unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students

“Life is impermanent. And that doesn’t mean that we’re not important or what we contribute to life is not important. The institutions we create are not going to live forever. But the energy, the way …

“It literally starts when [boys] come out of the womb, before they’ve even got their language. Because they’re already being talked to by their parents… in ways that they didn’t ask for… What they’re…

“What I’m most proud of is… I realized after my divorce that I needed some help, and so I found therapy - 11-plus years ago. So I like to share with people that I’ve been emotionally sober for 11 yea…

“I’ve just gone through this process of realizing who I am, what I want to be interested in, and not having to really care about the inputs that other people have on things that I enjoy doing… I love…

“I think of it as simply more ‘spectrum of aliveness’…  What happens is if our spectrum of aliveness is narrow because we’re not feeling much - we feel numb, we don’t have sexual energy on tap, we do…

“It turns out the fastest way to experience resonance is through laughter… One of the things that I show in my workshops with teachers is let’s invest in moments of resonance, invest in moments of pl…

“I can’t change the fact that I’m vulnerable and that I’m open. Like, as much as I want to act all tough and stuff and throw up more masks, I can’t. And so even if me being more sensitive and just, l…

“First time we ever had this conversation, we talked for three and a half hours. First time I heard about my uncle's life, first time I heard about the actual incident of his death, first time I’ve s…

“When I’m careful it’s also making myself slightly smaller… The care is around approval and not upsetting anyone. When, really, the greatest contribution we can make is just being more of ourselves. …

“I cannot be shackled by words. Whatever caused that man to believe that that was the words that he needed to use against me, I can’t stop him from believing that. But I cannot let him have power ove…

"People are like, "You are a machine." And I’m like "yeah I am." And there’s a part of me that’s like, "oh yeah, I’m a machine. I’m a machine." And it’s so backwards how as men we can have our egos i…

“Keep an open mind… When people come through with advice or some good game, listen to it. Listen. You ain’t gotta do it or live by it but listen. Keep an open mind. I wish I would’ve kept an open min…

“That tough-guy veneer just melted away, and I started crying. I barely got out the words, 'Thank you.' I just felt afraid of dying; I felt afraid for my family, for my friends… But then, once I got …

“I’m no longer that person that did those shameful things… … Shame… it would paralyze me sometimes from taking action, but now I bring the awareness to wait, stop, and say, ‘Hey you’re just a thought…

“We need safe spaces in which guys can drop into that boyhood, that kicking the ball, or throwing the ball, or goofing around and roughhousing with each other or telling jokes, whatever it is… Becaus…

“In the very early stages of the work, we name our ‘Hitman’, our violent side, our abusive side - words that describe how we become when we become abusive. And mine is ‘The Justified, Vengeful, Equal…

“The safe route… It’s just a life without risks. Really, to me, what it sounds like is a life without pursuing..” - Chioke Allen-Alvarez

Ever Forward Club’s Ashanti Branch is joined by Chioke Allen-A…

“Hard-working is definitely in my DNA. I learned that from my mom and my dad growing up. My dad always seemed like the hardest working guy that I knew, but that’s a double-edged sword, that’s really …

“If anything, you’re on a journey. And if you want to use a metaphor of a kayak in a river, don’t worry about who’s looking on the shores. It’s just you and your paddle and the water.” - Tu David Phu

“It’s never going to be perfect. That balance will never be perfect. I go back to the idea of tension and dissonance. It’s always going to kind of be this see-saw process. But, you know, that’s just …