Hello colleagues!
My name is Evynn McFalls, and it’s a pleasure to digitally make your acquaintance.
As we embark on this journey together in 21st Century African American / Black literacies, I thought that it would be a good idea for me to introduce myself, and share with all of you where I’m coming from and what I’m bringing with me to this course.
To start, I am a 20-something African American male who currently lives in the Bronx. I came to New York City to start a Master’s program at St. John’s University a little over two years ago, and at this point am completing my coursework for my Doctoral degree. I have degrees in Writing (with a focus on professional communications and non-fiction) and English (with a specialization in rhetoric, composition, and pedagogy).
After my coursework completed, I’ll be reading for my comprehensive examinations and writing my dissertation just like everyone else. All the while, I’ll be continuing my work as a writer, editor and content marketing strategist at a firm that keeps me connected to my home on the west coast (I’m from Los Angeles originally, but spent much of my life in Boulder City, Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada).
To this class, I am bringing my personal story, my blackness, and the many literacies that I’ve had to develop in navigating the personal, professional, political and institutional circuitries that surround us. I am passionate about community engagement, empowerment, sharing in the agency and the uplift of all people—particularly those who have long been marginalized.
As a thinker and scholar, my approach is compassion and understanding first. I try to practice mindfulness and thoughtful communication in all classroom discussions, to keep the stories that each person brings to any “meeting” we have in mind, and to celebrate the intellectual achievements of those thinkers we’ll be exploring—not just in the texts we read, but also in the conversations that we’ll be having together.
I look forward to learning from each of you and hope that you can learn something from me as well.
Respectfully,
Ev
A Language of Being 