The Quintessential Gentleman launched new series, MOCTales, with actor and author Hill Harper and Indianapolis Colts’ wide receiver Dontrelle Inman, with plans of tackling stigmas surrounding Black fatherhood. Black and Brown men communed at The Boys’ Club of New York to hear from an esteemed group of panelists curated by Editor-in-chief, Eric K. Thomas of The Quintessential Gentleman. MOCTales is a conversation series led by men of color discussing topics of shared experiences and personal tales in hopes to inspire, encourage and mobilize each other. The panel included actor and author Hill Harper, Indianapolis Colts Wide Receiver Dontrelle Inman, filmmaker Terron Jones and Boys’ Club of New York’s Gerry Clubhouse Youth Director Terrence Taylor.  

The event kicked off with a short film produced by Jones entitled Cycle. Cycle is centered on an emotional journey of an intimate conversation between a father and son, giving an in-depth look into the generational ideology of what it means to be a man. Following the screening, our panelists engaged in an open and heartfelt dialogue about manhood, their upbringings, and how to break the cycle of enforced traits of toxic masculinity. 

“Raising a Black man in this day and age in this society is so multifaceted,” said Hill. “You want to be able to protect them and shield them, you want them to be able to communicate with you, you want them to have some measure of discipline. There are all of these different things to think about. They’re things I think about every day. I certainly don’t believe I have the answers. I’m just doing the best I can on a daily basis, being cognitive of these issues but at the same time I’m happy to learn from anybody and everybody on how to do it better.” Inman then added, “the main way to keep us accountable is to talk about it. That’s one thing as Black men we don’t do that other races do. We don’t talk to each other about the hard stuff. We never talk about the hard stuff that we need to do to grow and help the younger generation break the cycle.”

The first installment of MOCtales was in partnership with The Boys’ Club of New York with sponsoring parties Scotch Porter and Khari Edwards, the VP of External Affairs of Brookdale Hospital. For more information on MOCtales “Breaking The Cycle” and to watch the short film Cycle please visit MOCTales.com.