Alvin Irby is a former kindergarten teacher turned award-winning social entrepreneur, national speaker, comedian, and author.
He is Founder and Chief Reading Inspirer at Barbershop Books, a literacy program that creates child-friendly reading spaces in barbershops and provides early literacy training to barbers.
His work connecting reading to male-centered spaces and involving men in boys’ early reading experiences earned him the National Book Foundation’s 2017 Innovations in Reading Prize. Irby’s popular TED Talk “How to inspire every child to be a lifelong reader,” has been viewed over 1 million times.