The Golden Thread: The Value in Sharing Our Stories Across Continents

In July of 2021, I had the honor to serve as faculty for the University of Iowa International Writing Program. The 2021 students were journalists, physicians, artists, filmmakers, and authors who live and work in six different time zones across the African continent. The common thread was a passion for writing about health and health-related stories in all genres. Please See Me’s mission of elevating the voices and health-related stories of vulnerable populations and those who care for them around the world had found yet another group with a similar mission. This Summer Supplement is dedicated to the work of this accomplished cohort.

During our time together, I learned more deeply about the health-related and social issues impacting the lives of not only our group but also those who live, work, and love throughout this region of the world through the stories they workshopped, class discussions and one-on-one office hours. We gathered in support of one another’s art and supported one another through life experiences along the way.

Filmmaker and author, Jude Idada, whose short story The Monks of Iwu is featured in this issue, suggested I watch the Netflix film 93 days early in our month together to learn more about what public health looks like in Nigeria. The truth-based dramatic film covers 93 days of care at First Consultants Medical Center in Lagos, and the selfless strategies used by healthcare professionals who lost their lives while successfully preventing an ebola outbreak in 2014. I came to understand that Nigeria is one of the most populated countries in the world with a recent Pew Research Center report stating more than half of all people in the world live in just seven countries—Nigeria being one of them as home to 219 million people and with an obvious influence on world health given the frequency of global travel in and out of the country.

I truly believe programs in the arts, like University of Iowa’s International Writing Program which gathers accomplished individuals across continents and cultures, can be the catalyst for healthy societies within our increasingly connected global co-existence. Networking is just as important in adult education programs as is the learning, and this proved to be an excellent opportunity to expand all our networks in both healthcare and the arts. For example, I am an active participant in the World Health Organization Patients for Patient Safety and was able to reinforce the struggles voiced by my students through their stories – with COVID-19 and with women’s health specifically – during our meetings. As a result of working with my IWP students, I chose Women’s Health as the theme for Issue #10 of Please See Me.

Contained within this Issue you will find universal health-related themes running throughout each genre, which further reinforces how similar our human experiences are despite the unique details of our day-to-day existence. In creative nonfiction, Araba Ofori–Acqual reinforces the need to treat the patient versus throw drugs at a disease, and Franka-Maria Andoh reminds us wellness is truly All in the Details of how we prioritize our own health while caring for others. In fiction, our authors explore mental illness and wellness, healing that comes from nature and a belief in oneself and community, the complexities of love, marriage and relationships, and the real struggle of women and communities to get access to the care needed. In poetry, our Guest Editor, Nkateko Masinga reads blue for boy, her ode to an infant, one of ten lost to the same hospital acquired infection and inspired by a local news story, Ololade Ajayi reads her hopeful and self-actualizing, Collars of Worry. Take note too, of the local artwork commissioned by Franka Andoh, one of the pieces included in the header of this page.

And finally, it is with the greatest thanks that I acknowledge Nkateko Masinga, our talented Guest Editor for the Summer Supplement. It was her dedication while managing her patients and obligations as a physician that not only ensured this Issue came to fruition, but which also truly inspired me at a time I most needed it. I’m also grateful to Pamela Marston, who designed and oversaw this project at the IWP, for having been given the opportunity to work with this entire group, and to exchange ideas and stories with them. This program nurtures and honors the power of story where we can find and develop connection—with ourselves and others around the world—at a time the world feels increasingly disconnected in the most important ways.

Tracy Granzyk is the editor in chief of Please See Me.

Header image credit: Untitled by Kojo Kagyah and commissioned by Franka Andoh.
The piece represents the start of a working day for a young mother.