Spiritual Revolutions in Denmark (or Why we smile at Each other.)

audience listening intently at BE:BOP 2014: Spiritual Revolutions and the Scramble for Africa in Copehagen, Denmark this summer. 

Once when my child was very young, he asked me, "Mommy, why do Black people smile at each other?" It was a fitting enough observation: Whenever he took a walk with me and we came upon another Black person, a smile would/is most often exchanged.  Intuitively, I knew the smiles were of recognition, not only of our presence here which, especially back then, was few and far between.
When you look into the annals of history - when you seek further than the textbooks and narratives insisted upon by the status quo - you learn a lot about your own history. You learn that your history has been buried so that another history could grow up from it, flower from it and in the end, take all the credit (or sun, if we are to continue with this analogy).

Founder and curator of BE.BOP. BLACK EUROPE BODY POLITICS,

Alanna Lockward & Robbie Shilliam, conjuring the Jamaican ancestors. 

One of my contemplations of late has been the connection/dis/connection between me and my ancestry. Identity has always played an integral role in my life through the virtue of my skin color.  In Trinidad, class and social status depended much on this, and there were, for sure anomalies. In fact, on Trinidad, due to its particular history, it is not unusual to meet someone who sports a Chinese surname with brown skin and hair that screams of Africa, or in my family's case, a cacophony of skin tones under a very Sikh name although again, none of us can claim we come solely from India and our family for all intents and purposes, claimed Catholicism (or perhaps Catholicism claimed them?).  I've always been fascinated by the way we choose to identify ourselves - intuiting early that of all the various ancestries I have coursing through me - East Indian (From Punjab, perhaps?), Unknown Africa (slavery & independent travels throughout the so-called "new world" ), Corsica (Colonial class), Portuguese - it was the African that I could and would claim most as this is what has always and still claims me most.  And when I say African, I mean those of us who have scattered far from the continent, representing through our skin our tenacity for survival and of spirit and through our very existence assure our ancestors that they are still here amongst us.
Moving to Europe has only opened up my awareness of how far we as a people travel.  It seems that wherever I travel in the world - from the Canary Islands to Southern Europe, from Sweden to Amsterdam - we are there.  We are here, like others, for many various reasons but most importantly, if you look through the holes in history, you will learn that we have always been here. There. Everywhere. Human beings, no matter what ancestry, are usually more intrepid than we are lead to believe. We often travel, migrate, in search of opportunity, novelty, or even Wisdom.  Some of us are tickled by the energy of landing in a  new place, forging new relations, and stepping on ground that have never before stepped upon the road it steps upon now. I suspect that patterns of migration have perhaps risen not only due to economic need, but more so due to the fact that our population has grown. Again, I can't shake this strong belief that some of us, no matter where we come from, are born to travel.
But although we are everywhere, there is, I am afraid, a pervading, steady ignorance of our humanity as a people, which stems from a lack of understanding of history.  You see this mostly in the media, where unfortunately Hollywood and other American media taught the world how to really buffoon us, demoralize us, to the point where one can argue, America's racism was exported to other countries and cultures via their televisions. One of my realizations lately is how the system of European supremacy permeates mostly every facet of our existence. So much so that the only god my family had to offer me was one that reflected them. Not us.
Denmark, like so many other European nations who gained wealth through the plundering of the so-called new-world and slavery, devotes about 2 pages in their school textbooks to the subject of slavery (although their participation in what is now the U.S. Virgin Islands in plantation life, including the trappings of African slavery spanned hundreds of years) but over 10 pages on World War II. To be fair, World War II is not only much more recent (most elderly Danes can still remember) but Denmark was also occupied by the Germans during this period. It was something that definitely effected them more personally in more recent history.
Denmark is a wealthy country.  Her populace is wild about collecting money for Africa. Yet no one asks where this wealth has come from. Many will tell you it's from the Marshall Plan, and I tell you to look into this and you will begin to understand why Denmark seems so tied to American politics and finances.
But not really explaining to the populace how wealth is generated has never really been the business of schools and states. The point is, however, that the tacit acceptance of many of the assumption of European supremacy is staggering.  This from even the most well-meaning of people, this even from people of color ourselves.  Whether it's so-called progressive colored folk from the Caribbean or even folks coming from Africa, the phrase I'm not Black says more about the person's knowledge of their own history and the results of years of social conditioning to disempower us. The psychological and social consequences of this is certainly indicative of the level of discomfort many still feel around discussing race.
It's been a frustrating tenure here in Denmark. I have met some of the most well-meaning of people, only to have them turn a beet-red from anger face towards me and accuse me of being a racist simply because I suggested that Africa's history and sense of identity was systematically suppressed by Imperialism.

When human beings learn our history, the world will be a better place, to paraphrase the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

Jeannette Ehlers, Guest-Curator of BE.BOP 2014. SPIRITUAL REVOLUTIONS AND "THE "SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA, with Héctor Aristizábal,  & Robbie Shilliam.

I returned from my 3 month sojourn in New York to something to placate my nerves in the happiest country in the world:  'Spiritual Revolutions & "The Scramble for Africa" - BE.BOP 2014 (Black Europe Body Politics).  Curated by the vibrant Alanna Lockward & daring Jeannette Ehlers this unique gathering of African Diasporic  artists managed to knit a tapestry as wide, inspiring and varied as our people.  For many of you who may not be familiar with the term "Diaspora" it simply means 'a dispersion of people from their original homeland' If you think about people of African descent, well, there is a particular history connected to this, namely slavery. Slavery however, was not the only means our ancestors were dispersed throughout the world. Many, like so many others in the spectrum of our humanity's past/present/future - travelled seeking a better life, or hey, traveled just for the adventure of it.  Some of us didn't appear to travel at all- we appear to have been there all along. Check out stories of African's historical presence and influence everywhere from Europe to as far as China.  The best, in my and many other's humble opinion, is of course the work of Dr. John Henrik Clarke.

Spiritual Revolutions & "The Scramble for Africa" - BE.BOP 2014 (Black Europe Body Politics) was a cultural life-saver tossed in my veritable cultural sea of despair.  A four-day affair, full of polemics, creativity, scholarship and art, this potentially radical forum mostly took place in  Nikolaj Kunsthal - a former church now turned art exhibition space. While in New York  I met up with a no-holds barred Performance artist whom I will write more about later. One of the discussions we had was the role of art and Black liberation.  One of the questions we asked was, what does it really mean to exhibit your work in the halls of the elite? That these performances happened within a building that symbolizes the religion of colonialism, certainly did tickle my sense of poetic justice.   One of the highlights was witnessing Jeanette Ehler's profound exhibition on Denmark's bitter past of Sugar and Slavery. Here is a performance of her piece "Whip It Good" last spring:

One of the locations in which Jeannette Ehler's performed her piece Whip It Good was an old building in Christianshavn, a quaint little Amsterdam-like neighborhood whose exquisite architecture was mostly funded by, well- dead Black people.  

Alanna Lockward and Simmy Dullay online from South Africa during the panel
Is “Neo”-Afrophobia a Scandinavian Syndrome? Re-visiting Nordic Exceptionalism.

Jeannette Ehlers have managed to do what I haven't witnessed many artists of color (including myself) managing to do: she got Denmark to listen. Her exhibition Say It Loud fortunately not only created much press (thus educating many on this particular issue) but also brought together many and created a space to discuss these issues.  Her gentle demeanor and graciousness is certainly channeled in her work and I look forward to following her career and supporting her work as much as I can, both here and abroad.

Alanna Lockward was a pleasure to meet.  Her positivity, respect and passion for ensuring the continuation of our presence makes this all possible. If you want to see what incredible work she is doing, check out Art Labour Archives for a taste of the truly radical work she is midwifing into this world.  Love is her foundation, and I encourage you to read her own words here Many Rivers to Cross.

Other performances and artists I had the privilege of meeting was Teresa Maria Diaz Nerco.  In Ni 'Mamita' Ni 'Mulatita'  Diaz Nerco creates a space that invites all present into a world of cultures rolled together and reminds us of the way in which ancestry reaches out from the past affecting our presence.  From the Dominican Republic, her work revolves around identity and representation and how that particularly plays out in not only her world, but those who also spring forth from this foundation.  From a flimsy bed sheet hanging from the ceiling images of a Dominican classic movie play out a story that reminds us of the inconsistency of wild colored women.  And the inconsistencies of brown/blackface, or not even being represented by ourselves. Around this flimsy bedsheet (perhaps symbolizing the ethereal material ideas/concepts/assumptions are made of) Diaz Nerco  moves that remind us not only of her African ancestry, but of her European as well. Her timid, sometimes playful, sometimes bold movements tell of that cultural insecurity that many of us throughout the Diaspora, perhaps feel when inhabiting multiple worlds.  

Patricia Kærsenhout

Patricia Kærsenhout is the one who stitches our stories back together again.  

Her Stitches of Power. Stitches of Sorrow is a profound act of keeping the past alive. Quietly sitting in a Copenhagen church which serves as an exhibition space, visitors were asked to dip our fingers into a bowl of water (brought back memories of going to church in Trinidad with my grandmother!) before entering what felt like a very solemn affair.  And it was.  Sitting on a chair and assuming the position of so many women (and men) who came before us and hopefully will continue onto the future, she not only invited us into the calm world of watching her stitch, but we were invited to do so as well. In the meantime, Angela Davis' revolutionary voice could be heard in the background while images of the artist herself were projected unto the floor revealing our modern Harriet Tubman.  I loved every second of this exhibition. 

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Quincy Gario mapping his ancestry

Quinsy Gario's A Village Called Gario, 2014 performance took place also at Nikolaj Kunsthal. According to Wikipedia,
Gario is an activist in the movement against Zwarte Piet, as well as a performance artist. He was born in Curaçao and was raised in St Maarten before moving to the Netherlands. Gario created the project Zwarte Piet is Racisme (Black Pete is Racism) about Zwarte Piet. In 2011 he was arrested for public disturbance at the traditional annual Sinterklaas festival where he was protesting against the use of Zwarte Piet.^[4][5] He appeared on a national television talk show in 2013 "to make his case" which was part of a series of events in October that The Economist says "polaris[ed] cultural life and dragging in celebrities, politicians, and even the UN" and "changed Zwarte Piet. For many, even if a year ago he was not a symbol of Dutch racism, he is now." 

Gario's work was a performance piece that illustrated not only how one can trace the footsteps of one's ancestry across the globe - but the connectivity between colonialism, economic circumstances, limits and possibilities.  Using black tape to fashion a world map on the floor, Gario encouraged his audience members to make paper planes that would sail over this landscape.  He proceeded to use white string, to make all of the geographic connections, to retrace his ancestral footsteps that again give witness to our intrepid spirit and endeavors. 

Héctor Aristizábal's, Nightwind is a powerful performance piece documenting the experience of being taken as a political prisoner in Columbia.  His performance brought home the tyranny of what too many have gone through and will continue to go through, in the name of politics.  Using a spartan stage, Héctor Aristizábal transformed his space (a small wood paneled room upstairs in the church) into a visual reenactment of what it meant to be arrested in Columbia for one's political affiliations.

It was also a pleasure to meet the talented Anika Gibbons whose documentary entitled Journey to Liberation: The Legacy of Womanist Theology and Womanist Ethics at Union Theological Seminary, gave me goosebumps while watching.  Her work truly inspires and showcases the stuff greatness is made of:


I also appreciated immensely the opportunity to view The Stuart Hall Project.

Charol Oquet & Sasha Huber

I met some incredible artists & thinkers such as Walter Mignolo, Robbie Shilliam, Anne Ring Petersen, Sasha Huber, Charo Oquet, Mette Moestrup & Mathias Danbolt (whose presentation can be viewed below) to name a few. All of whom are creating incredible work in their respective fields, ensuring that our presence is accounted for into the future.




The panels and roundtable discussions were all immensely intriguing, relevant and spirited. Panels and talks bore names such as Walter Mignolo's commencement address Say it Loud!: Re-Existences, Re-Surgences and Re-Emergences at the University of Copenhagen; Sister Womanist: on Decoloniality and Black Theology of Liberation featuring Anika Gibbons, Alanna Lockward, Rolando Vázquez, moderated by Walter Mignolo; Spiritual Revolutions and Pan-Africanism: Black Bullets, Blakaman and the Ethiopian Crisis of 1940 featuring Jeannette Ehlers, Gillion Grantsaan, Adler Guerrier, Robbie Shilliam and moderated by Quinsy Gario; A Journey Without Distance: Situating Diasporic Meanings featuring Anne Ring Petersen, Lesley-Ann Brown and moderated by Patricia Kaersenhout;  Migrating Spirits. Re-existence in Havana, London and everywhere in between, Jane Thorburn, Yoel Díaz Vázquez, Temi Odumosu; Healing the Dual Wound: Saint Domingue Diaspora Sibyls in the Continent of Black Consciousness featuring Sasha Huber, Charo Oquet, Teresa María Díaz Nerio; Amazones Shooting Back: Revisiting Dutch Colonial Amnesia featuring Patricia Kaersenhout, Artwell Cain, Quinsy Gario Is “Neo”-Afrophobia a Scandinavian Syndrome? Re-visiting Nordic Exceptionalism. Mathias Danbolt, Simmi Dullay, Mette Moestrup, Kuratorisk Aktion.

I would like to especially thank Jeannette Ehlers and Alanna Lockwood for making this project possible and for extending the invitation with much warmth and belief in my work.  

This event was held May 15-18, 2014.