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

"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 ...

It was a year ago on June 17th, 2015 when a lone gunman entered the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina and murdered nine, including the church's senior pastor state senator Clementa C. Pickney.  21 year-old Dylan Roof was the gunman who stated that he had hoped to spark a race war. Roof knew what he was doing when he targeted the oldest African Methodist church in the South, which has always been a bastion of resistance for African Americans starting with Denmark Vesey who it is said, was responsible for planning a thwarted rebellion against whites in order to gain freedom for he and his people. The plan would have included a trip to the Republic of Haiti, if all had gone well. According to Wiki  Vesey and five slaves were among the first group of men rapidly judged guilty by the secret proceedings of a city-appointed Court and condemned to death; they were executed by hanging on July 2, 1822. Vesey was about age 55. In later p...

Berlin chronicles. Am in Berlin as one of the writers on a Daad Fellowship.. This is one of the most prestigious fellowships in the world. Berlin is a city of bikes. I live in Charlottenburg. You don't see black people in Charlottenburg. Today I was out shopping on my bike. I came out of Peek and Somethingburg all excited because I am off to dar es salaam tonight to see my in -love. Anyway am busy rushing about. My gorgeous apartment is a mess. Anyway, I am walking as carelessly as usual heading to unlock my bike when i see her - a black woman looking at me. She says, " I saw you the other day, cycling carelessly, on Saturday we buried 4 Ghanians. They kill you just like that you are nothing to them. Me-you cant see me on bicycle - they are supposed to remain 4 metres from you, but they don't. They kill you. I don't need a degree to say she meant Germans. But I am careless, and Berlin is a city designed for careless people. Except her - and I suspect they are many ot...

  Maroon  | məˈro͞on |  noun a member of any of various  communities  in parts of the Caribbean who were  originally  descended from escaped slaves. In the 18th century Jamaican Maroons fought two wars against the British  settlers , both of which ended with  treaties  affirming the independence of the Maroons .-- The New Oxford American Dictionary What is it that you think about when you hear the word "maroon"? Is it the color? Is it as a verb - as in, 'to be marooned'? Abandoned? Or is it in the sense of creating safe spaces, amidst hostile territories in the way many captured Africans and their descendents did in Jamaica and other areas throughout the diaspora?  The fact remains, and we can never emphasize it enough, that the maroon is the only true popular hero of the Caribbean...an indisputable example of systematic opposition, of total refusal.   --Edouard Glissant Danish-Trinidadian artist Jea...

writer, artist, curator Alanna Lockward of Art Labour Archives photo courtesy of Simmi Dullay Yesterday witnessed the kick off of BE.BOP 2016 Black Body Politics: Call & Response.  An Art Labour Project curated by Alanna Lockward, BE.BOP is a loving decolonial space that gathers artists, thinkers, educators and political activists from all over the diaspora (over 20 countries). At last count countries included those on the continent of Africa  (Senegal, Ghana, Sudan, Senegal to name a few), Europe (Sweden, Denmark, Berlin, Switzerland etc.), South America and the Caribbean. This year's theme is that of 'marronage' - stemming from the concept of "maroon" - that space created by our ancestors who refused to be enslaved. What does it mean to create a community amidst the enemy?  The event began with a panel discussion based on the publication of BE.BOP 2012-2014 in Argentina. It includes the work of Erna Brodber, Fatima El Tayeb, Walter Mignolo, Teresa...