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

The best place to buy a book, if you were to ask me, is from a bookshop. I love bookshops & believe in supporting them. If however, you would like to order my book online, here are two links. One is for my publisher in London, the other is for Amazon - but there are many other book sellers on the internet you can choose from. Thanks for your support!  UK & Europe: Repeater Books  US, North America & the Caribbean  Amazon:

“I do believe she is to Copenhagen, what Baldwin is to Paris.” –Olani Ewunnet, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin On Thursday October 18th,  I had the distinct pleasure of sitting down with Olani Ewunnet from SAVVY Contemporary in Berlin, Germany where we spoke about some of the many themes that I cover in my book such as decolonization, sonics, Black American parent-to-child letter writing traditions, the normalization of white supremacy and finding joy and community in the midst of struggle. And in case you've missed it, here's a recent interview I did what the U.S.'s oldest African American newspaper the Amsterdam News http://amsterdamnews.com/news/2018/sep/13/author-decolonial-daughter-discusses-motherhood-ra/ & you've got exactly one day to get your Decolonial Daughter tote bag! https://teespring.com/en-GB/decolonial-daughter-tote-bag?tsmac=store&tsmic=repeater-books#pid=442&cid=101303&sid=front

Prof. Dr. Gloria Wekker & I at BE.BOP 2018: Coalitions Facing White Innocence photo credit:  This post was originally published on Facebook on Monday September 17th, 2018:  In my book, I write about the Combahee River Collective but I neglected to write that it was a Black Lesbian collective. I ommitted the word "lesbian" not on purpose, but because of my own ignorance embedded in my extremely heteronormative socialization and lapse in self-interrogation on how this has influenced my gaze. I now understand the violence of that omission and I apologize for this. It was something I spoke to Prof. Dr. Gloria Wekker about when I had the privilege of  meeting her this past summer at BE.BOP 2018 and I had asked her how I could remedy it. This is part of this remedy - and of course it will be rectified in future printings. I'm writing about this now, because when I read the manifesto of the Combahee River Collective - the words resonated with me. There can be no liber...

Here's a film featuring different artists and creators regarding Black representation in Denmark. I'm pleased to have been a part of this project that includes I Am Queen Mary co-creator Jeannette Ehlers, the journal Marronage and Bridge Radio. This program also features some of my poetry.

It's been a little over three weeks now since the official publication of my book, and it truly has been an overwhelmingly positive experience.  At first, I was a bit intimidated  - but then I reminded myself that that was all part of the process and in fact a sign that I was doing the right thing.  Since its publication I hear from someone every day (thank you readers!) about how much they connected with Decolonial Daughter: Letters from a Black Woman to her European Son. This feedback from you the readers gift me with the experience of realising that I have been successful in what I had set out to do.  This is no small thing. There has been a lot happening, so I'll have to follow this up with more posts. One of the themes in my book is that of radical heal, or as Alanna Lockward reminded me this past BE.BOP 2108: Coalitions Facing White Innocence (more on this later!) decolonial healing.  This book is a physical manifestation of a chapter in my life bei...

celebrating the publication of my book with my former students! photo courtesy of Zozo Ntokazi Mposula  My book is in the front window of Politiken boghandel in Copenhagen! photo courtesy Martyn Bone  When I was a little girl growing up in Brooklyn, my childhood was often disrupted by the toxicity of domestic violence. I knew that my parents loved me, but there was a rage that would come over my father that  rendered all in the household in a deep state of terror. Often, we the children, would fear for our own lives, knowing from experience that even our own mother could not protect us.  I write these words this Sunday morning because I remember, as clear as ever, one day when I was a child, witnessing my father in one of his rages, I made a pact with the universe that I would dedicate my life, through my writing, to healing not only the trauma that my body still remembers to this day, but that I would speak up about these experiences...

(You can read the Danish version here:  http://atlasmag.dk/kultur/bøger/fortæl-mig-hvordan-det-ender ) There’s something about children that often seem to bring into relief the extreme hypocrisies that we adults learn to tacitly accept in our society. There’s something about the angle of their focus, their oftentimes fresh perspectives that can often highlight the complicated deceptions and contradictions too many of us accept without ever even realizing it. Children sometimes have the power to awaken us to the realities at hand – and they can often inspire us to demand better from this world. Valeria Luiselli’s uses this catalyst to great effect in her latest book, entitled Tell Me How it Ends, An Essay in Forty Questions (4 th Estate, London, UK. 2017). The “Tell Me How It Ends” part happens to be the common refrain of her daughter whenever Luiselli tells her about the cases of the undocumented, unaccompanied minors that she volunteers to help in the New York City...

I was featured on Black Girls Allowed! "I wrote  Decolonial Daughter: Letters from a Black Woman to her European Son  not just for my son, but for all the children of the so-called west, so that there is balance to the lies that they are taught in school. As an educator, I felt it was my duty to offer another perspective, a “lion learns to write” sort of action, a decolonial practice, a practice that has taught me that it is not politics that will set us free, but a re-spiritualization process to counteract what my friend Food Justice Warrior Kelly Curry calls the “despiritualization” of our culture."  click on the link below for more:  https://dangerouslee.biz/lesley-ann-brown/

https://soundcloud.com/bridgeradio/intersectional-ways-of-working-together In this 4th program in the seria 'Staying with the trouble's of privileges in common spaces' by the bridge radio, we will be focusing on intersectionality and how to develop intersectional practices in groups that work together across privilege. We will be talking about how and why intersectionality is important to think at the core of how we think and organize our social struggles. Our guest with us is writer, educater and activist Lesley-Ann Brown who was one of the organiser of women’s march in 2017 in Copenhagen. She will soon be coming out with ther book 'Decolonial Daughter: Letters from a Black Woman to her European Son'. We interviewed Lesley Anna brown on her experience and opinion on the topic of intersectionality and working together in activism spaces. We will be talking about decolonisation, reproduction of discrimination and self healing in activist spaces. You will also...

Continuing our conversation on Radical Healing, Food Justice warrior Kelly Curry joins hosts Lesley-Ann Brown & Deborah Cowell to discuss her new book "Until the Streets of the Hood Flood with Green" which chronicles the birth of TESLA. We speak about the importance of eating and drinking electric food, our relationship to the earth and how it has been informed by colonialism + slavery and exposing children to living foods. Curry also talks about the influence of Eldridge Cleaver on her work, how his observation of "the system organising our children into poverty" led first to the Black Panthers Breakfast programme, which the Federal Government coopted in later years. We speak about the school to prison pipeline and asks most importantly, "How are you healing today?"  To make a donation to The Electric Smoothie Lab, please visit their fiscal sponsor,  http://plantingjustice.org Please indicate in the comments section that the donation is for Th...