Black fathers rock! Celebrates black fathers, fighting against stereotypes

Ryan Jor El, a professional wardrobe consultant, author, speaker and event host based in Charlotte, founded Black Fathers Rock! (BFR) In 2017. Inspired by Black Girls Rock!, He created the organization to challenge negative stereotypes about black fathers and to offer them the resources needed to support and authorize their families.

Today, at the point of a different celebration of Father’s Day, the organization continues to imagine A future in which black fathers – none of their calls or station in society – are celebrated.

According to WCNCThis celebration, which will be held on June 14, takes the form of a prize -giving ceremony at BFR’s new event location, event Masterz, who will celebrate black fathers and she will assign it in different categories, including: father of the year, Activist of the Year, Dapper Dad of the Year, Entrolleneur of the year.

Honorees during the award ceremony also have the opportunity to mix and get involved with some of the best and smartest in Charlotte after accepting their prizes.

As Jor El told The Outlet, Core van BFR is the idea of ​​reforming the stories about black fathers, “celebrating other black men who do things in their community and in their house is my way of changing the story. Not all of us are absent, not all in prison,” he noticed.

He continued: “All fathers must be celebrated, especially those who are unmarried and are great fathers, it is important to change stories and ugly stereotypes.”

When The Charlotte Post Reports, originally, was conceptualized as a prize show, but three months after the debut, Jor El, who was also inspired to create the organization after a fatherless childhood, recognized the potential for a greater impact within the Charlotte community and turned it into a non -profit organization.

Although the title of the organization is Black Fathers Rock! In a similar way when the black community celebrates mothers who have a mother without birth, the father’s organization of Jor El should not necessarily be biological fathers.

As he said the outlet: “I usually say what you are missing in your youth where you tend to overcompensate in your maturity,” he said. “And now I went from having an absent father to an active, current father and honoring active and current fathers. Hearing people from people during the eight years or seeing someone with a T-shirt in another country, you are” wow, that’s super cool, “Jor El told the Charlotte Post. “People are really enthusiastic about this movement because we really don’t have many things like this, so I have heard many great stories.”

One of those great stories includes Desmond Wiggan, who won BFR’s 2025 Father of the Year Award. Wiggan told the exhaust valve that dealing with the pandemia helped him to see that he as a father had to give his children more grace while they all navigated, in particular the children and the children tend to tend to make contact with family members.

“My son did not see or touched his grandparents for six weeks,” said Wiggan. “They were not there in the trenches or in the spaces, building relationships and learning how to communicate with people.”

He continued: “If you think of clay, pottery and such, we can simply form and develop the spirits and emotions of our children [children] Is also important, and when they fail, instead of just feeling that you have to scream and just punish them, let it be a conversation so that they can really learn. “

Ricky Singh, an artist and the executive director of my brother’s keeper Charlotte, who received activist of the year in 2024, agrees with the assessment of Wiggan that communication, not necessarily punishment, is an important part of the toolkit of a black father to make contact with their children and child.

“We have to find moments when we can laugh and find joy, even in the smallest things. There is a beauty and a struggle there,” Singh said the outlet. “Fatherhood is further than just offering children and families. It is the experiences, so I encourage them to find and pause moments during the experiences and to suck, because when your children are grown, paternity does not end, it is evolving. But it is different.”

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