K Myles to appear on 60 Minutes

I've been sitting on this post for several weeks now. I've been reluctant to say too much about it just in case it somehow fell through. But an hour ago, I finished taping an interview with Leslie Stahl for 60 minutes. 60 Minutes is airing a special on Mensa and they interviewed me for the show.

Those of you who know me well, know that my true passion is and has been for encouraging our youth to achieve to the limits of their gifts and potential and freeing our youth from the quasi-cultural scourge of low expectations. In fact it was this passion, and my work within Mensa that ultimately led me to join the NAACP.

During the interview, I was able to speak to a national audience about the brilliance and potential of our children, the need for us as a community to combat our negative and self-limiting stereotypes, beliefs, and expectations, and offer my example as an emblem of what is possible. If I, a kid from Cleveland who made every mistake a young black kid could make, could still join Mensa (a feat of pure intellectualism) and move within the organization to become a Regional Chairman (a feat of organization and politics) then I can speak from experience about the illusory nature of the limitations we place on our ambitions. We are so much more than we have become... We just have to teach our children to embrace their potential and to hold on to their dreams. We have to tell the truth about the Hobgoblin of "talking white" or "acting white". Criticizing one another for academic achievement is among the worst types of black on black violence. It is an act of intellectual violence that sentences generations of our children and progeny to lives of mediocrity when they are capable of excellence.

I was also able to talk about specific initiatives we've launched, such as our youth Chess team, our 4-point plan for ending the achievement gap, and all of the other intellectual projects we are advancing through the Wichita Branch NAACP.

The special will air in September when the new season begins. I will post the air date here and through our e-network when it it is finalized.

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Leslie Stahl (60 minutes) and Kevin Myles (Wichita NAACP)...

Tech Tags: 60+minutes, Mensa, NAACP, Kevin+Myles, Wichita+NAACP, Leslie+Stahl, Achievement+Gap

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The Wichita NAACP Youth Council Chess Team to visit Kansas Soldiers at the VA Hospital

On Saturday, Sept. 15th, 2007 at 11:00 am, the Wichita Branch NAACP Youth Council Chess team will join the neighborhood chess teams from the Boys and Girls Club of South Central Kansas and McAdams Recreation Center in a visit to the V.A. Hospital located at 5500 E. Kellogg. The youth will be on hand to visit and play chess with the Kansas Soldiers that were injured in Iraq.

The youth will be accompanied by their coach, Mr. Anthony Winn; Founder and President of IWCCI (Independant World Chess Championships Inc)

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Highlights from the 39th Annual Wichita Black Arts Festival

The 39th annual Wichita Black Arts festival closed yesterday. More than 6,500 people attended this years festivities. The Branch hosted a membership table, an information table with facts and literature about becoming a foster parent, and a voter registration booth.


This year's celebration began with the third annual Umoja 5K walk/run. The run was co-sponsored by the Wichita Branch NAACP Health Committee, the Wichita Black Arts Festival Committee, and Via Christi Health Systems. 117 people from the community came out and ran the course through Grove park. This years walk/run even saw teams from Tabernacle Baptist Church, Holy Savior and the Church of the Living God.


The official opening of the Black Arts Festival Celebration came on Saturday morning with the Black Arts Festival Parade. Ten members of the Wichita Branch NAACP Youth Council (Wichita NYC) marched in the parade and carried a coffin through the streets in a mock burial of the "N" word. The Wichita NYC Chess club also set up a Chess table behind the Branch Membership table for the second year in a row. The Youth along with their coach, Mr. Anthony Winn (pictured in the White Hat), and Adult Branch President Myles, took on all challengers.


The Youth group also partnered with the Black Arts Festival Committee to host a teen-talk forum, entitled "you are what you think". 62 Youth participated in the forum which was based on the NAACP's National STOP campaign dealing with the negative terms and names the youth use in addressing one another. More than just the "N" word, the forum asked the youth to consider how they want to be regarded and remembered. The forum featured a powerful presentation and music from Mr. Rob Simon. Afterwards, the Youth were broken into smaller groups and were able to complete spoken word pieces describing their feelings on the subject and their hopes for the future. Each group then took turns performing their piece for the whole. At the end, each youth was given a small slip of paper to write down the negative words and terms that they've either used, heard, or been called and they each brought those slips of paper up the the front of the room where they were placed in the coffin to be buried along with the "N" word. http://www.kansas.com/news/local/story/165155.html

The festival closed last night with an 'Old School' party and concert headed by the SOS Band!

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