blackgirl on mars: notes on a life in copenhagen (or how my alienation brings me closer to people).

I wish I could take credit for this--but alas! Someone else beat me to it! Dear Friends, As we move closer to the end of another year I wanted > > to thank you for all the e-mails you have forwarded to me over the past > > year. I must send a big thank you to whoever sent me the one about rat > > shit in the glue on envelopes, because I now have to use a wet sponge > > with every envelope that needs sealing. Also, I now have to wipe the > > top of every can I open for the same reason. I no longer have any > > savings because I gave it all to a sick girl who is about to die in the > > hospital for the 1,387,258th time. But that will change once I receive > > the $15,000 that Bill Gates and Microsoft are sending me for > > participating in their special email programs. Or from the senior bank > > clerk in Nigeria who wants me to split seven million dollars with me > > for pretending to be a long lost relative of a custom...

"To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never, to forget." - Arundhati Roy

Last night I hung out with my buddy SH. I met SH years ago, at the job I will returning to on Monday, after 5 years of absence. We took a walk to Christiania, the "free state". Years ago, it was an orderly alternative to the world of Danish designer lamps and luxurious kitchen renovations. The main street in Christiania was lined with booths where marijuana and hash was sold openly under banners that said, Say No to Hard Drugs! It attracted tourists and natives hungry for vegetarian meals and a respite from the hustle and bustle of city life. Patches of grass offered itself along ponds where houses were constructed on land repossessed from the government for the people. Because marijuana and hash was not criminalized, there was a peaceful mood about it and Christiania burned hearthlike amidst the norm. The eclectic mix of passersby attested to its appeal which went beyond your average potheads. Unfortunately, there's been a lot going down. Many, seeing prime real-estate, ...

"But I still believe that the unexamined life is not worth living: and I know that self-delusion, in the service of no matter what small or lofty cause, is a price no writer can afford. His subject is himself and the world and it requires every ounce of stamina he can summon to attempt to look on himself and the world as they are." "One can only face in others what one can face in oneself. On this confrontation depends the measure of our wisdom and compassion." "One day it begins to be borne in on the writer, and with great force, that he is living in Europe as an American. If he were living there as a European, he would be living on a different and far less attractive continent...if he has been preparing himself for anything in Europe, he has been preparing himself for America. In short, the freedom that the American writer finds in Europe brings him, full circle, back to himself, with the responsibility for his development where it always was: in his own hand...

This is the amazing Pam Sneed breaking it down. Have a GREAT Christmas to EVERYONE if I don't get to you before... farvel , the lab p.s. I woke up this morning and realize that I have a bit to say about this piece. A couple of years ago I got invited to a dinner by a friend of mine who spends a lot of time in Ghana. She wanted to get a group of women together whom she felt would really inspire each other. There was a former colleague of mine, and another woman whom she had worked with previously. Aesthetically, the table at this restaurant worked: We were all relatively educated women, self-assured, a bit older and visually, culturally inclusive. We decided to eat at a Ghanaian restaurant and as we waited for our food the most curious conversation came up. I don't remember how it happened, and I admit that my memory is not the best but this is how I experienced it. Basically, I had my friend who spends a lot of time in Ghana say how many of her friends from Ghana don't unde...

Today was my last day at my job. It's strange to feel so sad about leaving behind a place I have spent the last 5 years and at the same time so excited about my new venture in life. Saying goodbye has always been difficult for me, especially since there have been so many times in my life where I never was able to say that proper goodbye, able to feel that closure. Well, I hope I did that today. I emptied out my office, hugged my colleagues and lugged all my stuff home with a help of my friend. Now I'm sitting in my apartment, amidst all my junk, in silence, thinking about my life. I had a good 5 years there and have had some excellent colleagues. That is a lot to be thankful for. So now, I sit in my apartment, in silence, and enjoy the moment. I'll organize my house, listen to New York City radio and nurse myself, slowly, back to health. farvel, the lab

Blackgirl on Mars officially supports the New School Occupation. As a New School Graduate, I was ashamed to learn of Kerry's appointment. He goes against everything the New School stood for and should continue to stand for. The reason I went to the New School was because of its historical roots in left-wing political thought. That's right. It messes up sometimes, I've seen it, but the heart of the New School is one of the few bastions for real left-wing thought in the U.S. I don't know if it's still like that, but I know the Professors I came into contact with and the literature that was passed on to me really spoke to me and reminded me that I was not the only person who knew that something was up in this world and that there were alternatives that many would prefer to be silenced. Get Kerry out now. Reclaim the New School. NOW! Thanks Max, at Open Anthropology for covering this!

So, I've finally seen the Kara Walker exhibition at Gammel Strand , Copenhagen. It's a great little gallery, the same place I saw Isaac Julian (In fact, that is probably the last time I visited this space, and this was years ago!). I had only two hours to view the entire show, which simply is not enough time, so what I'm offering are very peripheral impressions, along with some of the comments of my companions. I preface all of this with the fact that I support any artists' endeavor towards what his or her personal truth(s) is(are). I recognize that this journey, whether private or public, can be very messy. Alice Walker comes to mind when I write this, because she is a writer whose work never fails to strike me by its honesty: And when a writer speaks so brazenly from his or her own heart I can not, in any shape way or form write anything to hurt them. Instead, I would rather take the time to commend them, as I believe all internal dialogs, when offered on display, ar...

This morning I awoke with the distinct sensation that my bed was wobbling. I could hear shuffling about and shaking in my neighbor's apartments as well. A picture frame fell from my shelf. Would you believe that we were hit by an Earthquake this morning? 4.7 on the Richter scale! The last earthquake was in 1985--but apparently it was not as strong as this one. Well, that's something to write home about. farvel, lab

I'm sick! My body feels like crap and my throat, like sandpaper. One of the things that really sucks about getting older is that you have to act like an adult all the time. This includes still preparing food for the offspring even when you are sick. This means having to figure out things like interest (oh boy do I wish I bothered to learn that in high school) and having the courage to live the life you dare to live. But it's all good. Sunday is the day to rest, and so it's just me, my remote and television (with a copy of Morrison's A Mercy just in case I get ambitious...)

Zilla's blog Hat's Off at http://hairgreaseshoeshine.blogspot.com/ Check it out... Saw a pretty nice apartment today. Someone else is interested in buying it, but I take it all as a good sign. I know I will find something perfect for Kai and myself. farvel, the lab

Remember there is no such thing as belonging. The material is, in the end, immaterial. The only thing we belong to, in the end, is each other. And even that fades.

There's been so much going on lately. I'll try to account for it all. The most important one is that I've been offered a teaching position at another school and I have accepted. It means I will have to move house--something I have been postponing for as long as possible. It also means that I must somehow, find a way for my son and I to live on less money. Don't even ask. All I can say is that I am moving on, in the right direction, following my heart and all that other hippie crap which usually always leads to inner contentment, right? And the kids! I have been in love with them ever since the first time I started to work there like five years ago. One of favorite episodes is when I got confronted by two students there. I was packing up my bag, getting ready to exit the class and two young girls approach me. One was from Somalia, the other Turkey. The children there are all very mixed (International in the true sense of the word) and I could tell the minute I landed in ...

"Prop 8 - The Musical" starring Jack Black, John C. Reilly, and many more... by Jack Black

The BBC's African Perspective programme is investigating what life is like for some of an estimated 20 million Africans who live in the diaspora. Ellen Otzen visits Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, to see how the 45,000 Africans there have adapted to their chilly Nordic home. Read the rest of the article here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7687491.stm

The best way to thank the Universe is to forget about the past, don't worry about the future & give 100% to the present.

(I got this email the other day. It captures the above sentiment perfectly!) 1. The first thing you do on entering a bank/post office/pharmacy etc. is to look for the queue number machine. 2. You accept that you will have to queue to take a queue number. 3. Inside your front door is beginning to resemble a shoe shop. 4. When a stranger on the street smiles at you, you assume that: a. he is drunk; b. he is insane; c. he is American; d. he is all of the above. 5. Silence is fun. 6. It no longer seems excessive to spend 800 kr. on alcohol in a single night. 7. You know that "religious holiday" means "let's get drunk". 8. You use "Mmmm" as conversation filler. 9. The word "yes" is an intake of breath. 10. You have only two facial expressions, smiling or blank. 11. You buy your own drink at the bar even when you are with a group of people. 12. Traditional dinners may not necessarily mean a cooked meal. 13. You forget how to open cann...

The Calabash International Literary Festival is on my list of things "to do", much like Yari Yari ( Jayne Cortez directed a documentary: Black Women Writers Dissecting Globalization about this). The Calabash Literary Festival has a lot of things going for it. First of all, it's in Jamaica. And as anyone else who has been to Jamaica, will tell you, Jamaica is a special place. I'm not just talking blue water and white sand beaches either. Although I've never been to an African country, Jamaica is the only place I've ever been to where I felt close to this continent. There is something in the air, something in the spirit of the people I met with that testifies to the endurance of the human spirit. It's music is a great example of this spirit--it's devouring of Western music, only to be regurgitated, back out into the world for all the Universe's sons and daughters to vibe to. From Jackie Mittoo and other Studio One recordings to dub and dancehal...

Dispatch to Brooklyn: Things are surreal here in Copenhagen. 8am, I arrive at the U.S. Embassy's Post Election Breakfast. Expected heaps of food and formal setting. Instead I find Denmark's Prime Minister and other prominent Ministers to what amounts as a sort of informal goodbye to our Bush-appointed incumbent. There is Pia Kjaersgaard--the forewoman for the Danish People's Party, Denmark's right-wing, anti-immigrant party (I would have really enjoyed speaking to her to hear her thoughts on the results) and a multiple cast of other Americans. I am, as usual, the only Black there. Walking down the street was strange today. Felt a little George Jefferson pep-in-my-step. Felt all eyes on me. Paranoia? Ghosts of my well-meaning middle-class wannabes ancestors taunt: Don't act too proud, you'll make white folks feel bad and hate you. But we could not have gotten to where we were today without the white vote. Is racism dead? The court has only now adjourned. CNN sugg...

When I was a little girl, and my siblings teased me for being a "Yankee Girl", there was something within me that wouldn't give, that wouldn't allow it to bother me. It had something to do with the African Americans I had found myself around in Brooklyn. It had something to do with the pride they had in their history, in themselves, the strength in the day-to-day struggle and refusal to let anyone bring them down. It had something to do with the picture of Martin Luther King Jr. my father had in our living room. It had something to do with how my classmates, even in the first grade would place arms akimbo and say, "When I grow up, I want to be President" and how we would all say, "I'm Black and I'm Proud!" It has something to do with the fact that I was born in Brooklyn and also identified as African American, and the warmth in which I was received by this community. And when I traveled to Trinidad, and saw Black heads of states, and read a...

Bandit Queen Press is Proud to Present: Blackgirl on Mars On Sunday November 2nd, 2pm Lesley-Ann Brown reads Selected Poems from The Organist's Daughter and her upcoming collection of poetry Blackgirl on Mars Det Poetiske Bureau Griffenfeldsgade 52

Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip from Leo Murray on Vimeo . Visit: Wake Up, Freak Out -- then get a grip at www.wakeupfreakout.org Watch The Story of Stuff at www.storyofstuff.com

I'm really feeling M.I.A . right now. She's building a school in Liberia folks! How cool is that? Check out her blog and her music on her site . You won't regret it. She's part of the movement. Big Time. http://www.myspace.com/mia

I tell you. It is happening. The new paradigm is here. It's been here, but now it's spreading out under various names and leaders. Let's bless it with serious love. Let us applaud one another and throw the old industry politics to the wind. What is happening in the underrepresented community now is a sign of things to come. Solidarity is the move here. The Indiestream can easily overtake the Mainstream, and imprint upon it a love model. Sure not everyone gets along all of the time, but we can agree we walk in solidarity, and spread love while letting negativity slip on by without feeding into it. In a society that has rejected the rebirth of original, underrepresented cultures, it becomes necessary to check oneself thoroughly, to be sure toxic stereotypes are not being perpetuated by our perceptions, or behaviors. It is necessary to rise up out of the shackles of criminalized/demonized caricatures, and allow ourselves to mourn the lost knowledge of our roots, while also re...

I've finally figured it out: We're the Logan's Run generation. Remember that cheesy 70s movie, where everyone over 30 got knocked off by the sandmen? Well, that's us. See, there's nobody there really, to knock us off, but we just don't mature much, over, say 16? Our parents just sort of got on with it. Us? We got so many choices--we don't know what to do with ourselves. Some of us go around still, in baggy jeans. Some go around with tight jeans. No matter which way you look at it, we're still running around like a bunch of teenagers. I remember the first time I saw Desperate Housewives. It was one of the first times they saw showed it here in Denmark, and I didn't know what it was I was watching. I described it to a friend as, "it was a show with a bunch of old people running around like teenagers." Little did I know that this show was reflecting a dementia-at-large. Think about it: Marriage doesn't have the same financial connotations ...

Originally from New York City, Claudius Pratt was inspired to come to Copenhagen in part by the countless number of artists who came here before him. It is to these circumstances that he owes his latest inspiration, a documentary about the once-glorious past of Copenhagen's Art scene. "My project is based on my journey and the journey of those before me, I am looking at the historical link between America (New York) and Denmark (Copenhagen). From the end of World War II Copenhagen has been a refuge for many who felt they did not fit into the American Dream or were merely smothered by it. Artists of all disciplines have chosen Copenhagen as a field from which to sow there creative seed. Many of those were of African decent and they were the purveyors of culture, captivating audiences with their jazz. Cecil Brown published the book "The Lives and Loves of Mr Jive Ass Nigger" in 1969. It is based on such a man traveling from America to Copenhagen to see if there is “any...

Yeah right. But I do have to say, this was one election I was really close to boycotting. I can't help but feel that I have been personally messed with throughout this whole process. I have had this strange and nagging feeling that I had been set up: The stage has been cast with characters for the best show on earth: The U.S. Election. The whole world sits riveted, in front of the television while the U.S. has it's cataclysmic show-down. The whole world watches as the U.S. answers the Million Dollar Question (or should I say 700 billion?): Can the U.S. look past Race, in it's, cough cough, U.S. Presidential Race for the cough, cough, White House? Can life get any more ironic than this? And let me tell you, I've been "good" really "good"--managing to keep my mouth shut during mundane discussions that usually begin with, "Do you really think the U.S. will elect a Black man?" Luckily, no one at my job thinks me interesting enough to ask, so I...

Big Up to Guanaguanare for turning me on to this! There's been a lot going through my mind lately. So much I want to say that I get overwhelmed into silence. But that's what I have to be weary of. The silence. Be careful now, delve in at your own risk: Some connections you must make yourself. On my way to work last week, I read this sweet editorial by a Danish woman who claimed that the world should be allowed to vote for the U.S. President, not Americans. I wanted to slap her. But as a pacifist, I suppose it wouldn't do. The article annoyed me on several levels. First, the general idea that Americans are stupid. Well, if we are so stupid, where do you get the idea that we are so stupid? Yeah, chew on that one for a moment. The other one is this--WE DID NOT VOTE FOR BUSH (Definitely not the first time and if it was pulled off the first time, well ...) The other point is this: Look at YOUR own government and the decisions YOUR fellow citizens have been making the last few y...

I found this very interesting article which, unfortunately, still applies, in The Nation.

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African Voices 270 W. 96th Street, New York, NY 10025 • (212) 865-2982 • www.africanvoices.com FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE / Contact (Press): Maitefa Angaza, 347.413.8762 / Anne Lloyd, 212.865.2982 / Alka Gupta , 718.488.1015 From India to Iraq, From Biloxi to Brooklyn: Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival at LIU's Brooklyn Campus, September 27-30 Singer/actress Irene Cara to Receive Reel Sisters Trailblazer Award September 10, 2007 (Brooklyn, NY) ― Cinematic works by more than 30 women filmmakers hailing from India to Brooklyn will screen at the Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival at Long Island University's Brooklyn Campus. Oscar-winning actress and singer-songwriter Irene Cara will be honored, as will Susan Robeson, co-founder of Third World Newsreel and arts promoter Kojo Ade. On Sunday, September 30th the Festival hosts the U.S. premiere of Kadamtole Krishna Nache, a Bollywood film written and directed by Suman Haripriya. Councilwomen Letitia James and Inez Dickens ...

Thanks to Electronic Village for turning me on to this and much respect to The Brooklyn Comedy Company.

Black Women in Europe Do It Again: Notes on The first ever Women of the African Diaspora Conference 27 July 2008 Amsterdam, the Netherlands by Lesley-Ann Brown Nestled amidst the colorful goings-on of the internationally well-kept secret of the Kwakoe Festival, a gathering of Black women and supporters convened. Between Surinamese restaurants that served Lamb roti and Nigerian tents that celebrated clubs in honor of ancestors, we gathered and exchanged ideas. Amidst tables of hair care products and home-made books visions were shared. ”Welcome France,” Vanessa Limon, one of the organizers of this First Women of the African Diaspora Conference in Amsterdam, began, ”welcome Germany, Suriname, Camaroon,” and then she paused for a moment to collect her composure. Upon doing so, she continued, as she wiped away tears, “Welcome Curacao,” and by the time she had mentioned just a portion of the nations represented there, we too in the audience were wiping away tears. How many of us, includin...