Being Villagers Together

by Catherine Morris

So many of us view the new year as a fresh start or a clean slate. While we look forward to new opportunities and all that 2026 will bring, I’m grateful for one thing I know will remain constant this year: our community and the sense of fellowship and belonging that come along with it.

The end of 2025 reminded us at the Media Education Lab that community is a practice that holds us when the world feels heavy. In late December, we gathered for the year’s final “Together We Rise” meeting, and we reflected on the theme of societal violence and specifically, the recent violence at Brown University. The invitation was simply to be present with one another. Many of us arrived with mixed emotions, including grief, gratitude, fatigue, care, and uncertainty.

What emerged was a powerful reminder: the Media Education Lab is a community in the true sense of the word. Our community is built on listening, trust, and the willingness to show up as we are. When we pause to check in and listen to one another, we make space for our humanity; we allow ourselves to take a break from an environment that so often pushes speed, certainty, and distance.

In thinking and talking about community, there’s a saying that in order to have a village, you must be a villager. As villagers, we show up for one another in environments of ease and productivity and when things are tender, confusing, or unfinished. We offer care and allow ourselves to receive it in return. We know that a village requires us to co-create the communities to which we belong.

One of our lab members shares how her neighbors in Minneapolis are living this principle. The increased presence of federal agents has led many to shelter in place in fear of being targeted for their ethnic identity. Neighbors have shown up for one another, offering assistance in any way that they can. It is a true example of how to offer care and allow ourselves to receive it in return.

The Media Education Lab strives to create a space where people can contribute their expertise, questions, and ideas and where people can arrive as they are, without performance or pretense. Offering quality content matters to us greatly, but so does connection.

This first issue of the MediaEd Insight is another step in the direction of joining education with community. In the last newsletter of each month, the MediaEd Insight will offer an additional collection of content that will feature the many unique areas of expertise and interest of our community members. We are thrilled to be highlighting a variety of voices and opportunities to come together in new ways.

As we begin this year, we’re holding close the lesson that community is a practice worth sustaining. It requires intention, generosity, and courage. Communities like ours remind us that we are not alone, and that we don’t have to navigate difficult moments by ourselves.

Thank you for being villagers with us by showing up, by listening, and by helping make the Media Education Lab a community worth being part of. We look forward to continuing this work, together.