Ryan Anthony Bell, who divides his time between Roanoke and Richmond, launched a new semimonthly lecture series last month that seeks to empower and encourage black fathers.
The Black Father Lecture Series is part of the Center for the Study of Fatherhood within The Bell Effect Consulting Agency.
“We aim to shift the narrative on black fatherhood,” Bell, who is father to an eight-year-old daughter and a five-year-old son, says. “Fatherhood is the greatest gift somebody can have. Fatherhood is love and accountability.”
Bell explains that his own father, who passed away last year, was an inspiration to him growing up. His father’s love for him knew no bounds, he says. When Bell was a child and his mother moved from California to Roanoke in order to be closer to family following a divorce, his father didn’t hesitate to uproot his life and move to Roanoke as well.
“I knew I could always count on my father to be there for me, whether it was a basketball game or youth day at church. He taught me that love means always showing up,” he says. “He always put us kids first.”
Bell explains that his father embodied a quiet strength.
“He wasn’t a man of many words, but he definitely demonstrated to me and my siblings the value of hard work and family,” he says.
Bell took the lesson of hard work that his father instilled in him with him to college when he left Roanoke for Richmond to attend Virginia Union University.
After graduating with a degree in business, he followed in his father’s footsteps, who was principal at Hurt Park Elementary School for many years, by becoming a teacher in Richmond.
Four years later, he moved back home to Roanoke. He started working at the health department for a new federally funded family initiative called the Virginia Family and Fatherhood Initiative.
“It’s a program that focuses on how whole families can thrive and improve child education and social outcomes through the empowerment of parents, more specifically with fathers,” he explains.
It was during his time at the health department that Bell started to realize just how toxic of a view society has of black men.
“While I would be at conferences, I would hear the negative stereotypes about fathers and how society viewed fathers in the role of parenting, more specifically how they viewed black fathers. I would hear what other people’s perceptions were about black men and black men when it came to fatherhood,” he says. “That perception wasn’t my reality. The majority of the men in my life did not fit the stereotypes that they portrayed as black fathers, including my father, my brother, my uncles, my close friends and my cousins.”
A year later, he was tapped to head up the Division of Family and Community Engagement at Roanoke City Public Schools, which allowed him the opportunity to work one-on-one with many fathers and families.
He’s now working in a similar role for the Richmond Public Schools, which allows him to be closer to his children.
After continuing to see the need for the investment in and celebration of black fatherhood at all three organizations he’s worked at, Bell tried to come up with ways that he could share his experience as a black father with the wider public. He eventually landed on the idea of publishing an anthology on the topic written by and for black fathers.
“I gathered a bunch of different people from different walks of life, including former superintendents of school districts all the way to former drug dealers. These are people who have very different life experiences and wanted to share the lessons they’ve learned in fatherhood,” he says. “It’s a way to highlight and tell the story of fatherhood through the eyes of a black man.”
The book is currently being finalized with an anticipated release date of Father’s Day, which is June 20.
The idea of the lecture series naturally grew out from the book, with each author contributing a lecture.
“The lecture series is a way for people to learn about the work we’re doing with black men and black fathers. It’s also a way for people to engage with the authors around what their chapter will be and what they’re offering in the book,” he says. “The book and lecture series offers words of encouragement and advice to let other black men who are experiencing fatherhood know that they aren’t in this alone.”
The next lecture in the series is scheduled for Feb. 9 at 7 p.m. with Corey A. Harris, Sr. who will give a presentation titled “Lessons on Faith, Fatherhood & the Will to #JusTry.” Registration for the free event can be found here.
Additional information about Bell can be found on his website here.
About the Author:
Aila Boyd is an educator and journalist who resides in Roanoke. She holds an MFA in Writing from Lindenwood University.
