More Than XY: A Visual to Black Fathers and Positive Male Role Models

16 weeks ago, I officially became a father to my daughter Lily (Sylvia) Assadi and yes, my life has changed and been turned upside down but it has been rewarding and amazing to behold. My daughter is truly a blessing and I can’t thank God or my wife enough for the beauty that she is.

Since January/February this year, I have been documenting my feelings and experiences of fatherhood on the brilliant positive fatherhood blog Daddy Diaries, run by Spoken Word/Musician G.R.E.Ed.S. I am so thankful for having the opportunity to write for them. This opportunity actually steam-rolled into more writing opportunities which included writing a fatherhood article in my own column for Nupé and also writing a guest article for another fatherhood website called DadzClub.

Now on Father’s Day, there is an absolutely beautiful family exhibition run by Thenublack and the forFATHERS project called More Than XY, which will celebrate the role of Fathers and positive role models in the Black community. The organisers of More Than XY are mounting this show to increase the awareness of the fathers who are active parents in their children’s lives and to provide exposure for the artists expressing their views of fatherhood through visuals.

The show is their way to challenge the often imbalanced portrayal of black men being absent fathers and negative role models. This exhibition celebrates not only the role of Black Fathers but also to highlight positive black male role models who play an integral part in the lives of young people growing up.

I think that this is a wonderful idea, especially as there are many organisations like them and Daddy Diaries that are trying to increase and enhance a more positive view of black fathers and male role models. As well as attending with my family, I will also be present as one of the representatives of Daddy Diaries as we have been asked by the organisers to do a presentation as well as share our own experiences of fatherhood and of Daddy Diaries in our own aspect. It’s a true honour to do this on my part, and I can’t wait! I’m already starting to work on that! I just can’t wait to meet more like-minded positive dads! Exciting! 🙂

The exhibition will run in the Darnley Gallery in London until June 30th 2012, with the show being done in New York in August this year. Make sure you go down and see it!

For more info check out:

More Than XY

@MoreThanXY