MASCULINITY: they call it crisis. I call it reckoning.
You cannot PhD your way out of untreated trauma – Esther Armah
On an Emotional Justice tip
You can be intellectually eloquent and emotionally illiterate. You can be professionally credentialed and emotionally illiterate. What Emotional Justice articulates is there is no substitute for doing the emotional work, navigating our legacy of untreated trauma and reckoning with how that shapes us and shows up in how we live, love, labor and lead.
On a personal note
I’m overwhelmed and grateful for the beautiful response to the first two global public screenings of MOVING MASCULINITY. We crossed communities, cities, countries and continents in just 1 month. From Accra to New York, witnessing a global community enter the world we built is a special, special thing. Even more special, MOVING MASCULINITY is built to be a resource and folks are engaging it in exactly that way. As we say in Ghana, what a wow!
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MOVING MASCULINITY
The Public Rollout Is Officially Underway…
THE SCREENINGS, THE REVIEWS, THE PICTURES
ACCRA & NEW YORK
April 2026
Thank you to everyone who came through to our screenings. The pictures are storytellers of community, engagement, global team-building and the importance of gathering. This is what it means to go from digital village to public encounter.
In Accra, The Mix Art Gallery was home to an exhibit of Ghanaian photographer, ALEX KWESI AFARI of the MOVING MASCULINITY photographs. It ran from April 18th to April 24th and was his first exhibit.
In New York, Dolby Screening Theater was host to our debut USA screening. It was the first of our 2026 screenings in a movie theater. We welcomed our co-sponsor New York University’s CENTER FOR BLACK VISUAL CULTURE, and its Founding Director, DR. DEB WILLIS and Center Director, DR. JOAN MORGAN.
THE REVIEWS
…And then the reviews came in. Via emails, WhatsApp messages, social media posts, DMs folks shared how the screening deeply moved them, inspired them, made them feel seen, proud, revealed possibilities about training and education. Some spoke of exchanges with brothers, fathers, husbands, based on what they saw. Here are some review highlights:-
DR. DEB WILLIS
‘...Screening the [MOVING MASCULINITY] film is a must-see. The story-telling, the narrator, the film-making all embraced captivating moments. Brava Esther! What a beautiful experience for me to witness and feel the love, and the warmth you presented in this project. I listened, I heard and I felt the engagement of all of them. We need this...’
GARDY GUERRIER
‘...You created something powerful, nuanced and necessary. The way you explored Black masculinity was both thought-provoking and deeply human. I am genuinely proud of you & excited for everything this moment will open up..’
MARK TUGGLE
‘I felt affirmed, connected, and inspired by the diverse voices of Black men who shared their honesty, transparency and vulnerability in meaningful ways. What most deeply resonated with my spirit was loneliness. The film powerfully illustrated the values of community, healing, and restoration, and can impact people across the diaspora by offering a space for awareness, dialogue, and reflection. The black and white photography of Alex Afari intimately complimented their perspectives.’
JEROME SMITH
‘I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and event! This work is a north star which will lead to healthier expressions of masculinity. I was moved by the invitation to breathe between topics during the film. I loved the invitation to join the emotional village and to use film and site as a framework to create safe spaces for my family and my community to begin to unpack this systemic trauma we are carrying around. Each section of the movie was profound and this work should be used in classrooms, spiritual learning centers, athletic training centers, and anywhere people are growing in consciousness!’
MOVING MASCULINITY THE EMOTIONAL JUSTICE DIGITAL VILLAGE lives online and is currently on a global public roll out through public screenings and facilitated dialogue.
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MOVING MASCULINITY
THE GLOBAL LAB
OUR NARRATIVE ARM
MOVING MASCULINITY is a 10-year global lab with distinct elements:
the public roll-out
the narrative arm
the cultural arm
the practice arm
Its foundation is the MOVING MASCULINITY DIGITAL VILLAGE, and the global lab is built, expands and scales from that foundation. In the MOVING MASCULINITY global lab, our approach is the intersection of emotional literacy, masculinity and race as a matter of public health and civics.
Our Moving Masculinity Global Lab is building.
Its narrative arm lives on Substack and is called: UNFOLD: notes on MOVING MASCULINITY. It’s a space to reckon, write and engage.
Here’s an excerpt from the newest piece:-
CRISIS vs RECKONING
Name the Issue, Do The Work
By
Esther A. Armah
What is your emotional relationship to power? And how does that shape you, your leadership, your labor, your love, your living?
Emotional Justice invites us to recognize what this is – not Crisis, but Reckoning. Crisis language frames men as endangered, invites rescue, sympathy, funding and an institutional response. The suggestion? Something has gone wrong with men. Society must invest, pause and rally to fix it.
Reckoning is about naming how a system has reached its limit. Harm is no longer invisibilized, and accountability is being demanded. Reckoning says this is what the system produces. But who/what is the system? It is us: people sustain a system, and it is people who must dismantle it. That’s why this is a reckoning and not a crisis.
A reckoning is about an emotional relationship to power that centers domination. In this relationship domination becomes identity. It intersects with power, powerlessness, and value. What does that mean for men? Their value is connected to a power that looks like domination. This is how that breaks down:-
If they do not have that dominant power, they have no value.
If they have no value, they are powerless.
If they are powerless, they are not men.
If they are not men, who are they?...’
Read the full piece here:-
Subscribe to UNFOLD: notes on MOVING MASCULINITY here:-
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MY LENS
by
ALEX KWESI AFARI
Take a visual walk with Ghanaian photographer, ALEX KWESI AFARI, whose photography is the visual spine of the MOVING MASCULINITY EMOTIONAL JUSTICE DIGITAL VILLAGE, and the Global Lab. His artist statement is a visualized personal lens on his masculinity shaped by family, tribe, culture and nation, the scars from that shaping, the wounds that linger and the invitation to imagine anew through MOVING MASCULINITY.
Watch MY LENS now:-
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