TheBlackManCan Awards Celebrates 16 Years Of Black Excellence In New York City

Source: The Black Man Can, Inc. Awards / TheBlackManCan

TheBlackManCan, Inc. visited the Big Apple this past Saturday to celebrate Black men who are effecting positive change, the Black women who support them, and Black excellence overall. Founded in 2010 by Dr. Brandon Frame, the nonprofit organization and digital media platform is “focused on celebrating, educating, and inspiring boys and men of color.”

So, in its 16th year, the BlackManCan Awards came to Manhattan’s Symphony Space to salute those whose work carries on the mission. Comedian and internet personality Lorenzo “Renny” Cromwell emceed the awards show, using his humor in balance with the dignity of the event.

Luminaries, celebs, and professionals from all walks of business braved the rainy New York City weather en route to the event. And everyone at Peter Jay Sharp Theatre made sure to pull up in style. The red carpet would only see itself adorned with the most sharply dressed of persons that evening.

Dr. Rictor Craig, founder and CEO of the National Association of Black Male Educators, kicked off the evening with the first presentation of the night. He gave the “The Classroom King Award” to Tyresse Person, a science teacher at Washington, D.C.’s Friendship Public Charter School.

While Black men comprise less than 2% of K-12 teachers in United States public schools, studies show that Black students with simply one Black teacher before third grade were 13% more likely to pursue postsecondary education. Moreover, those same odds of college life more than doubled – to 32%– for Black students who had experienced two Black educators by that same point in life.

Craig’s introduction spoke to the importance of Black boys seeing themselves positively represented throughout their educational careers, especially “by dramatically increasing the number of highly effective Black and Brown male educators who stand before them every single day. Because when our children see us – [when] they are taught, affirmed, and loved by us – we don’t just change outcomes. We change what they believe is possible for their own lives.”

After Person’s acceptance speech, Harlem rapper Neek Bucks came onstage to give the Mentoring Matters Award to another dynamic Black educator, New Jerseyan Lewis Spears. The 42-year-old Garden State native grew up in Jersey City’s Booker T. Washington Apartments (sometimes called “Bullet Town” due to the nature and history of crimes committed in the housing complex).

Spears went on to pursue higher education at Rutgers and Harvard Universities, and then opted to work in service of the community that raised him by becoming a teacher. Thirteen years ago, he also launched Kismet of Kings, a Jersey City nonprofit organization that works with Black and Brown boys between ages 11 and 17, primarily from underserved communities and low-income households.

In 2019, Spears published his first book, You’re the Answer to the Problem: From the Hood to Harvard and Back Again, an autobiographical work aimed at helping other young men dealing with challenges similar to those he faced. Then two years later, Spears took his vision into the civic arena and campaigned to become mayor of Jersey City, becoming only the fourth African American man to do so in two centuries.

Upon receiving the Mentoring Matters Award, Spears revealed the secret to his success with the audience. “I have superpowers,” he shared. “And the reason I have superpowers is because of my beautiful wife Myriam Spears, who is here today. DOCTOR Myriam Spears! There’s a lot that I do in the community – but I am nothing without her and my beautiful sons. I appreciate you every day.”

The night moved forward with Jarrhod Johnson, co-founder and Chief Values Officer of the beverage company BLK & Bold, which was created in 2018 and was also a co-sponsor of the award show.

The company has maintained social consciousness as one of its core values, notably through the For Our Youth (FOY) initiative, which donates 5% of gross proceeds to children-focused nonprofits throughout the U.S.

Johnson awarded the following four young men with college scholarships in acknowledgment of their academic achievements and positive impact outside of the classroom:

Campus King Scholar

• Amir Muhammad of Norfolk State University
• Elijah Williams of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University

Black Boy Genius Scholar

• Idris Frazier Coney Island Prep High School
• Kenneth Foster of Roxbury Latin School

The show was punctuated with performances by violinist Armond Vance, songstress Ashley Perrymond, and Hip-Hop lyricist FR33SOL. Grammy-nominated spoken word artist Prentice Powell also roused the audience with “Black Boy” from his 2025 album PACK LIGHT.

But one of the most outstanding moments of the event was when the “Falling Black In Love Award” was presented to Malik and Rosalyn Champlain. The pair has been married for nearly fifteen years and share three children.

According to a study by the Pew Research Center, 86% of the married Black women in the United States are married to Black men. In turn, the same study showed that 78% of the married Black men in the United States are married to Black women.

Furthermore, per a prior study conducted by Dr. Ivory Toldson of Howard University and Dr. Bryant Marks of Morehouse College, 83% of married Black men in the U.S. who make more than six figures annually are marrying Black women. The data stands in contrast to certain mainstream narratives about successful Black men and whom they choose to wed.

In a commanding display of Black love, Malik gushed about his wife’s support from their courtship to present day. In his 2017 autobiographical self-help book Passion Hunger Drive: Live Your Dreams, Not Your Fears, Champlain writes about how he started as a Brooklyn teen with a speech impediment, then moved with his mother to Connecticut and tried to navigate street life.

After eventually finding employment as a parole officer, Champlain now wears multiple hats, including educational consultant at State Education Resource Center of CT, author, public speaker, ordained deacon, and proud girl dad.

Earlier this year, Champlain also released his third book, titled LeadHerShip. His new release is a call “for men to step out of passivity and into spiritual authority” and “confront the patterns that have held them back and rise into the men God created them to be.”

And on Sunday, May 3, Champlain and Dr. Frame are launching Men’s Den at Historic Springfield Society in Jacksonville, Fla. The event is being called one of “powerful empowering conversations amongst men,” where they will challenge each other to grow through vulnerability, and in fellowship.

The list of the 2026 Black Man Can Awards recipients included the following awardees:

• Jasmine Crowe-Houston — The Black Woman Can Award
• Charles Johnson — The Longevity Award
• Malik and Rosalyn Champlain — Falling Black InLove Award
• Pastor Michael Walrond Jr. & Trey Walrond — The Like Father, Like Son Award
• Lewis Spears — The Mentoring Matters Award
• Kalvin Bridgewater — The Building the Village Award
• Dr. Marcel “Trey” Crooks — The He Motion Hero Award
• The Cast of Johnson — The Narrative Shift Award
• Tyresse Person — The Classroom King Award

But the evening was capped off with one last surprise honoree. The final award was for “The Blueprint of Storytelling.” And Dr. Frame came decked out in an ivory Brioni Floral Jacquard Shawl Dinner Jacket – with the matching ivory tuxedo pants and bowtie – to present the award to Hip-Hop icon and legendary wordsmith Ricky Martin Lloyd Walters aka Slick Rick.

Also known by the moniker “The Ruler,” Walters established his position as one of the architects of Golden Age Hip-Hop through fusing a sing-songy melodic flow with vivid storytelling. Slick Rick initially took to rap over four decades ago when he joined Doug E. Fresh’s Get Fresh Crew as MC Ricky D.

Yet his lasting influence can still be felt in today’s music and pop culture. Walters’ 1985 hit song “La Di Da Di” is one of the most sampled songs of all time, having found its way into more modern smash hits, including “Party” by Beyonce and “We Can’t Stop” by Miley Cyrus.

Four years later, Slick Rick would release his debut album The Great Adventures of Slick Rick, whose iconic third track is “Children’s Story,” a warning wake-up call to inner city youth. The song consistently ranks highly on all-time Hip-Hop lists and has been widely sampled, appearing in songs like Montell Jordan’s “This Is How We Do It” and Missy Elliott’s “Gossip Folks.”

“Writing was never just music,” Slick Rick told the audience at Symhony Space. “It was connection, creation, imagination, turning stories into something the world could feel.”

“Tonight, we didn’t just gather,” Dr. Frame told the audience in his closing speech. “We affirmed something. We affirmed the brilliance of Black men. We affirmed the beauty of our stories. We affirmed the power of who we are fully, unapologetically, and without compromise…”

“Because this room is not filled with potential — it’s filled with proof. Proof of what Black men are doing. In classrooms. In communities. In boardrooms. In homes. Across the country and across the world.”

“Black men are building,” Frame said as he concluded the show. “Black men are leading. Black men are creating. Black men are loving. And tonight, we didn’t ask for that to be seen. We showed it… Because the truth is there is no shortage of greatness in this room. There is no shortage of brilliance in our community. There is no shortage in the power of who we are.”

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