About the Event:
Race in America Book Club - Thursday, June 5th from 5:30 - 8:00 pm at the YWCA of Boulder County (14th and Mapleton in Boulder) Join us to watch and discuss the documentary Boys of Baraka The Boys of Baraka reveals the human face of a tragic statistic — 61 percent of Baltimore's African-American boys fail to graduate from high school; 50 percent of them go on to jail. The four young boys featured in "The Boys of Baraka," despite individual talents and considerable personal charms, cannot escape the common fate expressed by those options. But fate, as documented in this film, comes to them with a remarkable and fickle twist — an experimental boarding school in rural Kenya. This deeply moving 84-minute documentary from filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady follows four 12- and 13-year-old Baltimore boys — all from troubled, broken homes — as they undergo the selection process, attend a summer orientation course, then finally take off for Africa. Shot over the course of three years and told primarily through the voices of the boys themselves, the film is at once warmly funny and very moving, showing not only the effects of poverty and urban neglect, but how much difference a little bit of attention can make in the lives of so-called at risk children. Please RSVP to jennifer@ywcaboulder.org if you are planning to attend this session. Food and drinks will be provided.
