The Gift of Being Melanated
I was up early—top of the morning—sitting with my thoughts and thinking about what it really means to invest. Not just financially, but with our time, our attention, our mind, and our heart. At this stage in life, we have the ability to choose where our energy goes, and that choice carries weight. It made me pause and ask myself what it would look like if we chose, collectively, to invest in something rooted in the greater good. Not perfection, not performance, but something grounded in peace, grace, kindness, and purpose.
That reflection brought me back to the foundation of what The Melanated Times stands on. Being melanated, to me, is not just about identity in the physical sense. It is an experience, a shared understanding, a spiritual and cultural thread that runs through all of us as human beings. Some carry it more visibly than others, but the essence of being connected, of being alive, of being capable of feeling, building, and creating is something we all share. It is layered, it is deliberate, and it shows up in how we choose to move through the world.
When I speak about sowing seeds, I am speaking from an understanding that what we plant—through our actions, our words, and our approach to life—will take root in ways that extend beyond us. A seed placed with clarity, with care, with a sense of responsibility, will bear fruit. That growth is not always immediate, and it is not always visible, but it is real. In a time where so much feels misaligned, I find myself returning to that question: why not invest in something that creates real, lasting change? Why not contribute to shifting the narrative toward something that is grounded and life-giving?
That line of thought carried me into my time in Boston.
Boston is a city that meets you in layers. There are moments where it feels distant, almost unfamiliar, and then there are moments where it feels like it recognizes you before you fully understand why. That duality stayed with me as I moved through the city, especially in spaces where our melanated cousins have built and sustained culture with care.
One of those spaces was the Frugal Bookstore in Roxbury—an area deeply rooted in Black history and home to a strong presence of our melanated people. Frugal is not just a bookstore. It is a cultural landmark. Owned by husband and wife Leonard and Clarrissa Egerton, the space carries history, community, and meaning in a way that is felt immediately when you walk in. Established in 2008, Frugal has become one of the few Black-owned bookstores in the Boston area, and it operates as more than a place to purchase books.
Leonard & Clarrissa Egerton Photo: Gary Higgins of the Boston Business Journal
As I stood in that space, I wasn’t just browsing shelves. I was listening. Conversations moved throughout the store in a way that felt alive. Melanated men and women speaking with passion about the books, the authors, the stories that shaped them, challenged them, carried them through different seasons of life. It wasn’t surface-level. It was lived, and it was rooted.
Hearing that lit something in me. It brought me back to the essence of something I’ve always known to be true—my first love, outside of the Most High and my parents, has always been reading.
As I moved through the aisles, I slowed down in a way I didn’t expect. There was a moment where it felt like a book wasn’t just sitting there waiting to be picked up—it was calling me, almost like it had already decided it was coming with me. That book was Make Your Way Home by our melanated cousin, Carrie R. Moore.
The collection moves through Black life across place, memory, and migration, touching the South, the Midwest, and spaces in between. It explores what it means to search for home, to carry it, to redefine it, especially when home is layered and not always fixed in one place. There is a quiet strength in the writing, a truth that does not try to soften itself, and that resonated deeply with me in that moment.
Standing in Frugal reminded me that spaces like this do not happen by accident. They are created, protected, and sustained with care. They allow room for imagination to expand, for intellect to be nurtured, and for our melanated spirits to exist without being reduced.
That same feeling followed me into MIDA.
At a sold-out Black History Month brunch benefiting the 7uice Foundation, the room carried that same level of alignment. The experience, curated by Chef Douglass Williams, moved beyond food and into something more meaningful. It was a gathering where culture, conversation, and contribution existed in the same space without needing to compete for attention.
7uice Foundation x MIDA Black History Brunch Photo: Armaya Doremi
The food was filled with melanated richness—the sticky lamb ribs, the olive oil ice cream…chef’s kiss, but what stayed with me was the environment itself. It felt like a space where people could exist fully, where ideas could circulate freely, and where imagination, especially for our melanated people, was supported and protected.
That moment not only became my introduction to the 7uice Foundation, but to an ecosystem of something greater.
Founded in 2019 by Jaylen Brown alongside his mother, Mechalle Brown, who serves as Chairperson and actively stewards the foundation’s direction, the work reflects structure, care, and a clear sense of direction. Through programs like the Bridge Program, young people are introduced to pathways in entrepreneurship, financial literacy, technology, and leadership through immersive experiences that place them directly in environments designed to expand their thinking.
The work extends into STEM and education in a way that is both practical and forward-looking. Students are given exposure to institutions like MIT and are brought into spaces where innovation, research, and opportunity are actively taking place. Through college tours and programming throughout Boston, including visits to campuses such as Suffolk University and Bentley, young people are able to see, firsthand, what these environments look and feel like, which shifts how they begin to imagine their own future.
That level of exposure matters because it reshapes perspective. Growing up on the West Side of Chicago, I have seen what happens when opportunity is introduced in a real way. It changes how you think, how you move, and what you believe is possible for yourself.
When I look at what is being built through the 7uice Foundation, I do not see something temporary or surface-level. I see a framework being established, one that is meant to continue, to grow, and to create access that extends beyond the court and beyond what the mind can fathom.
That work expands further through Boston XChange, co-founded by Jaylen Brown, in collaboration with the JLH Fund founded by his former teammate Jrue Holiday and his wife Lauren Holiday, both accomplished athletes in their own right. This initiative moves into economic empowerment, creating pathways for wealth-building, entrepreneurship, and community investment within Boston. It brings together institutions, resources, and individuals in a way that supports long-term growth and community development.
What becomes clear is that this work is not isolated. It is connected. It is layered. It reflects an ecosystem that is being built with a long-term vision in mind.
Spaces like Frugal Bookstore, the 7uice Foundation, and experiences like the MIDA brunch exist as extensions of that same philosophy. They remind us that safe spaces for our melanated spirits and intellect are essential. They allow us to think freely, to imagine without limitation, and to exist without the need to shrink ourselves.
That is where real growth begins, where ideas take root, and where change becomes possible.
What I experienced in Boston was not just a series of moments. It was a reflection of what can happen when people choose to invest in something greater than themselves, when purpose is matched with action, and when community is centered in the process of building.
And that is something worth paying attention to.
Get Involved with the Movement:
https://www.the7uicefoundation.org/
Photo(s): 7uiceFoundation, JLH Fund, Boston Celtics,Gary Higgins of the Boston Business Journal