Fathers: Retelling the Narrative is a photo/essay series and art experience curated by Greg Rose and Ebony Marie Chappel that celebrates the beauty of Black fatherhood and explores the sometimes complex relationships that fathers have with their children, themselves and their role in community.

Seeds of self-doubt, resentment and anger are planted when the responsibility of a father is absolved. To ensure a better, more healthy path, FATHER Reginald Mathis did the work of confronting his demons... pulling the weeds of combativeness and stifled emotion to instead plant flowers of vulnerability, security and love. 

Father as provider is a title that is commonly associated with financial stability. Long days and missed moments, however, create a void that no dollar can fill. FATHER Cornelius Bullock discovered that the man who came home every night and worked so hard to make sure he had what he needed was a relative stranger when it came to their level of personal connection. As a father himself, Bullock prioritized those intimate special times between a father and his children.

Biblical scripture speaks to the karmic phenomenon of generational curses. The sins of the father being cast upon the son. FATHER Derrick Johnson’s past has become his heartbreaking present. His desire to reframe the narrative of his own manhood and fatherhood has become the anchor to his healing.

On a brisk Mississippi evening, Elder Robert Hairston, moved gingerly down the steps of his deck, across his backyard to spend time in his “prayer house” a modest, wood-paneled space behind the home he shares with his wife and adult son. He took a reflective pause before entering to reminisce on the early stages of his spiritual journey. “I laid out in the grass and stared at the sky and said, “if there’s a God out there, please help me,” he said. That was in the early 1950s. Through God, FATHER Hairston shared that he’s found refuge, guidance and the tools to establish the foundation upon which his own parenting style was formed.