40 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY NOVEMBER 20-26, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com FACE TO FACE Ayo Banjo readily references philosophical texts, but he can also simplify his thinking into darkness and light, and the 26-year-old is making his life and work about promoting the light. He grew up in Southern California, and moved to Santa Cruz to attend UCSC where he ran successfully for student body president as a freshman, then founded a campus chapter of the NAACP. Now he works at The Village Project in Seaside, managing an initiative promoting youth mental health. The young people he works with developed the campaign “Break the stigma, not your vibe,” and Banjo is open about sharing his deeply personal experience with youth mental illness. When he was 12, he lost his 16-year-old sister to suicide. Survivors of Suicide Loss Day is Nov. 22, but for Banjo, telling the story and honoring his sister’s memory is not just once a year. He shared his own story of suicide loss at the California Capitol, providing testimony in support of Senate Bill 1004, which, among other things, increases mental health interventions for college students and was signed into law in 2018. Weekly: You talk about people who bring light, and you seem to me to exude that yourself. Banjo: I think it comes from my own experience of trauma, and a house that had a lot of abuse. What I witnessed in my own home helped me build the character to withstand random attacks. Either you bring people to light, or they bring you into dark—I don’t think neutral exists. You have studied the work of major philosophers underlying your ideas. Gandhi talked about the power of wielding the force of truth. To me, that force is visibility—the Me Too movement, Black Lives Matter movement, abortion rights movement—these are all movements around visibility, saying “See me, see my dignity.” That is the power of the truth. Exposure alone will transform the person. There is a force to truth. When visibility comes to light, goodness will consume the darkness. Does that apply to the Break the Stigma campaign you are working on, increasing visibility? People are given propaganda that this is what it means to live a good life, or have value in society. Those value associations need to be broken—value should be based off your relationship to yourself. Destigmatizing means taking away the shame, fear or taboo, whether it’s depression or thoughts of self-harm. Through visibility you can feel like you’re not alone, we can figure this out together. You have experienced a loss to suicide, which you talk about openly. I think about how I wasn’t willing to share with the world my pain. I pushed everything away. I was thinking, I have to be strong, I can’t be crying. It took years to realize my vulnerability is not my weakness, my vulnerability is my strength. How did that transformation play out for you? The transformation was all about taking that pain and turning it into power. If I don’t take that pain and turn it into a mission it’s going to turn into revenge—either I get sucked into the darkness or I somehow transcend it. I went to the Capitol and talked about my sister not having the resources [to intervene and support her mental health needs]. I realized: Your story is so powerful, it can literally create legislation and a movement. If everyone knew that, we would be in a much different world. You talk a lot about the intellectual realm. Did you do anything more practical—like therapy—to transform your grief? I have been to therapy and a lot of what therapy has taught me is those conversations you have in your head help determine who you end up becoming. Every passing thought is not me. Thoughts happen—they come and go. You propagate the thoughts you do want. It’s like that pizza line in [the online game] Club Penguin when you have to put on all the toppings before pizza falls into the bucket—you can just let the pizza pass and then wait for the next. As UCSC student body president, you led an initiative to raise $500,000 for homeless students. I want students to expand their imagination. Student government can do more than host a concert. Normalization of goodness is the key. It should not be a thing you are reaching for—it should be as common as air. I am just trying to show up and do good. We don’t need a cookie for operating how the world is supposed to be operating. Seeing the Light Ayo Banjo believes everyone deserves to thrive, and visibility into the darkest corners helps us get there. By Sara Rubin “I have witnessed darkness and I can still sit here and say, those are not the majority,” says The Village Project’s Ayo Banjo, who manages a youth mental health project for the Seaside nonprofit. “The majority is light.” DANIEL DREIFUSS GLAMOUR GIRL What a face! Want a little glamour in your life? Meet Puma! This 11 year old beauty is looking for love and companionship. You two should meet! You have a home and a lot of love to give; she has lots of love to give in return, but no home. Won’t you make a date with this glamour girl today? She’ll change your life! Learn more about enchanting Puma at www.gocatrescue.org and fill out an adoption form while you are there. Ad Sponsored by Dianna and Bella Hattori Will you support us to help cats like Puma during Monterey County Gives? montereycountygives.com/cats 831.200.9232 PO Box 683 Monterey, CA 93942 www.gocatrescue.org
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