University of Maine at Farmington student Sylvie Fenderson, left, and 2020 graduate Moninda Marube launched their discussion-based, livestream Facebook show Let’s Talk on June 30. Fenderson and Marube wanted to offer a platform to encourage conversation on current events and issues. Photo Courtesy of Sylvie Fenderson

FARMINGTON — University of Maine at Farmington  senior Sylvie Fenderson and 2020 graduate Moninda Marube have combined forces to host Let’s Talk, a discussion-based show that explores current events and issues from diverse perspectives.

“Let’s Talk, for me, is really about providing space for our guests and viewers to contribute to a collective conversation on the various challenges that our world is facing at the moment,” Fenderson said in an email. “We aren’t getting to chat with our peers face to face right now so there is a need for those conversations to take shape in different forms.”

The show uses Facebook as a platform to livestream the discussion between guests that meet virtually to contribute to topics such as being a teacher in the fall of 2020 and equity in education. Guests so far have included UMF students and professionals from a variety of backgrounds from economics to secondary education.

“Through creating this show, we’ve been hoping to provide one of those new formats for people to engage with, other than scrolling through their social media feed,” Fenderson said. “Though we are using social media as our platform, I think the 40-minute video format asks viewers to slow down from their typical quick scroll through Facebook and participate with intention.”

The concept of Let’s Talk was first envisioned by Marube who had been reflecting on personal experiences and the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests in May and June that were taking place in Auburn, where he has resided since schools shut down in March.

“Protests will always help as much as they can help to see for systemic changes, but the real change that needs to happen is the change of attitude, change of implicit biases that we have in us that have accumulated for a very long time that some of us do without even knowing,” Marube said in a phone interview.

Marube provided an example of implicit bias that he experienced in Auburn while shopping at a supermarket. The woman in front of him at the checkout line was removing items from her cart because she could not pay her bill. Marube tried to offer the woman the remainder of money that she needed, but she refused to take it.

“The first thing when she looked at me was, ‘y’know, I think you need that $20 more than I do.’ I don’t know what she used to guess that, but I said, ‘yeah you’re right, I need this more than you do, but at this particular moment you need this more than I do,'” Marube said.

After discussing the situation with the woman further, she accepted Marube’s $20 to pay for her groceries.

“There’s that perception that a Black person cannot help a white person,” Marube said. “Or, you if you are white, you cannot approach a Black person and ask for help if you are starving because there is that feeling that Black people are not sufficient enough to offer any kind of help.”

After analyzing moments such as these, Marube said that he felt like it was high time for people to come together for a conversation, but he didn’t want to initiate Let’s Talk alone. He approached Fenderson, his longtime friend from UMF who he described as very smart and a go-getter.

“I also wanted to bring the aspect of I’m Black and she’s white, and so we’re having a kind of cross-cultural conversation,” Marube said.

Together, they launched their first episode June 30 about diversity and how people experience differences in society.

Fenderson brings her experience of growing up in Freeport, her time spent farming organically and her background in environmental policy and planning and international studies.

“There is no doubt that every time I engage in thoughtful conversations like the ones we’ve been having, I gain new ways of framing my thinking and see different areas where I feel I want to learn more,” Fenderson said.

Marube, who is working on an autobiography, brings a wealth of contrasting experiences to the table from his upbringing in rural Kenya to his international career as a runner.

There are many parallels between Marube’s two projects Let’s Talk and his book which discusses the concept of success as only attainable through education.

“I grew up in the rural of Kenya in an environment that could be best described as below poverty lines. As a young child growing up in a society that emphasized on the essence of education as a gateway to success, it was very clear that I wasn’t going to succeed unless I redefined what success was meant to me,” Marube said. “Since to attain education meant have money to pay for tuition and other amenities, I had to shelve education so that I could first find that money. The only avenue available for me would be through running.”

Marube is now applying his personal history that he’s writing about in his book such as his childhood in Kenya, his struggle to immigrate to the United States and falling victim to human labor trafficking to offer a unique perspective to the conversations taking place in Let’s Talk.

Recordings of Let’s Talk and upcoming episodes can be accessed on the show’s Facebook page.