In 2019, 48 engaged, passionate and hopeful young South Africans collaborated with me, resulting in a series of 50 works of art titled 'Attached to the Soil'.

I am not a citizen of South Africa; I am a citizen of the United States of America. However, I was privileged to serve in your country for seven months in 2019, as I travelled through all nine provinces, as a US Fulbright Scholar hosted by the Tshwane University of Technology and Nelson Mandela University.

After this experience, as South Africa celebrates Youth Day in 2022, I feel morally bound to share the deeply held aspirations of the South African youth who I listened to and collaborated with. In that year, 48 engaged, passionate and hopeful young people collaborated with me, resulting in a series of 50 works of art titled Attached to the Soil, which will be displayed in art galleries of the Durban University of Technology, Nelson Mandela University, North-West University, Stellenbosch University, University of the Free State and University of Pretoria in August and September.

Each work speaks to the aspirations of the youth collaborator, expressed in their choice of a soil-related metaphor, and to the realities of the lives...