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

my typewriter has flowers I love tea. I love the healing properties of teas. I like that nature has so much medicine! Here are some of my favorite teas: Lavender flower tea: It not only tastes good, but is a great relaxer. I usually make a pot after dinner and enjoy it before going to bed. It fights anxiety and is good for the stomach. Blackberry leaf tea: It tastes really good and gives you all the health benefits that a glass of wine gives you - without the alcohol!  It's good for the heart & blood! Marigold tea: I love how this tea looks: It's the actual flower tops. Marigold, which is also known as calendula is a soothing and has many beauty benefits as well. Linden tea: I fell in love with this one in Barcelona. It's another relaxing tea and tastes fabulous. Elderberry tea: A big hit in Denmark elderberry is super healthy and tastes really good. Chamomile tea: One of my all time favorites, having a cup of chamomile tea is for me the equivalent of...

It's a trip going through 16 years- and then some- worth of possessions. I have books I have brought with me from the U.S. (Parcival, Don Quixote), from my childhood days in Trinidad even (Caribbean Poetry and an excellent book on Caribbean History. The best is my grandfather's copy of HG Wells Conquest of Time ). I have photo albums that contained within them intended happiness and days of calm and domestic bliss. Funny, it is only now I see the potential of this place. I am not so deluded as to suggest that it is the apartment that lent itself so willingly to the undoing of what I had built here. It's a combination of events, many having much to do with my body political. The biggest challenge are my plants. One, my ficca, well, it's more like a tree, is as old as my son. I remember buying it when was pregnant. I remember once it had gotten infested by tree lice and how sad I had become as the leaves and plant withered. Finally, in a desperate attempt, I fumiga...

me & my movie star friend new orleans, 2012 A life not fully lived is a life not worth having. And if you don't get it, your body will - and it will have consequences. Thankfully I have learned with age how to pay attention to these signs and am getting better at listening to myself. The big Universal joke is that whenever I go off my path - the Universe is very quick to yell it in my face - getting me back on it once again. I keep on going back to the spirit that I seemed to be connected with when I was a child. It was an unshakeable belief that there was purpose to my presence. It became very clear to me that although I am attracted to various arts, that writing was to be my tool. This was revealed to me at an early age. One of the aspects of my life that I am truly thankful for is having parents who always understood and supported my artistry.  My writing and my being a writer has never been up for discussion in my family- even in times when it was not my full-time...

About a year ago, today! The journey that gives me the courage to be authentically me. xxoo lab

One of the worst betrayals anyone can experience is having someone violate your privacy. Whether it's a lover who takes your pictures without your knowledge (what is he going to do with them, and why is he taking them?) or someone else actually having these images in their possession - or worst yet- your trusting someone with them and they using them to earn money - yes, men do that- we certainly live in different times where the fact of the matter is - there are many creeps out there who do this. And they are CREEPS. This is why I loved this video.  It really brought to light to an issue that has been going on against women and children for too many years now.  There are so many men out there who say that they are down for women's issues - or talk the race talk about how down they are for the Black woman - but in intimate relations reveal the true extent of their brokenness. farvel, Lesley-Ann

Zanubia and Maya both came over to assist me in the process of organizing and cleaning out. After years of sitting in my apartment and contemplating my priorities - I have finally decided to lighten up my life a lot. This means doing a serious passing on or throwing out. Zanubia is a young 18 year old whose parents hail from Somalia. Zanubia is Sucdi's big sister, and was a student in my first class. Maya was as well. Zanubia is one of those students who always set herself apart from the rest by her genuine interest in wanting to understand what is going on in the world. She's also a bit sneaky too - since while we were in the basement going through boxes, she was secretly filming on her iPhone! lol Maya was also in this class - this was the same class that my former colleague and I took to Amsterdam- and she's also the daughter of Glen Garner, an American Danish artist who resides here in Copenhagen.  Glen is like really tall - and so is Maya. Both girls are growing ...

gifts i walk around with in my bag (in an effort to post) What my life looks like: today i had the distinct pleasure of meeting up with Isabella and Sucdi. Isabella and Sucdi were both in the last class that I was class teacher for, before I made the very difficult decision to quit my job teaching. Isabella and Sucdi are both incredibly intelligent young ladies who are curious about life and hungry for truth. today we talked about everything from ferguson to current goings-on in denmark.  apartments that i sell comrades give me strength it is refreshing to experience how concerned and interested these young ladies are about the world and humanity. It gives me hope about our future. over our knitting, we were able to touch subjects that they admitted to me that they felt they don't get to talk about enough. i am truly happy to have these young ladies in my life. we decided to take our talk over to the local cafe at vesterport st. on our way there we sp...

My  grandmother Hildred Balbirsingh's oftentimes rigid Catholic demeanor would always melt when this song came on. Imagine my childhood delight when I heard her hail marries turned into 'you torture me, the way you wine, i want to see your big behind, audrey, where yah get that sugar from? sugar bum bum' farvel & happy weekend agh if only i could have a trini lime  with some fry fish  & callaloo, the lab

 Preach R. Sun: When Fugitive Ideas are on the Run. Counting the Dead, Ferguson photo by Ryan Devereaux “When you try to stand up and look the world in the face like you have the right to be here. When you do that, without knowing the result of it, you have attacked the entire power structure of the Western world.”  James Baldwin Last winter when I traveled to New York, I met up with Preach R. Sun. Preach, a self-proclaimed Fugitivist – he forsakes the word artist for a description he feels better describes his occupation outside of boxes and labels – was preparing to present CHRYSALIS [Cry-Solace], his multi-media performance-based installation, curated by Whitney V. Hunter and Jill McDermid (Co-Founder and Director of Grace Exhibition Space).   I’ve been following Preach’s work for a while and have always appreciated how he manages to tap into the potential of art as a transformative tool for social justice. Grace Space, Chrysalis photo by Miao ...