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

On February 7th, 2016 a cypher was created between Brooklyn, NY, Copenhagen, Denmark and Portland Oregon. Joining host Lesley-Ann Brown was co-host writer, essayist and fellow Brooklyn native Deborah Cowell and guest photographer, dancer, writer and Black Portlander founder Intisar Abioto. Can Black people fly? We talk about Abioto's project that she co-founded with her sisters based on Virginia Hamilton's The People Could Fly, traveling while Black, freedom of movements and other subjects dear to us & community. Blogger. educator and writer Lesley-Ann Brown ( www.blackgirlonmars.com  &  www.lesleyannbrownwrites.wordpress.com ) will be hosting this monthly program. You can read more about Deborah Cowell at  https://medium.com/@MCMLXIX_5  and find out more about Intisar Abioto at  http://intisarabioto.com ,  http://theblackportlanders.com  and  http://thepeoplecouldfly.blogspot.com . Thank you for joining us!

I've always been an astute observer of race ever since I was a child. Like most other children, I saw things without the filtered lens of cognitive dissonance we all eventually learn to see things in adulthood. And I asked many questions. Perhaps too many for the adults around me.   Like so many other Americans from my generation, I spent a considerable amount of time in front of the television. I learned a lot from watching shows like Sesame Street and The Electric Company - and noticed right away that those two shows were diverse in a way most other television shows were not. I came to understand, tacitly, that most shows did not have characters that looked like me or my family, and if I did see people who looked like my family or people in my neighborhood they were either terribly poor, yet noble- (Good Times) or rich and unreasonable (The Jeffersons).  Little House and the Prairie, Charlie's Angels, Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley - they were all shows that took place...

Join us on March 10 at 5pm at Copenhagen's Main Library for  talk between four women of African descent living in Denmark. A   discussion bringing forward crucial issues on today’s globalized world. Anna Neye is a Danish actress and scriptwriter. Neye graduated from The Arts Educational School in London (1995) and The National Film School of Denmark (2005). Among other things, Neye was part of the satirical television series Normalerweize as a writer and an actress. Lesley-Ann Brown is a Trinidadian-American writer and educator who currently lives in Copenhagen, Denmark. Brown was born in Brooklyn to Trinidadian immigrants. She is currently working on her travel memoirs about living in Copenhagen. Jeannette Ehlers is a Danish visual artist living and working in Copenh agen. Ehlers graduated from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (2006). In the spring, 2014, Jeannette Ehlers had her major solo presentation, SAY IT LOUD! at Nikolaj Copenhagen Contemporary...

I've always been and will always remain skeptical of popular culture - but to deny the power it has over many would be foolish. I've seen what effect a Destiny's Child or later,  Beyoncé song has had on the  dance floor, even if the lyrics mostly would make me cringe. At 43, I don't have much time for pop culture but sometimes, something really big happens, and deserves my gaze, my time and my words.  Such is the case with  Beyoncé's Formation. Well, to be honest, I was going to write something about all the fuss over her so-called cultural appropriation in Coldplay's Hymn for the Weekend , but then like so many other ideas I get, I was like Meh, why bother? I know I'm going to get a lot of heat for this, but I really don't think an African American can be accused of cultural appropriation. When I think about race and India, and the general gaze that India seems to have of Africa coupled with ideas of power, well, it just doesn't cut it. I m...

Ancestor worship I've read a lot about colonization mostly out of the interest of how it informs where and who I am today. As a brown woman whose family hails from the Caribbean, I have always been curious about where I come from and to where I'm headed.  my maternal grandparents circa 60s My grandmother would always get mad at me and schweups whenever I asked, over and over again, about her parents. "Oh god, Lesley! You does like old talk, nah?" But there would be a little glint in her eyes, a little crook to her smile that let me know that there was some part of her that appreciated my curiosity in who my family was and is.  My grandmother, Francis Edualine Lopez, depicted in the first picture, above, had the same birthday as me. March 7th. It was something my grandmother, Mummy Hildred, always made sure I knew. And the way in which she told me was very much in the same spirit as she would, I think, hand me a family heirloom.  To be honest, ...

 Here is the video of Alanna Lockward's recent intervention at ‘On Afrophobia: Towards Decolonial Curatorial Approaches’ . This seminar was held on January 18th, 2016 at Valand Academy in Gothenburg, Sweden. Through interventions by curators, artists and researchers, the event offered different approaches towards decolonial curatorial practices – seeking to acknowledge and promote Afropean knowledge and visibility, hopefully counteracting through art, on the increasing Afrophobia in today’s Europe. With: Nana Adusei-Poku, Christine Eyene, Alanna Lockward and Christian Nyampeta. Moderated by Kjell Caminha.  The booklet with the abstracts can be seen here  http://kjellcaminha.com/ archive/ Afrophobia_seminar_booklet. pdf About Alanna Lockward: ALANNA LOCKWARD is a Berlin based Dominican author and decolonial catalyst. She is the founding director of Art Labour Archives, an exceptional platform centered on theory, political activism and art. Her interests are...

Ethelene Whitmire  in Kerteminde, Denmark in June 2015 visiting the town where painter William Henry Johnson lived and painted in the 1930s When we think about African Americans and Europe, it is James Baldwin and Josephine Baker which often pop up-- with Paris being the usual destination. One of the lesser known destinations however, has been Copenhagen. This small Scandinavian city has historically played a large role in the lives of many African American Artists. Figures such as writers Cecil Brown and Nella Larsen, Jazz musicians such as Ben Webster all had some connection to Copenhagen,  and this is exactly what Prof. Ethelene Whitmire from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Library & Information Studies, Affiliate: Afro-American Studies, Scandinavian Studies and Gender & Women’s Studies will explore in her upcoming study. Whitmire, who recently was awarded funding by the American-Scandinavian Foundation, will examine experiences of African Ame...