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

You can't keep a good woman down! Bandit Queen Press is back, in time for your holiday shopping! Why not get the poetry lover in your life an original, handmade & numbered collection of poetry from Copenhagen, Denmark by Brooklyn writer Lesley-Ann Brown? The Organist's Daughter : A collection of poetry about growing up in Brooklyn to Trinidadian parents. Bureau 39: A zine to end all zines. Contains the work of Mark Valley, Elisa Donovan, Suheir Hammed, Tony Medina, Willie Perdomo among others Blackgirl on Mars: Notes on a Life in Copenhagen : A poetic reflection of living in a foreign country & becoming a mother. Each book is UNIQUE, numbered & handmade. email me at blackgirlonmars@gmail.com for more details! farvel, the lab

It's cold outside and I'm sitting in this fabulous house in a suburb of Copenhagen. It's quite early - I tend to wake up early - and I have just completed reading a 26 page manuscript of fantastic poetry. Bandit Queen Press is proud to announce that a new volume of poetry is in the making - stay tuned for details. I am excited by this creator's work - her voice speaks to me in a way that I have been searching for. As with all things in the universe, spiritual timing is of utmost importance - and the timing of this is all so fortuitous. This writer (whose name I shall not reveal until later) has a solid body of work. The range of her experiences and insight are exactly what we can use in this world right now- assisting us in the never-ending process of expanding our perspectives/consciousness. She represents everything that Bandit Queen Press stands for and that is empowered women heal the world. 

click on flyer for details

When we speak of awareness, what do we mean? The word itself means to be wary, to be awake, to recognize what may easily be overlooked. It implies a state of heightened consciousness in which we respond to individual sights and sounds and more, more importantly, to the meanings of our perceptions, our feelings, our thoughts, our actions, and our resolutions. In short, to be aware is to be alive to ourselves, to our personal being. In literature awareness goes by other names. A writer is said to be aware when he or she responds to experience with understanding, imagination, sympathy. All these terms imply that the writer has seen vividly, has felt intensely, has recorded exactly memorable impressions, that, by virtue of his or her literary skill, come into our possession. Henry James summed up his advice to young writer in two principles. The first was: "Write from experience only." But then James hastened to add: "Try to be one of the people on whom nothing is lost!...

I can sense the transformative energy of fall nipping at the heels of summer. Many are dissatisfied with the Danish summer this year: lots of rain, little sun. It was like that the first year I arrived here. In the garden close to where I now live, you can see the browning of green: little corners of leaves signaling the impending darkness of winter...ugh! But I discovered zucchini and tomatoes growing there as well...life persists... I can't say that I mind the weather. I was locked up somewhere, working on my novel (yes, a brand new one!) I was surrounded by peace and quiet. Solitude. I was able to contemplate. Yes! Don't forget to stop by Bandit Queen Press . It is what nourishes Blackgirl on Mars...it is what keeps her sane. And I know that you want to support that! ;-) farvel, the lab

(lyrics below, tweaked a bit by the discerning eye of the bandit queen!) When the police come yo she ready for whatever Never talk to the cops cus she got her mind together A down to earth mother earth living at the speed of life She don't need a ring to be my wife A truly independent woman, not a destiny's child Not depending on money or fashion to have style She got nuff style - rough style - diamond in the ruff Not a dimepiece in the back, she a diamond in the front ... seat by my side ready to ride ... Ain't nothing superficial like marriage and shit A truly holy matrimony, she my homie I forget about this evil world when she hold me... She love freedom like I do She need music like I do I need a bandit queen (a bandit queen) A real woman that can bring out the man in me I said a bandit queen (a bandit queen) Independent enough so she can handle me Ey yo a bandit queen (yes a bandit queen) She the mother of humanity I need a bandit queen (a bandit queen) She look good b...

The enigmatic legend of the Bandit Queen Bandit Queen is a highlander, she is 20 years old, she is 1000… She is the image of everyone and heritage for everyone. An elusive deity.Limitless lives escaping from conformitySome say that she was born in the 15th Century in a castle in Bavaria and that she was burnt at the stake, others claim that she was the daughter of an Indian Thakur and that she could have known the Enlightenment in Europe. You can find her in certain Russian books from the 30s that talk of her incomparable skill for entertaining… As a phoenix, she rises from the ashes. The tempestuous character who will challenge you Don’t suppose you will escape from her attention. She is a practical joker. Event if you do not see her, she will take care of you. From her several lives, she learned to see beyond the apparence of good or bad and to travel into all circles including with struggling people. Open to interference, and destabilizing elements, she has a lot of friends and lot ...

Tree crowns look like mountain tops & sky lines look like ocean views, deflated men exit OTB's thier dreams dismantled-- yesterday's news. Mother sits next to child a wall of hostility in the air, rocked by the movement of the train, the child, she doesn't stare. Project boys rig intercom systems love heavy on thier hearts, anything just to ring her... Recycling bins sit next to Redemption Centers, Sundays the hats as varied as Africa a laundry basket so full it regurgitates it's contents, clothes spill over all over the carpet, horses are metal with the glitziest of rims sneakers land on concrete hopscotch next to garbage bins. Cardboard smelling streets subways of wet metal steam whistles constanly out of a forgotten kettle. a little brown girl sits at a shaky kitchen table the ripped plastic digs into her young skin she eats salt fish and looks out the window as a plastic clock bought on Flatbush chips away at her lifetime.

This will probably be my last post from Denmark this month and since I won't have computer access in Trinidad, it very well might be all you hear from me until I get back! The countdown has begun--we're off in a couple of days and I need to get packing. I'm doing something very un-Trinidadian on this trip: I'm packing light! As my grandmother will undoubtedly say, "She come here with two hand swinging!" Yes readers, wish me luck, as far as I know, no other Trinidadian have ever attempted this feat (well, perhaps that is why I am the Yankee Girl!) The reason for traveling light is easy: I need to trek across London with my son and I figure the less we have to carry, the more we can enjoy our trip. Also, I figure that as long as I take my grandmother a gift, I won't be in doghouse. Gift giving is really deep in my culture where the perception is that if you are coming from abroad you should bring presents for family members and friends "home". Yest...