Writing with Juliet Iwelunmor

I have been thinking lately about how we listen and learn from communities. Couple of weeks ago, I was in a room full of experts who noted that young people as a group do not have the right to speak for themselves about things that matter to them like their health. Imagine, in 2024, we are still debating if young people are expert of their own health. Thankfully yesterday’s post helped to validate my arguments that young people have a voice that we cannot ignore when it comes to their health. Then while scrolling down X, I came across another series of post, from a commentary that was rejected that simply noted how “we do not deserve to be called global health” here. Their argument, “the ones who benefit for the field are us, and with our apathetic stance, we conduct our trials, advance our careers” and ultimately remain silent in the face of inhumanity. Then as if on cue, I went to my email and saw a post from the Healthiest GoldFish which reminded us here that “a community should always be a place where no one ever feels like they cannot speak because they may have an opinion that falls outside the majority.”

After reading all this, I left wondering, who then is left listening and learning from communities. Tempers are currently high and flaring high across many universities as we slowly come to the end of this school term. Many are speaking and feeling as if no one is listening. My two cents, we owe it to everyone to listen. We also need to know and in the words of Audre Lorde, that “our silence will never protect us.” We are humanity’s best kept beauty. All the beauty in world belongs first to us if only we take the time to see, listen and learn from each other.

I ended the day gardening, something I have not done in awhile. To open up earth, one dig at a time, see the worms nourishing the soil, then lay down seeds or roots and cover it with manure, is to take the time to listen and learn from communities. When you do, you will open up things comfortable, dig up things uncomfortable. You will pour out your own wisdom, see and hear theirs too and perhaps with grace, both you and the community will nourish each other like a manure for newly planted things. That to me is the essence of listening and learning from communities, we begin again anew, like seeds becoming one with earth, one with each other when we learn from each other. In these moments, we owe it to each other to listen and listen and learn and learn again.