Because of the vision...

My Soror Eunique Jones created a subscription box for our children to teach them about figures/moments in Black History called Because Of Them We Can Box. A mother of three herself and a profound visionary, she has become a beacon of light for our culture reflecting truth in the power of small ideas turned into shifts in how we believe in our visions for this generation. As one of the supporters in the Founding Members program, those who signed up in the first 72 hours before the launch, I remember realizing in 2018 that my sons, 7 and 4 at that time, had never heard of Black History Month. 2018 was the same year this box went live and I wouldn’t know this thing to educate children was brewing in the spirit of another Black mother until 10 months later.

Actually when my oldest son started 1st grade, I distinctly remember, when February began, asking him what he learned so far about Black History Month. He looked at me with the most confused pretty brown eyes and that’s when it hit me that I could not depend on the education system to teach my son about his history. Of course he learned about Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks but as someone who grew up attending an all Black elementary school where Lift Every Voice was woven into the morning announcements with just as much importance as the pledge of allegiance, I wanted them to know so much more.

I cleared the bookshelves immediately and began to put the children’s book with Black main characters and those written by Black authors in the forefront. To be able to see themselves in literature at a young age was always important but knowing that home might be the only place they would hear about black inventors and writers and poets and doctors, I was determined to provide that education. It would be 10 months later when the launch of this subscription box would happen. It is no shock that I was one of the first ones to sign up because in the same year of the launch I had this desire to teach my boys after having that revelation in conversation with my son.

To say the box has been brilliant is an understatement. Each month my son has learned something new and I have refreshed my memory and/or learned something new myself. While building the house we paused our subscription as we saved and prepared for closing and with the pandemic in full swing I was worried that while we were paused that she would decide to shut it down because of shipping delays etc. She has mentioned that she considered it but I’m so glad that she didn’t because this months box made me very emotional.

There is a video of my son when he was 2 years old in an apron talking about this cake he was helping me put icing on like he had his own show on the Food Network. (Yes at two my kid was talking like he was 4.) So to open the box this month and see an apron, chef hat and a lesson about Famous Amos (who I will admit I had no idea was created by a black man named Wally “Famous” Amos) it just felt like a full circle moment.

For the ideas we think are silly, for the tug in our spirits as mothers to fill in the gaps of those things we are passionate about our children learning, for remembering who we are because of who paved the way—let us always find our way back.

If this is your first time learning about the BOTWC subscription box and you’d love for your littles to receive one, sign up today and receive $10 off your box using my referral link: http://botwc.refr.cc/lvnthemillerhighlife