Structure

The excerpt from Will Jawando’s memoir My Seven Black Fathers: A Young Activist’s Memoir of Race, Family, and the Mentors who Made Him Whole contains a part of the author’s introduction to the memoir and presents some of the main ideas, offering at the same time a personal example from Jawando’s childhood. 

The title My Seven Black Fathers: A Young Activist’s Memoir of Race, Family, and the Mentors who Made Him Whole is informative. The readers expect that the writer will share memories about the people who have influenced his formative years. The excerpt focuses specifically on one of these people, Kalfani Hogg, an important mentor and friend to Jawando during his middle school years. 

The excerpt from the memoir can be divided into three main parts. The first part provides a context for the personal experiences the writer will describe in the main part. The second part is the story of Jawando’s friendship with Kalfani. In third part the writer conveys the message and draws some concl...