Writing with Juliet Iwelunmor

We are living in an age of spectacle within some spaces, one where the goals are no longer formalized curiosity but a desire to inflict pain and shame where necessary. Not only are we not engaged as humans, some of us are profoundly evil, unable to discriminate between shock or empathy. The danger of a single story is real. But our work is not dark. It is infused with light and what they keep forgetting is that this light can never be hidden. So understanding the motives of people, both wicked and benign, requires only a suspension of belief in what people will do and people will spill blood if they have to. It is for this reason we are in an age of spectacle, one where many people are intellectually deficient, unaccustomed to rules and only focused on inflicting pain.

We cannot count on spectacle to heal. We cannot count on it to transform or even be for social justice. We cannot even count on spectacle to focus truly on equity when nothing about spectacle is equitable. Rather, spectacle will damage, alter and distort the concepts of justice, equity, healing, transformation, light. The more transparent the darkness, the holier the schemes. The more arrogant the claims, the more discredited the words from even so-called chief officers of hope and higher glory. The question becomes how and when can we end things, so dreams are real.

See grants I believe allows a certain freedom, encourages ways to experience certain spaces in ways very few are accustomed to. It also frees you from spectacle. It tries to illuminate and uncover where power lies within these spaces. It is also the point of this pivot. I move on knowing still nothing can take my power. I move on looking forward to reimagine something so profound and sterling as global health not as a spectacle but a reality. It won’t be lip service. There won’t be 5 people in our rooms. Rather it would be path breaking and grants and our new space will lead us here and now. The power of this grants as stories, process that I created, the power not easily replicated by those that steal and invade privacy, the power that does not arise from lies, gaslighting, tiresome, wasteful art of evil is what motivates me still. That and a future that is free from spectacle, a brilliant art of dreams.

All the above were inspired by the late great Toni Morrison who warned us about the age of spectacle in her book source of self-regard. Read it and know peace.