Alvin Irby is a rarity—a male first-grade teacher. Even rarer, he’s a Black male first-grade teacher. He also does side gigs as a stand-up comedian. The combination of his knowledge as an educator, his sense of humor, and his understanding of Black boys’ lives propelled him into creating a program that puts engaging, laugh-out-loud kids’ books into Black barbershops.

Let’s unpack that. In his Bronx New York classroom, Irby could see that most of the Black boys in his first-grade class not only couldn’t read, they weren’t interested in learning to. That, he figured, had something to do with the available books being really boring, and with so many of the boys not having an adult Black man in their home lives, one they might see reading.

In 2008, while getting a haircut, Irby realized that this was a place where boys came into an all-male place regularly. What if there were books at the barbershop? What if the books were fun to read?

Despite the time demands of his teaching job and of having no funding, Irby started Barbershop Books, building from that one Bronx location into barbershops in more than 20 US cities, and now onto the internet as well. Irby is giving talks that are seen around the world, sharing what he’s learned about getting kids to read.