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

a room with a view harlem, feb 2014  Yesterday I had the joy of meeting Ethelene Whitmore - professor at the University of Wisconsin and blogger   American Black Chick in London   - who, luckily for me, lives in Copenhagen!!!!  I am always tickled when I find beautiful gifts awaiting me ALWAYS when I take one step forward...We had an amazing chat (I actually didn't want to leave, I could have spoken to both these wonderfully talented women for hours). We talked about expat living, Nella Larsen, the Danish tradition of Julefrokost (what happens at the Christmas party, stays at the Christmas party ...) and dreams + visions. Truly inspiring. Thank you both! a window garden in amager (circa 2012) The other morning, around 4 - I spoke to Buddha again! Buddha is in Goa! Buddha says all the New Age Israelis out there are driving him nuts, and that he wants me to come out to deliver to them the message that he says they will not listen to: That New Age Beliefs ...

my dad and his band sometime in another lifetime, port-of-spain, trinidad “ Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. ” ― Buddha  I was blessed to open my email this morning and find this email from my spiritual father, "Puff". "Puff", that's his nickname - knew my father since they were teenagers, back in Trinidad.  Puff entered my life, because unlike my father, he escaped New York and forged a life for himself and his family in Canada. As he says to me, he realized back then that if he wanted to  save himself, he had to leave. The fate of my father reiterates the importance of that sentiment.  My communication with Puff has been a blessing - I truly feel my father's presence in our conversations, and Puff often serves as a personal portal to the past, filling me in on many wonderful stories and memories of my father. Truly a gift ...

carvel amager (my favorite tree in the hood).  Nina happens to know a lot of fun facts about Hans Christian Andersen which I have been enjoying learning. One of them is that he believed it was the artist's duty to go into the darkness to shine light - a metaphor I appreciate lately. Aside from the usual Scandinavian lack of light to contend with, I can also relate to this on a spiritual level of late. Having said this, I must admit that I have been feeling much sadness lately. It's almost as though I feel the pain of the world - for on close inspection I do have all that I need: my health, thank you very much, knock on wood. I've ventured into the world of Facebook again, hoping that it will facilitate my friendships/network but again I grow weary.  The news is despondent, we are divided, heroes fall, voices rise, some are stifled. Today has been declared a day of Anger in many cities throughout the world. Denmark held its own version today, which I attended at the b...

This is the street where it all began... That's a picture of a mural on the street where I first lived when I moved to Copenhagen. It's in the neighborhood called Vesterbro - which means West Bridge - and when I had arrived Copenhagen was in the throes of a program entitled "City Renewal". This meant that the STATE went in and upgraded many apartments (even privately owned) rendering many apartments many times its worth by the end. Many ended up with a lot of money in their hands but what it did inevitably mean is that housing went up even more in what was already one of the most expensive cities to live in the world. In those days - this was the early 2000's - my little family lived on the 5th floor (no elevator) in a small but beautiful apartment that was not equipped with hot water and a shower.  This is how I entered motherhood - and every time I wanted to bitch and moan I would think about the women who came before me in Trinidad who did not have the m...

my bandit dress  today i'm off to meet with the geeky knitter's club - and i'm looking forward to it. my plan is to start knitting with the kids at my former place of employment, and hopefully that will get started by next week. right now i'm finishing up my first icelandic sweater. i can't wait to put it on. i'm convinced that once this sweater is complete it will be the sweater that takes me through the completion of my book. my book. sigh. the good news is i am definitely closer to the voice of the work - although i have written a complete draft, the voice is a bit distant. it's mine, but too - scholarly? at times. i'm not like that all the time. not to say that i come off as scholarly, but i have and do read a lot of highfaluting stuff sometimes and that has a way of seeping into my language - as well as other things as well. see how sophisticated i am? using words like "stuff" and "things". i have such a command of the eng...

could the guinea fowl be the best protection against lime disease? The last couple of times I visited the States, I was fortunate enough to visit Willow, New York. Willow is a small town not too far from Woodstock, New York.  It's a gorgeous Upstate town, with rivers and mountain views and no shortage of wildlife. Bears apparently, are not uncommon here. Lime disease seems to also be quite common in these parts as well. It seems that every other person I bumped into would eventually break down and tell you either a story of their lime infection, or someone close to them, in their family.  Lime disease doesn't sound fun - and if you live anywhere near the woods and deers, chances are there are deer ticks, and if you have deer ticks, well - if you get bit by an infected lice then you can get lime disease. Does that mean that being out in nature is absolutely out of the question? Well, interestingly enough the person I was visiting has some guinea hens.  These birds a...

me and toshi, early- mid 2000s. williamsburgh, brooklyn I don't know why I go so fast. My mind seems to dart around from thought to thought, action to action. If I am not too careful, life manages to flash by with my barely noticing the everyday miracles, acts of kindness. Where do I start? I can say it all started with the woman who hired me at Copenhagen International School so many years ago. And I could tell you about the eye-opening experiences and the lovely international staff I encountered there. There was the sassy Suzanne, originally from Ireland, Lesley from Scotland and Audrey from Scotland. Together we formed the administrative staff.  These women, as were so many others who worked at that school, phenomenal everyday people.  I could tell you about the time before this where I biked around Hellerup with 4 year-old Kai in the bike seat, going from grand big house to grand big house, tutoring 5th grade German girls or Junior High girls from China. Or I can ...

valentina from brooklyn, harlem 2014 After teaching I decided to work at home for a year translating, proofing and editing. I managed to get enough work to get by - and the projects ranged from anything from television scripts to  academic books on Ancient Sumerian Goddesses and such. I'm not kidding. I enjoy the work - but in order to secure a steady income you have to really put yourself out there. The last few years have seen a more socially quiet me - and it is something that I feel I must honor in order to maintain my balance. So I trust. One of the dreams I've always had since moving to Denmark was finding a way to connect what I did in New York with the talent here. When I lived in New York, I worked with Marie Brown, a literary agent who works with such luminaries such as Faith Ringgold and the great Dorothy Dandridge biographer, Donald Bogle. I garnered a wealth of stories being under the tutelage of Marie - and most of all I learned a lot about the business of...