Hope you enjoyed your summer break (we certainly did) and are settling back into your fall parenting routine. We at GCP have been spending a good bit of our break focusing on ways to improve this site and create a stronger and more interactive GCP parenting community. Stay tuned, upgrades coming soon. So much to focus on [...]
In a recent New York Times Motherlode blog post, the author confesses "I've Ruined My Boys" as she describes how she has "over coddled" her 6, 9 and 11 year old sons to the point that they are unwilling to do much of anything for themselves around the house. In her post, found here, she confesses that she has [...]
As many of you regular GCP readers may know, for the past 5 year Chicago's Urban Prep Academy has been sending 100 percent of its high school graduates off to college. (See "Good News on the College Admissions Front", April 16, 2014.) Recently Urban Prep Academy celebrated another milestone, as the first class of those high school graduates graduated [...]