The Augusta-Richmond County Public Library System (ARCLPS) is launching a new initiative to encourage reading among young men.
The Kappa League, an education and mentoring program of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, has partnered with ARCLPS to organize Empowerment Through Reading. This is a monthly event inviting parents and boys, from ages six to 16, to read together and discuss their favorite books.
The event aims to establish a tradition of reading and cultivate literacy skills among men and boys, explains ARCLPS director Emanuel Mitchell.
“It’s rare that you see many fathers reading to their sons as within the male perspective, reading hasn’t been very much on the forefront,” said Mitchell. “The purpose of this was allowing young men to see men reading, and making it more fun being able to exchange stories through reading, working on creative thought and discussions from the different books.”
Mitchell will introduce the program and its parameters to attendees, and he and mentors with the League will guide parents and their children as they break into groups and select books from the library to read and share thoughts.
“If it is, say, between six- and seven-year-olds that show up and they asked us to read a book, we would pull a book from one of our storytimes… like the ‘True Story of The Three Little Pigs’ [by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith],” he said. “Just something that works on making literacy fun and working to expand that vocabulary.”
Mitchell, who came on as library director in 2022, was inspired by similar program he encountered while working a librarian in Iowa, called Real Men Read. After arriving in Augusta, he noticed that boys going into the third grade, across all racial barriers, faced challenges reading at grade level.
He would eventually pitch the idea for Empowerment Through Reading with the local Kappa chapter, who “thought it was great because it fell within the guidelines of positive encouragement and helping young men grow.”
The inaugural Empowerment Through Reading event will be on Saturday, Oct. 26, at the Maxwell Branch Library at 1927 Lumpkin Road, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. There it will continue, at the same place at time, every fourth Saturday until May 5, 2025.
For more information, call 706-821-2634.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
