AARON STALLWORTH
I was born in Fort Worth, TX, raised in Marshall, TX and have spent my adult years in Washington, DC.
My pursuits for higher education took me to big state schools, HBCUs and the Ivy League. I am an educator at heart and by trade. I am also a lover of music, mainly hip-hop and jazz.
Like many of my fellow black men, Dap became an innate form of communication between one another. In school hallways, at church, on the basketball court, in the barbershop, on the shore of the Nile River, DAP is a language among black men that I know well but have learned so much about through The Dap Project interviews.
I hope TDP brings a smile to your face, a better understanding of black men, some food for thought, and further affirmation of the love and humanity that exists within us.
RHONDA HENDERSON
I was born and raised in the District, in Chocolate City.
I grew up in a big family in a quiet neighborhood called Manor Park and graduated from DC Public Schools.
Professionally, I am an educator. I have attended fancy graduate schools and worked in spaces where black boys and men are defined by statistics that track their societal ostracization, and academic deficits. We who love and spend time with black men and boys know differently, and call “bullshit”.
It is against this backdrop that I am curious about how black men preserve and create joy amongst one another in the seven-second dap. I am so appreciative of these stories that the guys have shared with us, the little pieces of themselves that make them who they are and make us who we are as black people.