Another season of our popular The Modern Dads Podcast concludes with a very special musical episode. Five of our City Dads from around the country join us to discuss the songs that have inspired and informed their parenting.City Dads Group columnist Whit Honea discusses the cover of a classic Rodgers and Hammerstein tune, done by the late Ray Charles, that he uses to get his kids going in the morning.NYC Dad James Lopez, who blogs at Cool4Dads / #FatherhoodIsLit, shares some of the parenting lessons he uses from a song he loved in his childhood, the Notorious B.I.G. tune … [Read more...]
Portland Rocks with City Dads Playing ‘Kindie’ Children’s Music
Portland Dads Group member Aaron Canwell and his then 6-month-old son, Micah, were wandering around their Oregon hometown looking for family-friendly things to do when they stumbled on a group of musicians playing children's songs with a rock 'n' roll beat.Quickly, two new "kindie" music fans were born."This performance engaged children young and old to sing and dance," Canwell said. "I got hooked. I decided I wanted to take my love of music and movement to share with children just like these people did."And soon was born a new band.Micah and Me, composed of Canwell and three … [Read more...]
Beleaf: A Versatile Musician, Artist, Modern Father Figure
We follow up a rave review of Beleaf Melanin's new album, In Fatherhood, with an interview of the artist and popular YouTube dad.Q: You are big on collaborating with friends and family. In the closing song “Baby Daddy,” you speak to the adage "it takes a village" in parenting, but what does that mean to you in terms of creating art?Beleaf: It’s important to come in with a team. I definitely don’t think we were meant to do things alone. I think we can but it’s best to do them as a tribe. A part of a bigger village that’s basically open to changing the world.I started out as a DJ … [Read more...]
Beleaf ‘In Fatherhood’ a Hip-Hop National Anthem for Dads
The modern fatherhood space can seem, well, academic, at times. Overly disciplined, sterile. Whitewashed, even.Then, seemingly out of the blue, a hip-hop album drops, and a breathtakingly talented dad emerges to the forefront to remind us that fatherhood advocacy isn’t always squeaky-clean academia and the face of it, most certainly, isn’t always white.That album is In Fatherhood. That dad is Beleaf Melanin.And, perhaps unbeknownst even to him, he has just penned fatherhood’s National Anthem in the form of an elaborate conceit, woven around a singular euphonious narrative, … [Read more...]
‘Gifted’ Actors Discuss Roles, Movie About Raising a Genius
I had the pleasure of recently attending the press junket for the movie Gifted about young man unexpectedly into the role of protector and father figure for his math-genius niece. The talent of the film's actors -- Chris Evans, McKenna Grace, Octavia Spencer and Jenny Slate -- is a testament to director Marc Webb's vision and all those that were part of this magical production.Gifted is a heartwarming and heart-wrenching story about Frank (Evans), an uncle raising his 7-year-old niece, Mary (Grace). Frank vows to give her a normal life even though Mary shows extraordinary mathematical … [Read more...]