MEMPHIS—Over 100 men and women gathered at the Whitehaven Community Center to attend the 2nd Annual Man Up Men’s Wellness and Resource Fair.
The Nation of Islam’s Whitehaven Study Group, the City of Memphis, GK Price Foundation, Watchful Eye Neighborhood Association, G-WERC–Greater Whitehaven Economic Redevelopment Corporation worked together to produce the event, which was hosted by City Councilwoman Pearl Eva Walker and Dr. Kevin Brooks of WLOK 1340 radio.
The Man-Up event, which brought together a diverse audience on July 19, including grassroots activists and others, was the idea of Sister Christy X Pratt.
Student Minister Demetric Muhammad of the Whitehaven Study Group addressed the topic of spiritual wellness, focusing on the need for unity and moral development to overcome the issues plaguing the community.
“Allah (God) says in the Holy Qur’an, that ‘had it not been for God raising up men to repel other men, the whole earth would be overrun with evil.’ We’re talking about spiritual now, because real spirituality isn’t just this thing where you go sit in a room by yourself and float off into the cosmos.
No. Real spirituality actually involves confronting evil. So, we are hoping that there is something of an inspiration that the brothers and the sisters who are here today take away from this event,” continued Student Minister Demetric Muhammad.
“At a certain point, those of us who are good men and see ourselves as good men, we know we have to organize, we have to get together in a room by ourselves, lock arms, pray to God, invite His Spirit into our life and move into our neighborhoods with a moral and spiritual force,” he said.
“I said moral and spiritual. They go together because the high levels of crime and violence, at the root of it represents a spiritual disease and it’s going to necessitate us summoning the moral and spiritual power of our community—all of us, together.”
Sergio Robinson told The Final Call that he chose to attend the event to hear from community leaders and professionals and learn how to apply their knowledge for a better life. “I wanted to learn. My mind is like a sponge. I want to absorb everything that I can that’s good for me.
Even though we are humans, we don’t know everything, we never will, but we need to have the drive and the curiosity to know the things that we don’t [know] and to question the things that we don’t understand,” said Mr. Robinson.
