Alvin Irby (he/him)

Founder and Executive Director, Barbershop Books, Inc.

Early childhood educator, social entrepreneur, TED speaker, comedian, and author; pioneering literacy programs for future generations in barbershops.

“There are identities we carry and identities we cultivate,” says educator Alvin Irby. He was raised by his mom, an elementary school teacher, but some of his earliest memories are of his father's barbershop. These influences collided when Irby was a first-year teacher in the Bronx. “I was getting a haircut after school and one of my first-graders came into the barbershop,” he says. “I wished I had a book to give him.” A light bulb came on. Why couldn't barbershops—community touchstones in Black communities—also create fun reading experiences for kids?

This was the seed of Barbershop Books—the nonprofit Irby founded to improve reading opportunities for Black boys via neighborhood barbershops. To be fair, Irby wasn't entirely new to the idea of reading advocacy. He'd learned in an accelerated high school English class that reading could be transformative, inspiring him to develop a reading incentive program as student council president. But Barbershop Books was something new… a way to meet kids where they are and infuse reading into their everyday experiences.

Despite the fundraising struggles inherent to Black-led nonprofits, Barbershop Books has achieved escape velocity, reaching 15,000-plus children annually. Irby has a footprint in nearly 300 barbershops and intends to scale up, in the next five years, to 2,500—while also expanding his award-winning AI-enabled EdTech platform, Reading So Lit. He's been recognized by major media outlets and the National Book Foundation, he's been named a CNN Hero, and his TED Talk on inspiring lifelong readers has over a million views. “For me,” Irby says, “this is freedom work. Reading frees children to realize their full potential.”