Posts

Showing posts from 2017

A Poem for Lesley-Ann by Ayun

Image
Say It Loud! Poetry Collective (from left to right: Brown, Qwin, Ayun, Teju, Sabita, Zanubia & Julia) To think of smiling as a simple act of stretching ones mouth so as to show contentment that releases the drawn in lines of a frown that was etched onto your brow is never enough. Life drew the lines on your face, with each bout of sorrow and of joy, that lights up the brown of your dark face. And the dark face that hosts solemn eyes protest what the world has determined you would be. You carry an eternity of sorrows, and still you laugh Like the old black people from the country I am from, From deep within your chest, the echoes of that forgotten time, from before you were born but existed roll out from your belly and form a sound of dry branches beating against each other on warm days where the wind blows and whispers all our names. You can never only smile. There is, always, too much in a smile that remembers, always, the perfect ...

Pre-order Decolonial Daughter: Letters from a Black woman to her European Son

Image
Available from May 15th, 2018  A Trinidadian-American writer and activist explores motherhood, migration, identity, nationhood and how it relates to land, imprisonment, and genocide for Black and Indigenous peoples.  Having moved to Copenhagen, Denmark from Brooklyn over 18 years ago, Brown attempts to contextualise her and her son's existence in a post-colonial and supposedly post-racial world where the very machine of so-called progress has been premised upon the demise of her lineage. Through these letters, Brown writes the past into the present - penned from the country that has been declared "The Happiest Place in the World" - creating a vision that is a necessary alternative to the dystopian one currently being bought and sold. You can pre-order here:  In the UK: You can order here In the US: You can order here 

Vegan Oxtails

Image
http://korennrachelle.blogspot.dk/2016/11/how-to-make-vegan-oxtails.html?spref=tw

Faith Ringgold: The Ancestors Came

Image
From Youtube: Cecile Emeke’s film celebrates the life of artist and writer Faith Ringgold and the influence of her childhood in Harlem on her work. Faith Ringgold’s posters All Power to the People (1970) and United States of Attica (1971-2) are currently on display in the Tate Modern exhibition Soul of A Nation: Art in the Name of Black Power.

Roi Kwabena "Cascadura"

Image

La Vaughn Belle & Tiphanie Yanique: Alternative Histories

from Soundcloud : As a part of the exhibition ”Blind Spots” in The Black Diamond in Copenhagen, writer Tiphanie Yanique and artist La Vaughn Belle were invited in to talk about creativity, images and alternative histories in their works of art. In conversation with art historian Temi Odumosu they discuss these topics. The conversation took place on the 1st of June 2017.

The Spirit of Tengri

Image

Musings from Copenhagen

Image
Say it loud! poetry collective's last reading at Copenhagen's Main Library which was fire. featuring Ayun (Angola) Julia (Mozambique, Denmark), Zanubia (Somalia, Denmark) & myself. So proud of these poets.  I'm so thankful for my life - and the many opportunities that I continue to attract. I've deactivated my Facebook account as it's not conducive (for me, anyway!) to have it while I finish up the first draft of my book Decolonial Daughter: Letters from a Black mother to her European Son and I've had a few folks reach out, worried, "Lesley! Are you okay?" they ask, "I don't see your posts anymore!" It's sweet whenever I hear this - I've always had a complicated relationship with Facebook but it wasn't always like that. In the beginning, Facebook was the shizzle .  But like all good things, it got so pimped out by capitalism. Le sigh .  Also, my algorithms compute to political doom, because my newsfeed was just fe...

Flight to Denmark

Image

Xochipilli

Image
When we talk about Sankofa - reaching to the past for the information needed to take us into the future, what becomes most evident in even the most cursory glance of global indigenous cultures, is the importance of non-binary sexuality, or what is often referred to as "two spirit". We learn that our brothers and sisters who did not fit into the extreme polarised constructs of "male" and "female" actually occupied positions of great importance in the societies in which they lived. I came across Xochipilli today - may his spirit inspire the world.  from Wiki: Xochipilli   [ʃu˕ːt͡ʃiˈpiɬːi]  was the god of art, games, beauty, dance, flowers, and song in  Aztec mythology . His name contains the  Nahuatl  words  xochitl  ("flower") and  pilli  (either "prince" or "child"), and hence means "flower prince". As the patron of writing and painting, he was called Chicomexochitl the "Seven-flower," but ...
Image

The Future

Image

The Original Holocaust.

Image
Image

Brook Stephenson

Image
Today I saw someone who looked just like Brook Stephenson (February 21st, 1974- August 29, 2015) at the busiest train station in Copenhagen, Nørreport Station. He looked so much like Brook, I considered asking him if I could take a picture with him. I decided not to - but seeing this doppelgänger reminded me how much I missed this friend, supporter and literary peer. I found some pictures of Brook today - from when I returned to the States, just to be at his Rhode Island Writer's Colony - an act that fortified me in ways I am still unpacking.

Graphic Design at the Scandinavian Design High School

Image
Just found these images from about a couple of years ago when the above mentioned school used my text for a graphic design exercise.  Click on the first image & then you'll get a slideshow!