Non-Profit Filling Barbershops With Books to Encourage Reading

A first-grade teacher in the Bronx started a non-profit Barbershop Books, after seeing one of his students looking bored while waiting at a local Barbershop.  Alvin Irby said it was five years ago that he thought to himself while sitting in the chair at a Barbershop, that it was a perfect opportunity to practice reading.  

The non-profit has since delivered 50,000 free books to more than 200 barber shops in predominantly black neighborhoods in 24 states.  Irby’s non-profit installs child-friendly reading spacex in the barbershops and fills the spaces with free books around the country.  Irby teaches the barbers in all the shops how to help encourage kids to read, such as by asking if they like to read, or what they think about one of the books in the shop. 

Irby says the barbers’ interactions are key to encouraging reading.  “We are putting books in a male-centered space, less than 2% of teachers are Black males and many Black boys are raised by single moms. Black boys don’t see Black men reading” he said.  Irby says the idea is not just about enriching a child’s mind but improving their proficiency in school, where he says is pretty much the only place kids see reading happening.