As the world’s preeminent international organization, the United Nations is the only institution that can connect the multiple players and partners implicated in the global tragedy of the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans.

Placing sustainability at the centre of our mission to integrate research and knowledge production, excellence in teaching and engagement with public as well private entities presents a genuine opportunity to “think and do” the SDGs at NC State.

As is often the case, dedicated humanitarians, their legacies, intentions and influences are destined to converge at some point.

Earlier this year the National Urban League introduced our Main Street Marshall Plan: From Poverty to Prosperity—a detailed blueprint for economic development and institutional reform designed to transform impoverished neighbourhoods and structural inequities in America

I remember walking through the fields of the Canadian Plains on many occasions with my father. On one occasion, we were going to pick sweet grass blades that had pink roots and a distinctively sweet smell. I observed that, prior to my father picking the first blade of sweet grass, he reached into his tobacco pouch and grabbed a pinch, laid it on the ground beside the sweet grass he was about to pick, and closed his eyes as he made his offering to Mother Earth. The sincerity of the process was completely natural in that moment.