about melvin

Assuming that most of you didn’t click this tab to read a full-fledged bio—rather to figure out whether you want to connect—let me start with the short of it: I am a devoted husband, committed father, learner, teacher, writer, storyteller, lover of people, connoisseur of creativity, purveyor of sustainability and believer in possibilities.

The challenge is to find ways to make such ‘noble’ intuitions pay the bills (if I weren’t married with kids I’d probably be homeless . As my muse, Brudda Langston Hughes, once put it, “An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose.”

Thus, I choose to be a social entrepreneur. The way that looks right now:

• I am a professional speaker and aspiring author. I am contributing what started as “Reading the Prophets for Justice” but now looks like it will be used as a introductory narrative for An Emergent Manifesto of Justice [Baker Publishing: Emersion Books, February 2009]. I am seeking to broaden my audience with my regular contributions to God’s Politics blog. And I made print in Christian Century, December 30, 2008.
  
• I am an Language Arts professor (doesn’t “professor” sound so obnoxiously erudite) at Pine Forge Academy, my high school alma mater.
• I do manuscript editing and voice-over work.
• I consult in the areas of nonprofit organization, program and curriculum development, which includes all the document preparation associated with each.
• I am founder and director of Kid Cultivators, a missional youth development nonprofit.
• I am an active participant in the local/global Emergent conversation and also participate in the Emergent Village national coordinating group.

For the more curious—or those who just have time to kill—the more narrative/descriptive version goes…

Though social entrepreneur may be the more normative descriptor for what I do, up to this point my favorite description of my work is that I grow kids. On a personal level that involves partnering with my bride of 12 years (June 30), Leslie, as we pour ourselves into our three wonderful children—Jaya, Kari & Melvin IV.

On my most enjoyable professional days, growing kids takes the form of some Kid Cultivators project. Kid Cultivators is the nonprofit I founded in the late 90’s and have worked through for the last 9 years to help youth, youth-workers and their families learn habits of sustainability. We train them to apply the ethics of sustainability to the way they engage ecology, faith, relationships, education, economics, politics, media and art. We have been community partners with the Atlanta Girls School and participated in the re:CONNECT project in Atlanta, summer 2008.

Since I have joined the illustrious ranks of those who didn’t make their doctoral programs the first time around and must wait a year to reapply (agggggghhhh!) and am on sabbatical from my daily work with Kid Cultivators (supposedly in preparation for grad school), I have taken a position on the faculty of Pine Forge Academy, a parochial boarding school nestled in the foothills of southeastern PA on the river Manatawny. Over the years I have also served as a school principal, program director, classroom teacher, camp director/counselor, curriculum developer, consultant, trainer and general contractor. Prior to founding Kid Cultivators, I even did a short stint on local television, for which I was awarded an Emmy™. I also stay active in a growing, generative friendship, Emergent Village, seeking to re-imagine what it means to be church in the world. As you can see, I stay busy.

I will continue to be involved in some sort of activism while I wait for school to take shape. Outside of that, I’m just trying to remain diligent with my art—writing and speaking.

I hope we can connect.