We celebrate entrepreneurs for the things they do right. But often the stage for success is set by all that happens when things go wrong, when mistakes seem impossible to bounce back from and hurdles insurmountable.
This is the truth that propels Manuel and Geiszel Godoy, Army veterans who founded Black Sands Entertainment, a multiplatform publishing company focused on strong Black characters and history. Black Sands, which began as a video game and then became a comic-book series before moving to graphic novels, builds its products around one central question: Who gets to be a hero?
In answering it, the company looks back in time to craft historical stories in which Africans and members of the African diaspora thrive. “No more slave stories. It’s time for kings,” says Manuel Godoy. “The media has their own idea of what’s appropriate Black history to talk about. Your kids need to know they had a great past. … A white kid grows up and he has all these people who came from nothing and became the emperor. What do Black people have, according to the American school system? It’s not a high standard for your life.”
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