“I don’t live for anything other than purpose. If it doesn’t align with my mission and my purpose, I probably won’t even show up.”
These words succinctly capture the passion and commitment of Solar Born, a 43 year-old resident of Dorchester who, along with CSNDC’s Community Organizer James Mackey, has led Brothers Building since 2017.
An extension of CSNDC’s programming for men of color which began around 2013, Brothers Building is a bi-monthly forum focused on the health and well-being of Black men in the community. Its mission is to co-create a movement for Black men to come together, receive and give support, learn and teach, heal and be healed, and proactively address each participant’s quality of life with the goal of improving health outcomes.
Solar remembers well the day that James approached him with the idea. They had known each other through their independent community activism work, and when James joined CSNDC they began talking about creating this program.
“I told him, of course, let’s get it together,” Solar recalls. “That was basically the founding of it. We brought in a couple of other brothers who we knew shared the same sentiment and passion, and vision/mission statement for their own life, and the rest is history.”
Each session is different, according to Solar. Sometimes they exercise together, sometimes they go on outings, sometimes they coach each other on healthy lifestyle. But no matter the specific activity, the true impact is in the group’s experience of being together.
“My main drive and passion is to help change the lives of others that I don’t want to go through the same thing I went through,” he says.
That piece of Solar’s story began when, at age nineteen, he was sentenced to 8 ½ to 15 years in prison for armed assault.
“I was already on the path to righteousness prior to that,” he reflects. “But I didn’t have alternatives to violence in my toolkit yet.”
From the moment he got to prison, Solar began searching for programs where he could teach and lead individuals that were in similar situations to his, so that he could help them not befall the same fate.
“It was pretty smooth for me because I knew myself already. So, it wasn’t too hard for me to stay in my own lane, study myself, and pay attention to what I was supposed to be doing,” he says.
Soon enough, he found what he was looking for in a program called Project Youth.
“I spent a lot of time with youth as they came to visit the prison,” he says. “I was able to share my story and give them the opportunity to realize where the choices and decisions are being made in their own life, to not get off path and stay focused.”
Solar also ran programs called the African Heritage Coalition (AHC) and African American Coalition Committee (AACC), which he credits with giving him the experience he ultimately needed to be a leader in Brothers Building.
A year ago, when the group finally resumed meeting in person in the wake of the pandemic, Solar’s brothers came together to celebrate his leadership.
“It was just a regular outing,” he recalls, fighting back tears. “The fellas just begin clapping and clapping. I’m thinking I don’t know what we’re celebrating, but I’m just happy to celebrate somebody else, so I started clapping. Then I noticed everybody’s looking at me and brother James is bringing me a beautiful gold plaque with my picture on it. It was the biggest surprise ever, and everybody was genuinely happy for me.”
“The camaraderie that has grown among the individuals in this space, it’s been very, very impactful on us all as individuals,” he says. “Each of us in different ways. However, one thing that’s been indelible is the bond we’ve formed. We are truly brothers.”
No doubt, his brothers have come to understand the meaning of his name.
“Solar represents the sunlight and Born is to bring into existence,” he says. “My duty is to bring the light into existence. And, like the sun, I rise before anybody needs to tell me what to do.”
