LOS ANGELES _ "How many times as black men have we heard something before and had to bite our tongues?"
DeRon Cash, his tattooed forearms resting on his knees, curled a paperback revered by the late Nipsey Hussle in his hand. He didn't really mean it as a question _ and the other black men huddled around a coffee table in Boyle Heights knew not to answer.
Once a month, Cash and a group of men come together for The Marathon Book Club _ one of several chapters across the country that were founded after Hussle was killed outside his South Los Angeles clothing store in March.
In the aftermath of his death, fans grasped for ways to honor him. Some made the pilgrimage to his shop off Slauson Avenue. Others painted his face in bright hues on the sides of buildings.
A 31-year-old fan from Wisconsin created a meme listing all of the books that Hussle had mentioned in interviews, songs and motivational messages that she had been compiling for years. It includes self-help bestsellers, cult classics and little-known books by black authors.
The list went viral.
Now, almost a year later, 74 black men and two Latinos make up the four chapters of The Marathon Book Club. They meet monthly in Oakland, New York and Washington, D.C., in addition to L.A., to discuss the books that motivated Hussle.
They include professors, entrepreneurs, corporate executives, investment bankers and at least one former athlete. Of those in Los Angeles, they have bachelor's degrees, master's degrees in business and doctorates from historically black colleges, private schools and state public universities.
All those fancy titles and statuses are left at the door, though. There's no posturing or pretensions. In this circle, the men can remove the masks that they have to wear in the world. Here, they can be themselves.
And on this warm summer morning, as so often happens, the book club quickly turned into therapy.
