Love Cannot be Lost in Translation: The Work of Minh Lê and his impact on Young Men of Color

Love Cannot be Lost in Translation: The Work of Minh Lê and his impact on Young Men of Color by Darius Phelps​

Many of our young men right now are struggling with feeling, with existing in this troubled world. As a former elementary school educator, mentor of young men of color, and now full time Lecturer in Multicultural Education and Early Childhood Education/Childhood Studies, my pedagogy is rooted in proving a place of solace and salvation, for students and educators everywhere. It is the late bell hooks that reminds us in All About Love: New Visions,  “Redeemed and restored, love returns us to the promise of everlasting life. When we love we can let our hearts speak.” Drs. Don Vu and Gholdy Muhammad stress the importance of immersive, culturally relevant pedagogy where our students are at the front and as an English Teacher, I have often wondered who can I turn to as a man of color to help build a connection between my male students of color and literature. ​

During my time as a classroom teacher, as I explored books that represent the work of Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop  reflecting the notion of Windows, Mirrors, and Sliding Glass Doors, I became enamored with the work being done by Minh. In retrospect, I have only grown more fond of his work as the years have passed.  I remember in the midst of the pandemic, I switched schools and began teaching 5th Grade Gifted ELA and Social Studies in both an area and demographic drastically differently than what I was used to. Despite being stuck on Zoom for almost eight hours daily, confided to the locations of their respective households with little to no physical interaction with others their age, my students were amazing, but lacked depth, perception, and the ability to view the world as a spectrum: a place of solace where every person, no matter what ethnicity or color, could belong and most importantly, share their authentic truths with the world - allowing us all to learn from their narratives. 
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In the realm of picture books Minh has single handedly broken barriers for young men of color everywhere, and has made even more of an impact with his middle grades graphic novel series Green Lantern: Legacy  and the follow up, Alliance, that detail the growth of the main character, a young Vietnamese boy named Tai Pham. Tai is a young Vietnamese boy faced with unexpected grief  with the sudden loss of his grandmother, who learns through the trial and error of being an adolescent, of what it means to unearth his joy.

This series alone set the precedent in my ELA classroom for implementing all things SEL (Social Emotional Learning) and using the character development of Tai, to show my male students what it means to embrace their emotions, no matter how fluid they may be. My boys, no matter what their ethnic background and upbringing,  for the first time truly saw themselves reflected within the pages of a book. Thanks to Minh, they were able to witness a character grieve, love, and embolden themselves to face the world head on - fearless and ready to step into their destined power. 

Reminiscent of the practices of both the late bell hooks and Thich Nhat Hanh, Minh shows us that love cannot and will not be lost in translation, especially if we continue  to advocate for books that reflect exactly what the world needs to see - authenticity, vulnerability, and most importantly, radical love. With his writing and service to the field of diverse literature and education,  Minh is doing what I like to call the “heart work”, meaning that lets the words flow from his fingertips out onto the page. As the days get closer to the debut of his upcoming release Enlighten Me, a stunning graphic novel and future award winner that's find a young boy by the name of Binh learning the power of meditation and coming to terms with his own feelings, I know Minh will only continue to rectify and restore what it truly means to let our souls speak, reverberating love from the depths of his veins. ​

References: 
hooks, b. (2021). All about love: New visions. William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
Lê, M., (2021). Green lantern legacy. Urban comics. 
Lê, M. (2022). Green Lantern: Alliance. DC Comics. 
Lê, M. (2023). Enlighten Me. Little, Brown Young Readers. 
Muhammad, G. (2021). Cultivating genius: An equity framework for culturally and historically responsive literacy. Scholastic.
Muhammad, G. (2023). Unearthing joy: A guide to culturally and historically responsive teaching and learning. Scholastic Inc. 
Vu, D. (2021). Life, literacy, and the pursuit of happiness: Supporting our immigrant and refugee children through the power of reading. Scholastic.

Darius Phelps is a PhD Candidate at Teachers College, Columbia University and 2023 Recipient of the NCTE Early Career Educator of Color Award. He is the Assistant Director of Programs under The Center for Publishing & Applied Liberal Arts (PALA) department at NYU  and is a Manager at Brooklyn Poets. An educator, poet, spoken word artist, and activist, Darius writes poems about grief, liberation, emancipation, reflection through the lens of a teacher of color and experiencing Black boy joy. His poems have appeared in the NY English Record, NCTE English Journal, Pearl Press Magazine, ëëN Magazine, and many more. Recently, he was featured on WCBS and highlighted the importance of Black male educators in the classroom.
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Darius can be contacted via email at: [email protected].