Hmmmm....

I'm sitting in Newark Airport waiting to get on my flight. Turns out I missed my flight by a day...I've got this thing where sometimes I see things on paper but it doesn't register. For some reason I had it in my brain I was leaving on Tuesday but returning on Wednesday...I knew something seemed strange about it but man, there has been so much on my mind...so I missed my flight and had to buy a totally new ticket to get to Copenhagen. Don't ask.
The SAS ticket guy was a real jerk. I loved the woman at British Airways who helped me out. She couldn't give me a discount, but hey, they got me on a flight so that I can see my son...whom I miss immensely.
This is the first time I have been to New York and not that cool about leaving...
Anyway...what a trip. As I sit in the airport CNN is on and I overhear that they will execute the DC Sniper...they describe how they will do so, lethal injection. As I sit in the U.S....they are about to execute a man.
On my drive to the airport, as I looked at the vast expanse of land that is the East Coast I couldn't help thinking how much I love this country. I know the U.S. has its idiosynchrocies (how do you spell that flippin word?)--if execution could be termed that...but there is something about the potential of this country that really gets me. I mean, there is something wonderful about the diversity of New York, and trust me, I know New York is not your typical U.S. city...but to be honest, I have traveled around the U.S. a bit and Americans are well...just nice. We, like many others around the globe, can be so open and warm...
So, cause I had to buy a new ticket, they had to "select" me for "special screening" which ended up being my being jetted up to √the front of the line, through security and so I didn't have to wait on the god-awful line...
I have had an amazing trip. I have taken some fabulous pictures and have walked the path of my childhood. I must now return to Copenhagen to finish up what I have started but man, if I live long enough, I'm going to make New York City my base and travel from here...the truth is I never want to stay one place. But when i go home, I really want it be the Big Apple.
And for the record...I am so against the death penalty.

Reflections On New York...

It's early morning on the day I am to depart. I'm sitting here, in Marie's living room, listening as Harlem slowly wakes up. There's the distant sounds of trucks rolling down silent streets, the sound of the steam sighing out of the radiators. There is, believe it or not, relative quiet about me. W.154th Street, Sugar Hill, is a very quiet street. And in this quiet, I want to take a moment to express my gratitude.
I am thankful for Marie Brown. I first met Marie in 1996, I believe. Back then her office was at 625 Broadway. She's a literary agent and even after sending her a crooked resume, she hired me. I worked with her for four years, meeting countless literary unsung legends. Lately, when I come home to New York, it with her I stay.
I would like to express my thanks to my friend Rayner. Rayner Ramirez is my old buddy from college. He is now a producer at NBC, but no matter where life seems to take us, when we're together the laughter rolls out like a red carpet to life, reminding us, "What's the problem anyway? Life is good!" I've had the most intense neck pain, and last night, as I lay on the living room floor barely able to open my eyes, my buddy made time to come and see me, rub my back and tell me he loves me. I love him too. Again, I have the best friends.
Then there is the Old School Fluxers. There's Morgan Meis, Toshi Yano, Stephanie Goldber (Shuffy), Jason Brown, Jason Braun...I went to college with them all (except Brown) and then participated in the insane artistic living experiment at 210A Kent Avenue. Actually, to be fair, it wasn't insane, I enjoyed communal living. But the bottom line is, when I'm around these guys, I'm well, myself in a way that I rarely experience in Copenhagen...sigh.
Karen Good is up there on the sisterhood list. I always describe our first meeting at a Brandy party (yes, the singer Brandy, remember her?) as that scene in West Side Story when Tony and Maria first lay eyes on each other. Karen Good is one of the most gifted writers I know and again, as is the case with all my friends here, when we get together the laughter rolls out like thunder, reminding us to stop thinking. And we are pretty cerebral...
Debbie Cowell is another sister who is mad talented and a fellow Brooklyn girl. I met her through Marie at 625 Broadway back in the day. We became friends the moment we both said we were from Brooklyn. Cause it's like that. I told Debbie the other day that most people travel and come back different people, Debbie? She traveled the world and came back even more Debbie. And that's a good thing.
John McGregor! I call John Don Quixote cause John used to go around Manhattan and introduce himself as a literary agent. Now, I'm not saying that John is not a literary agent, cause he did end up selling the definitive book on Zora Neale Hurston, but what I am saying is that there were many years he wasn't selling anything lol. John was the one who hooked me up with Marie. John is the only brother I know who would invite you out to dinner and then you still end up paying half. Unless it's me and somehow, like the other night, we end up getting the other table to pay for the meal. Don't ask--but it was legal. John may have saved my life yet again--I've had the worst neck pain the last four days, and he hooked me up with his girl Soli, a reflexologist and I saw her yesterday. You know what she told me? No one can ever abandon you but yourself. She said she does not think to think but thinks to do. That woman dropped mad science as I melted under her touch. And by the way John, if you're reading this, Don Quixote is my favorite book of all time.
Then there's Lisa Davis! Another woman I met through Marie...Lisa and I can talk books and writing (in fact, this is probably the common thread with all my homies) and Lisa is one of the few where we have managed to maintain a dialogue while I live in Copenhagen and I am so thankful for that. And I'll say to the rest of yall yall need to get skype!
I know I'm missing people...but I wanted to start with this. This is my family. These are the people who have sustained me when I had no one else. These people started off as strangers, but let me in. Thank you guys. Thank you. I am nothing without you.

The Love of My Life...

Escaping New York

Sometimes when you have to accept a reality, and deal with a reality, you end up stifling other possibilities if only because their presence could be painful. When I left New York, almost 11 years ago, I was ready to leave. Most true-New Yorkers, and by true, I mean those of us who were either born and/or grew up in this magical area of the world have a love/hate relationship with this city. A friend once said that living in New York is like being in a dysfunctional relationship: you know you should get out, but you stay...
So escaping New York was for me, and quite a few other, fellow New Yorkers quite a victory. Let me explain. You ever heard that expression: the city that never sleeps? Well, it's not an exaggeration. There is always something to do here. Take for example this past Wednesday night--the city was just as alive as if it were a weekend. Even in Brooklyn. But the problem is, what happens with most things when it doesn't get any sleep? It gets this delirious from sleep-deprivation. New York is like that...the delirious energy is not always good for someone like me: But God, I love it.
New Yorkers are so friendly. My battery went out in my camera yesterday and this guy in the camera store charged it for me. As my girl Debbie and I eat at Caravan of Dreams, the young lady sitting and writing our side begins to chat with us. The cab-driver from Southern India turns his music up when Rayner and I tell him we that we dig it. The Korean cab driver the other night grabs my hand as I exit the cab, looks me in the eyes and says, "Take care."
I know that I am looking at New York with smitten eyes. But it is a powerful thing to experience the power of coming home. I will always be a New Yorker. Brooklyn girl first, of course, but a New Yorker never-the-less.
farvel,
the lab

Major Paradigm Shift

Who said you can't go home again?
Last night, through an uneventful flight from Paris, I landed for the umpteenth time, at JFK International Airport. It is an airport I have passed through innumerable times but this time, for some reason, it feels different.
First of all, it is the first time I am home in 9 years without my son. It is my first time home, in 9 years as just, well, Lesley-Ann. The other thing is, I have purposely made no airport pick-up arrangements just so that I could ease myself back into the harmonic cacophony that is New York City...
At the train station, as I wait for the E train, I am entertained by large groups of teenagers: It is Halloween, and youngsters are, by the droves, headed into the city for the annual Halloween Day Parade. A racial hodgepodge of kids take the seat opposite me on the train: there's white-faced chocolate boys with ghoulish make-up and fish-net attired young Latinas dresses as zombie nurses. I can't resist: Can I take your picture I ask? After all, this is New York and if there is nothing New York kids love more is having their picture taken. I'll post the pic soon ;-)
As I am rumble through the city of my birth, I wonder, how could I ever have left? I recognized myself in everyone I see: the teenage Guatamalan mother, the thick-thighed girl who yells, "What the blood Clot!" The elderly Korean mother who rests her head on the shoulders of her daughter, the brothers hanging out on the corner who yell after me, "What up Sis?" How could I ever have left? The cultural tyranny I feel myself subjected to in a foreign land melts away and reveals a Lesley-Ann who is whole, who is fixed, who is me.
Who ever said you can't go home again?

This Just In...

Check out my latest interview with Uptown Social!

Gil Scott-Heron

My relationship with Gil Scott-Heron is deep, complicated and old. His genius and artistry has never failed to amaze me. And whenever I saw him live, I always knew I was getting the best of what he has: no matter where in his life he, or even I for that matter, had happened to be in. I remember seeing Gil Scott-Heron play a show, I think it was at the Knitting Factory, but anyway, his telling the audience that his moms was sick, and how he left after the show and ended up standing right next to us in the train station, taking the same train uptown and my being like, damn, that's Gil Scott-Heron...Gil Scott-Heron to me is wisdom for the soul.
Real life is complicated: And Gil Scott-Heron never ever tried to tell us differently.
So, Blackgirl on Mars would like to express a personal welcome back to the Griot: You've been missed! Here's a taste of his new stuff! Thanks Malaika Adero for sending me this link!
Here's a quote from a Village Voice interview he gave a few years ago:
What about Black youth?
What about them?
What important challenges are they facing now?
Getting to be adults.
What's preventing them from doing that now?
Nothing. Except taxes. The money needs to be spent more on the things that will help them. In our community, we have a whole lotta of people that need help. We need better housing. We need better schools, relationships, and we need to socialize. We pay all these people to represent us. We pay their salaries. They are actually our employees.
farvel,
the lab

Brooklyn

Tree crowns
look like
mountain
tops
& sky lines
look
like ocean views,

deflated
men
exit OTB's

thier dreams
dismantled--
yesterday's news.

Mother sits
next to child
a wall
of hostility
in the air,
rocked by the
movement
of the train,
the child,
she doesn't
stare.

Project
boys
rig intercom
systems
love heavy on
thier hearts,
anything just
to ring her...

Recycling
bins sit
next to
Redemption
Centers,
Sundays the hats
as varied
as Africa

a laundry
basket
so full
it regurgitates
it's contents,

clothes
spill over
all over
the carpet,

horses
are metal
with the
glitziest
of rims
sneakers land
on concrete
hopscotch
next to
garbage bins.

Cardboard
smelling
streets
subways
of wet
metal
steam
whistles
constanly
out of a
forgotten
kettle.

a little
brown
girl
sits at
a shaky
kitchen table
the ripped
plastic
digs
into her
young skin
she eats
salt fish
and looks
out the
window
as a plastic
clock
bought on
Flatbush
chips
away at
her
lifetime.

Bandit Queen Press is Proud to Announce Its Second Title!

BANDIT QUEEN PRESS

ANNOUNCES THE RELEASE OF GOOD WORKS

A paperback collection of novel excerpts, short stories, memoirs, poems, song lyrics, original sketches, paintings
and photographs by English-speaking women living in Denmark.
GOOD WORKS can be purchased from ATHENEUM INTERNATIONAL BOOKSHOP, Nørregade 6, 1165 København K, tlf (45)33 126970. On-line orders at www.atheneum.dk
FOR ENGLISH SPEAKERS phone the store or email books@atheneum.dk with their request!!
Support Bandit Queen Press!

“Refreshingly varied, yet with a common thread….10 women, all accomplished writers, celebrate in 10 individual voices the expatriate experience - in prose, poetry, images and song. A valuable, and enjoyable, addition to the literature of displacement and assimilation.”
Heather Spears, award-winning Canadian poet

“To leave one's home country can be an exhilarating and even frightening adventure that cries out for expression. Good Works puts words to the expatriate experience in all its frustrations and all its exhilarations." Thomas E. Kennedy, author of The Copenhagen Quartet; Advisory Editor, The Literary Review

"Compelling writing: a refreshing collection ... leaves a wonderful taste on the literary palate."
Lennox Raphael, journalist, poet and playwright


Participating authors are:

Serena Rose Blossom

Anna Lia Bright

Lesley-Ann Brown

Colleen Calhoun

Diana Deverell

Linda Horowitz

Elaine Nielsen

Velda Metelmann

Clarice Scott

Aline Talatinian

The release of GOOD WORKS coincides with the 75th anniversary of the founding of the American Women’s Club in Denmark, a non-profit organization that provides social support to its members living permanently or temporarily in Denmark and promotes mutual understanding between the USA and Denmark. For nearly two decades, the American Women’s Club has sponsored a group for writers who wish to hone their craft in English. Publication of this anthology by women from a half-dozen countries around the world, is made possible by a cultural award from the club and personal contributions.

Black Man Feeling to Party...

This is just one of those songs that no matter what time in my life I play it, it could only signal one thing: I'm back!

On and On to the Break of Dawn...

There is something in the spontaneity of letting someone into your life with whom there is an interest: A magic that demands truth. This moment is a ritual, this moment is to break dawn...

In Trinidad, to break, is to ejaculate, but to break dawn does not necessitate sex. All that is required is that the new born Sun sheds its light on you and your companion. It is a baptism, a gift, of yet another day of life made even more wondrous by the fact that you are in the company of someone you dig.

Yeah!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

How Not to Write About Africa...

The Truth About Tumbler Pigeons (Or Why I'm Afraid of Loving You)

Pigeons
are
peculiar birds...
Some tumble...
they fly
high into
the air

and tumble
backwards...
they are
known
to
have
existed
in India
before
the year 1590...

they are
known
to tumble
from side
to side
or roll
backward
in flight...
many say
it is a
survival
technique...

basically,
they fly
high
into
the sky
and tumble
all the way
down:
BUT
just before
hitting the
ground,
they miraculously
swoop up,
into the
air:

narrowly
escaping
death.

But
the
problem
with the
tumbler
pigeon
is this:

If you
breed
two
tumblers
the
offspring
lacks this
last but
all
important
reflex--

Instead
of
gracefully
escaping
its demise
inches
away from the
ground,
they come
crashing down
only to
tragically
die.

And this
is why,
I guess,
I always
will
be

afraid
of loving
You.

The Image is Mightier than the Sword...

"There is a civil contract implied by photographs. An Israeli writer, Ariella Azoulay, published a book making that point. Henri Cartier-Bresson made it too. He described shooting pictures of people as a “sort of violation,” adding, “if sensitivity is lacking, there can be something barbaric about it.” There can be, of course, and not just when the subject doesn’t like the image." --MICHAEL KIMMELMAN, New York Times, June 3, 2009

Anonymous Said...

Anonymous said...

Hi, I absolutely love your blog! I just came across it yesterday while searching about living as American in Denmark. I am curious to know if danish men are attracted to black women (primarly american/west indian). What is your experience with them? Is there alot of interracial marriages/dating with black women and white men? Sorry for putting you on the spot. Im just curious :)!!!