We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jelani Hashim Bracey . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jelani Hashim below.

Hi Jelani Hashim , thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

Our organization, B.L.A.C.K. 2 LIFE was formed in April of 2017 when our Chairman, Michael Merriweather, Jr., invited myself and one of founders, Kenny Presley, Jr., to organize and raise money to collect and pass out books and school supplies to children in an underserved community in North Dallas. We held our first book drive in the parking lot of a shopping center and a total of 10 Black men decided to show up and help us out. This event led to us organizing a 5 city book drive (Dallas, New York, Atlanta, D.C., and Shreveport) providing 5000 books to children in underserved neighborhoods across America (1000 books to each city).

The acronym B.L.A.C.K. stands for Bringing Love And Conscious Knowledge 2 Life. Our organization was formed with the mission to empower Black men to strengthen underserved neighborhoods through education and inspiration. We decided to focus on reading and the undeniable link that illiteracy has on mass incarceration. 3 out of 5 adults in prison cant read and 85% of juvenile offenders have trouble reading at the fourth grade level.

We wanted to impact this by providing access to quality, diverse reading materials that will peak children’s interest in reading by providing books by authors that look like them and that write stories with characters that they can relate to.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Jelani Hashim Bracey and I am a Black father, philanthropist, author and poet. My first book, “A Daddy is Born”, was written in 2019 and was inspired by my then 5-year-old son Jelani Hashim Bracey, II (JJ). This book details the pride, love, joy, and aspirations a father has for his child and the dedication it takes to be an awesome dad! This book became a launching pad and I wrote the sequel to this work in 2020 called, “A Daddy is Born: Princess Edition”, as a tribute to my new born daughter, Jade.

My love for books and reading was instilled at an early age. I grew up with a lot of books, a dictionary, a complete set of encyclopedias, and medical journals. Anytime I would ask my dad what something meant, he would always say; “Can you spell it?”

If my answer was “Yes”, he would then tell me, “Go look it up.” Anything I couldn’t spell; he would tell me to get the dictionary so we could look it up together. He encouraged me that no matter what information I received or where I received it from; verify for my own understanding, and to not let anyone else think for me. His lessons taught me to always seek knowledge for myself.

My mother’s influence was one of representation. I grew up in the 80’s; and even though children’s books with Black characters were very scarce, all my childhood books had Black characters in them because my mother would color all the characters’ faces and bodies with a brown crayon. Every little boy, little girl, mom, dad; every character that I was introduced to through books, looked just like me! This enabled me to relate to the stories that I read on a more personal level. I was even introduced to a Black Santa Claus as all the Christmas decorations we had were altered in the same way. Both of my parents’ efforts and instruction taught me that I always belonged and should be proud of who I am.

As I continue to write books that tell amazing stories with vibrant illustrations that reflect diverse characters of African descent; my mission is to expose children and people everywhere to literary works that reflect the greatness and importance of Black history and culture; and to promote love, pride, and knowledge of self in Black children around the world.

I also serves as the CEO of B.L.A.C.K. 2 LIFE, a nonprofit organization founded to empower black men to strengthen underserved communities through education and inspiration. Through his nonprofit, he is able to offer more access to reading and literacy by providing free books to kids all over the world.

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

In 2018, while we were expanding our efforts to spread reading and literacy to more cities, one of our proudest moments as an organization occurred when a group of students from the Memphis Academy of Health and Sciences School volunteered to have their own B.L.A.C.K. 2 LIFE book drive. They raised the money and coordinated their efforts tp give out a 1000 free books in their community in Memphis, TN.

The initiative these students displayed is the very reason B.LA.C.K. 2 LIFE was created; to be an inspiration to the community and to the world.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Lead by example. If you want someone to follow your lead, you have to be willing and able to do the same. You have to be willing to put in the work you want to be seen done.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.black2life.org; www.jelanihashim.com
• Instagram: black_2_life ; storiesbyjelanihashim; jelani_hashim
• Facebook: Black 2 Life; Jelani Hashim; StoriesbyJelaniHashim
• Youtube: Black 2 Life