Hello from Londontown, where I find myself officially starting my summer antics for the 2026 season. And where I’ve found inspiration for this week's compilation episode. From an early episode with crime writer, Leye Adenle, to last year’s conversation with activist and social entrepreneur, Lavinya Stennett, we’ll hear a range of Pan-African perspectives on how London is local for these guests--all of which happen to also be writers.

Serial entrepreneur, investor and author of We Don’t Need Permission: How Black Business Can Change Our World, Eric Collins shares perspectives as an immigrant from the US to the UK. Lawyer, international development consultant, journalist, politician and author of Love Does Not Win Elections, Ayisha Osori helps us to understand home as presence. Award-winning author of Easy Motion Tourist, with a forthcoming new series due to launch this year with Fall From Grace, Leye Adenle shares about his London before experiencing it as a writer. As a lux-preneur herself, award-winning luxury business consultant, Elizabeth Solaru, author of best-selling book, Opulencia and LUXpreneur: How to start and build a successful luxury brand, is taking us along in her experiences transitioning from a career in the sciences to business. Architect, artist, and multi-faceted creative, Robertson Ahomka-Lindsay shares how his talents from design to music helped to give his London life an artisic flair. And finally, founder of The Black Curriculum, fimmaker and author of Omitted: The Untold Black History Lessons We Need to Change the Future, Lavinya Stennett helps us to understand effective organizing techniques for impact.

If you haven’t already settled in, mind the gap and take a seat on this Tube ride through London.

Where to find full conversations and show notes from episodes with this week’s guests?
Eric Collins
Ayisha Osori
Leye Adenle
Elizabeth Solaru
Robertson Ahomka-Lindsay
Lavinya Stennett

Soundscape:
Sounds Like a Train on YouTube

Special Guests: Ayisha Osori, Elizabeth Solaru, Eric Collins, Lavinya Stennett, Leye Adenle, and Robertson Ahomka-Lindsay.

We’re picking up more momentum toward African progress sharing the stories of dynamic diasporans making impact in the reparatory justice space. On the eve of Africa Day, I attended the premier screening of Omitted, a short film exploring reparatory justice and the legacies of colonialism by Lavinya Stennett, founder of The Black Curriculum. Raised in the UK with Jamaican roots, she founded The Black Curriculum in 2019 at age 22 shortly after finishing her studies at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) which included a study abroad program in New Zealand. Her learning and experience with indigenous communities in New Zealand joined with her activism as a student at SOAS are the framework for the craft of truthtelling that is at the core of The Black Curriculum.

Believing in the power of education, social impact and youth social entrepreneurship, her work has been recognised globally from Vogue and GQ to the historic Freedom of the City of London Award in 2024. She also has written on social and cultural themes throughout the African diaspora for outlets including the Guardian, Black Ballad, Quartz Africa.

Expanding her entrpreneurship journey, in 2024 Lavinya co-founded the Racial Impact Collective, an initiative supporting social entrepreneurs and seeking equity in the grant making world. The future is brighter with knowing that there is a generation fo social innovators with creative talents like Lavinya committed to justice for marginalized peoples.

Where to find Lavinya?
https://www.lavinyastennett.co.uk
TheBlackCurriculum.com
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook
On YouTube

What’s Lavinya reading?
Material World by Ed Conway
Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi

Other topics of interest:
Portland and Saint Thomas, Jamaica
Barbados and the Welcome Stamp Visa - Note: the capital is Bridgetown, not Christ Church
The SOAS Walter Rodney Prize
Dream New Scholarship
Univrsity of Waikato
About the Treaty of Waitangi and the latest on the [protest haka in the New Zealand’s Parliament seen around the globe](linkhttps://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/6/5/new-zealand-parliament-suspends-maori-mps-who-performed-protest-haka)
About Omitted production partner, Transmission
About Peace First

Special Guest: Lavinya Stennett.