Mentors Sought for Brothers & Bow Ties, BPL Black History Month Programs

What: Mentors Sought for Brothers and Bow Ties: A Vision Cast 
When: Saturday January 18, 2020, 12:00–4:00 p.m.
Where: Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, 520 16th Street North
Details: Brothers and Bow Ties is a pilot initiative targeting at-risk young males aged 11 to 18 sponsored by the Birmingham Public Library and the City of Birmingham Mayor's Office Division of Youth Services. The event, open to 50 young males who each will receive bow ties with a personalized message of hope, is a partnership between two male mentoring organizations, Growing Kings and BPL Real MENtors Talk.

Author and motivational speaker Timothy Alexander will serve as keynote speaker. Brothers and Bow Ties is free and lunch will be provided (Registration is filled.) For more information or to donate bow ties, call BPL Outreach Librarian Candice Hardy at 205-226-3625.

The Birmingham Public Library is seeking adult males to greet 50 at-risk young men who have registered for an upcoming MLK Weekend Brothers & Bow Ties event BPL is co-hosting with the Birmingham Division of Youth Services. All 50 slots for the Brothers & Bow Ties event have been filled.

However, BPL is asking males across metro Birmingham to support this effort in two ways:

 • Join us on Saturday, January 18, at noon at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute to welcome students to the event with smiles, high-fives, and words of encouragement

 • Donate a bow tie with a personalized/handwritten message of hope to a student. BPL is asking that all bow tie donations be delivered to Outreach Librarian Candice Hardy at the Central location of the Birmingham Public Library.

 BPL's Real MENtors Talk program is partnering in this effort with Growing Kings, a Birmingham-based nonprofit that mentors young males.

Real MENtors Talk is also seeking men willing to participate in two programs, “Pizza & Purpose: For Young Men Ages 14-18,” taking place at Smithfield Branch Library (Tuesday, February 11 at 3:30 p.m.) and North Birmingham Regional Branch Library (Wednesday, February 19 at 4:00 p.m.)



Real MENtors Talk is a mentoring program that BPL begun last fall, featuring mentors who participate in panel discussions and share encouraging words for young people in libraries across Birmingham.

Real Mentors Talk has partnered in the past with 100 Black Men of Metro Birmingham and Richard Cade's The Man Project -BPL is also planning future programs with other male mentoring organizations, including the A.G. Gaston Boys & Girls Club, and Determined to Be Birmingham, founded by Milton King.

For more information about Real MENtors Talk, contact Roy Williams at 205-226-3746 or email roy.williams@cobpl.org.