Bakita Kasadha is a writer, researcher and poet. She is a Black woman living with HIV and as a health activist holds different national and international advisory roles. Her recently completed dissertation critiques and challenges knowledge production at the research level, and asks important questions about who is and is not involved in research that aims to uplift and support at-risk and marginalised communities.

---

We explore the problematising of Blackness, the laziness of those who call Black and other marginalised communities hard to reach and how top-down approaches to health research, that do not contextualise lived experiences, limit the success of interventions and can even cost lives. She believes health researchers, medical practitioners and funding bodies should be ethically engaging communities in the shaping, delivery and involvement of healthcare initiatives.

---

We open with Bakita’s reading of her poem, Numbers Game.

---

Busy Being Black is the podcast exploring how we live in the fullness of our queer Black lives and Theory in the Flesh is made possible with funding from the British Podcast Awards fund and Wellcome Trust. Please show your support for Busy Being Black, by taking a few minutes to share your feedback at podcastviews.com.

---

Thank you to our partners, UK Black Pride, BlackOut UK and Schools Out.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices