Category: The Journey
-
Keep these STARS!
Our NIAID-funded STARS summer program began yesterday, with many new faces wondering what it’s like to become STARS. We shared our stories, we gave them a bit of context and opened up the door on what it means to be STARS. Today, we sat through a masterclass on the landscape of HIV research in the…
Written by
·
-
Keep the depths of rain and Stars!
When rain falls, dreams go up. But memories still linger in all places. Dreams too, when you touch rain. We are closing out Cohort 1 of our STARS scholars program, closing out what can only be described as as a year full of hopes and impediments. Yet, we are here and perhaps this was the…
Written by
·
-
Keep the lessons of cicadas!
We saw the limits of everything, for cicadas, saw them delicate like old skin, shedding their innermost being. They would give anything, it seems, as they suckle on the trunk of trees, to live. Now I see why rest, even if for 13 years, is the beginning of everything. I pray nothing, not even the…
Written by
·
-
Keep blessing the boats or what I call Onyelo!
I see the tide clearly. I know the edge of understanding too. Both have carried me out, beyond fear, through right paths and in a darkness so deep. We have been kissed, like a morning star and the wind has turned. We find ourselves near pools of fresh water. We are certain that water loves…
Written by
·
-
Keep motherhood as a site of resistance!
These thoughts came to me this evening. They are unfolding but for now, happen you tell the dreams that outlive you. Those that cause your blood to surge, those that form countries of their own. Motherhood is like a country, with powerful roots that take shape on their own, discovering the point of light, the…
Written by
·
-
Keep the beginning of Nnem&Nnem at Korede house (or why motherhood matters)!
The second paper I authored as I began my academic journey highlighted the need to focus on the role of mothers with health. It’s the first paper that centers the primacy of mothers for health and life. It’s also began my journey into understanding the full spectrum of mothers, how we are not only birth…
Written by
·
-
Keep dream, like flowers, like grants that begin again!
We are writing grants again. We began on Monday to prep for what maybe the start of a journey toward returning home. For the past 15 years all my grants have been global, focused on my birth country Nigeria. Lately, and because home is really Saint Louis, really the US, as I have spent most…
Written by
·
-
Keep the love for writing with children!
My daughter writes. Not things simple, like “How are you,” but things complex like “I am well and I hope the same for you given these moments we find ourselves in.” Everything she writes is like an epiphany of sorts, of what can happen when you teach the love for writing early. Each sentence, each…
Written by
·
-
Keep listening and learning from communities!
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…
Written by
·
-
Keep listening and learning from young people!
Young people do not need adult-centric rules. They need you to see them in all their diversity. To listen and learn from them to. Not as afterthought. Not with limited voices. But with wisdom and grace for the lives they lead. I have always known young people to be creative, resourceful, with informed ideas that…
Written by
·
-
Keep this joy!
The joy of so many days by the ocean, have burrowed deeply within my soul. And my heart is so full of grace and gratitude, so full of blaze, so full of grace and gratitude, for dreams, so deeply fought, so dazzling in display, are like these days by the ocean. I have been staring…
Written by
·
-
Keep smiling!
Tonight I smiled. Maybe it’s the life. Maybe it’s the joy thing. Maybe it’s you. Everything thing with life is better with you. That’s why we celebrate you. Happy Birthday Ronke! We wish many many more.
Written by
·
Writing with Juliet Iwelunmor 