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

As many of you know - I've been teaching for many years. Nothing however, can ever compare to my four years at a small private school in Copenhagen - where I taught for 4 years. I miss the kids everyday - BUT every so often I have moments like this: a feeling of pride as they step into the future, fulfilling what they have so longed for. Such a former student is Zanubia Omar. Zanubia was in my first ever homeroom class- and that class - man, we had a ball. We went to Amsterdam together and I had a couple of the best years of my life teaching this class of motley kids whose background hails from Lebanon, Palestine, Somalia, Turkey, Pakistan, Iraq...I could go on, but trust me when I tell you the representation was not only broad, but soo enriching. I learned so much from these kids. Here's a taste of Zanubia's writing - published on Exile - which is an initiative started by Farhiya Khalid, a Somali writer here in Denmark. Somalis make up the biggest group of people of...

The people of Copenhagen turned out to support Black Lives Matter movement and demand for total stop on war against Black People with powerful speech and songs from the African Diaspora in Copenhagen.  See the turn out at the protest from 18:07 to 18:20 Last Thursday on July 14th, 2016 I was invited to speak at the Black Lives Matter protest demonstration here in Copenhagen. The event was arranged quickly and quite efficiently by M ary Consulate Namagambe  and Sade Johnson.  I know both women through the activism and events which they are both very active in either arranging and/or supporting for people of African descent here in Denmark. There was about 500 people who showed up to this beautiful demonstration. There were people who I knew from way back like photographer David Morrow (who also hails from the States), former colleagues and students. There were new friends,  like Aka Mørch Ped...

"We are talking theoretically. I am very angry. Are we going to talk theoretically, while people are dying?"  -- Napuli Paul Langa It's been a few weeks now since BE.BOP 2016 was held both in Berlin and here in Copenhagen and it's almost impossible for me to cover the deep and engaging content that I was privy too. There is one presentation however, which I feel to be timely, given the recent goings-on not only in my own life, but in the world at large. The presentation was by Napuli Paul Langa, the featured activist in the film, Napuli's Tree by Yoel Diaz Vazquez. The film captures the events of April 2014, when activists in 14 German cities organized protests, marches and creative actions in response to the "Refugee crisis." BE.BOP 2016 Black Europe Body Politics: Call &Response catalogue reads, "In an act of contemporary marronage, refugee and activist Napuli Langa took action by climbing a sycamore tree on Oranienplatz.  She ...