Photo by Andy Kropa.
One of the many rewards of sitting on the board of the National Book Foundation (NBF) is having the Levenger Foundation underwrite the NBF’s annual Innovations in Reading prize. It’s a call to action to the many individuals and organizations around the country who are engaged in creative ways of promoting reading to share their programs with the NBF. The NBF has the difficult job of picking the best of these innovators as the recipient of the $10,000 prize.
This year’s winner is a program that Alvin Irby conceived, prototyped and is now scaling. Writer and editor Mim Harrison spoke with him and relays his inspiring story.
—Steve
While he was getting a haircut one late afternoon in the barbershop across from P.S. 69 in the Bronx that he frequented, Alvin Irby noticed the fidgety first-grader. He knew the little boy: he was in the class that Alvin taught at the school across the street. It was clear to Alvin that, while he waited with his mom to get his hair cut, the youngster was bored.
If he wasn’t a teacher and the boy wasn’t his student, Alvin says he might not have come to the conclusion that he did: the little guy needed to be reading.
Alvin, who has a master’s in childhood education (one of two—he also has an M.P.A.), had an idea for how to make that happen. It was one of those stunningly simple ideas that seem so obvious in retrospect: equip barbershops with fun books for young boys to read while they wait for a haircut.
From deficit to desire
“Girls read at significantly higher levels of proficiency,” Alvin says. “They read more, more often, and better. This is true across all ethnic groups.”
By contrast, the U.S. Department of Education has found that 85 percent of African American fourth-grade boys are not proficient in reading. Alvin believes that the deficit framework used in early literacy, focusing on what kids can’t do rather than what they are able to, has contributed to poor reading outcomes among black boys.
Additionally, he says, when the books that boys encounter in school and at home are not culturally relevant, age-appropriate, or gender responsive, many boys conclude that reading isn’t fun. (How many of us, whether as children or adults, want to read boring books?)
“I wanted to combat these deficit ways of thinking,” Alvin says, “by providing social cues and environmental factors that would help young boys of color identify as readers.”
Go see Denny Moe, a friend advised him.
“Would you like to read some books?”
Dennis Mitchell is the owner of Denny Moe’s Superstar Barbershop, located on Frederick Douglass Boulevard between 133rd and 134th in Manhattan. The shop became the first to be part of Alvin’s nonprofit program called Barbershop Books.
“Barbershops are one of the few places left in many black communities where people from all walks of life come together and interact on a regular basis,” Alvin says. As an undergraduate at Grinnell College in Iowa majoring in sociology, Alvin spent four years considering how people and institutions intersect in society. He sees the barbershop as an ideal place to support early literacy for young black boys.
Between his background in sociology and his second job as a stand-up comedian, Alvin appreciates the value of knowing your audience. So he took a stack of books, geared for young readers through adults, to Denny Moe’s. He sat and observed for hours. Would children and adults read books in a barbershop? Alvin didn’t know but was determined to find out.
“I’d spend eight to 10 hours just watching to see what would happen with the books,” he said. “I’d ask the kids, ‘Would you like to read some books?’ It’s how I found out if Barbershop Books was a viable idea that had value.”
The boys in the 4 to 8 age range were most likely to interact with the books. The next challenge was to figure out what books boys really wanted to read.
Captain Underpants, meet Gross Greg
Another stunningly simple solution: Alvin asked them. The responses he received echoed the results of Scholastic’s children’s survey, which revealed that the number-one thing children look for when choosing a book is one that makes them laugh—like Captain Underpants does.
Alvin further validated the results by writing a rhyming picture book of his own, Gross Greg. He sent the manuscript to a few kindergarten and first-grade teachers and asked them to read it to their students. Once he heard that it scored high on the laugh meter and had students “rolling on the floor,” he published it independently.
Barbers as early literacy advocates
Barbershop Books now outfits its partner barbershops with a small, colorful bookcase filled with carefully curated softcover books that the boys and girls can read while they wait. Some wait for a haircut; others wait for their dad, or brother, or uncle. Barbers at participating barbershops encourage the children and their family members to read. They also talk to the boys about reading. The barbers become male reading models who create early positive reading experiences for young black boys.
“Sometimes the family members that the children come with read to them,” says Alvin, “but for the most part, the boys read the books by themselves.”
Currently about 87 barbershops across 26 cities in 15 states and the District of Columbia participate in the Barbershop Books program, which has a goal of reaching 800 barbershops in 20 target cities over the next three years. The mayor of Minneapolis recently funded the implementation of Barbershop Books programs in 10 Minneapolis barbershops. Chicago, Oakland, Baltimore and Philadelphia are just a few of the target cities in which the program plans to expand.
Barbershops wishing to participate need only have space for the little bookcase, at least 40 young boys who come into the shop every month, and a willing owner. (If you would like to connect with Barbershop Books, visit barbershophooks.org or email info@barbershopbooks.org.)
Cheerio
Barbershop Books’ current headquarters “is my living room,” says Alvin with a laugh. “There are literally hundreds of children’s books and packing boxes everywhere.”
He buys the books from Scholastic and welcomes participation by other publishers. NFL defensive end Jarvis Jenkins led a read-aloud at Harlem barbershops in 2016. The support of individual donors in combination with local funders such as school districts, churches and local municipalities help keep the venture growing, with one dollar equating to 27 minutes of reading—an ROI that Warren Buffett might love.
Alvin would like to attract a national sponsor. “Cheerios would be perfect,” he says.
The entrepreneurial reader
As a young child growing up in Little Rock, Arkansas, Alvin didn’t like reading and didn’t identify as a reader. It just wasn’t something he or his friends did. But his mom, an elementary-school teacher, gave him reading lessons and ensured that he learned to read proficiently.
It was as a teenager that Alvin’s passion for reading was ignited. As the student council president at his high school, Alvin developed a keen interest in reading that inspired him to create a reading incentive program, for which he acquired an $810 grant from the Barnes & Noble bookstore in Little Rock.
Barbershop Books is, he feels, a doable idea that can make a difference. “But ideas just stay ideas until someone executes,” he says. “There’s always farther to go when you have a vision.”
And a love of books.
—Mim
