Black Girls on Mars – anticolonial maps for lost lovers

Ghost Dance

You who name your corporations after forests you desecrate.

You who steal our land

You who do not know the blood of your history

You who think you are superior

You who never questioned

Your origins

You who never questioned the hierarchy

You who invented the hierarchy

You the architect of boxes

You who orchestrated the norm

You who speak with double tongue

You who build the courthouses

You who invent the poor

You who don’t like color

You who can not tolerate the sun

You who invade the land of others.

You who vomit your criminals unto the land of my ancestors

You who are criminals in suits

You who make corporations persons

You who criminalize love

You who imprison us at borders.

You who steal our children, our women

You who dump your garbage on us

You who steal our resources & say we are poor

You who steal our culture & say it is yours

You who call us cockroaches

You who lose our paperwork to say we are illegal

You who attempt to erase us

You who start wars

You who stole the land

You who drop bombs

You who steal & call us thieves

Dear Europe,

It is time we have a talk.

It is time we get our language and perspective straight.

It is time we acknowledge, once and for all:

That you are singularly responsible for all that is wrong with this world.

First, let’s get one thing straight:

The U.S.A is occupied territory.

Australia is occupied territory.

Canada is occupied territory.

South America is mostly, occupied territory.

New Zealand is occupied territory.

Palestine is occupied territory.

In none of these countries are the Indigenous a substantial part of government.

In none of these countries have those Native been allowed any room for a dignified existence.

Europe, take note of the historical havoc you have created.

But still you came. Came in the hundreds of thousands, even when we shared what we had with you. There was no border control to stem your flow. There was no wall to keep you out. You came. You took land. You raped our mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers. You killed us like game. For hundreds of years.

Let’s get this straight,

There are only a few things you are superior in.

And that is your ability to be duplicitous. Murderous. Treacherous.

There are only a few things you are superior in.

That is your ability to be duplicitous. Murderous. Treacherous.

We do not want your rapists, your pedophiles, your white male superiority, your defiling nature but now you wanna talk about saving the earth? When it is you, your corporations, your lifestyles, your culture that is wreaking havoc on this earth, our mother?

There is nothing more life-hating than your ways.

Let’s get this straight:

You cannot get rid of us.

We are of the earth.

Europe take back your children.

Whitey go home.

Petition for Europe to take her descendants back.

Go back to where you came from.

This performance poem is In the tradition of Gil Scott Heron, “Whitey on the moon” and John Trudell’s “Look at us” .

It explores the emotional terrain traversed when European settlers are spoken about in the same way Black and brown migrants are in western media.

Lesley-Ann Brown

Lesley-Ann has had a deep passion for writing since she was four years old and accidentally typed the word “roti” on her mother’s typewriter – a word that means “bread” in her culture, and seemed to underscore how vital this skill would be in her life.

Brown's writing career continued in high school when she experienced the feeling of accomplishment bestowed upon a writer when her work was published. Her story, “Take Time to Listen,” about a friend who discloses their sexuality to the other, was published in the school paper. Later, she and a host of other high school activists created “Spew,” a zine for the youth chapter of the War Resister’s League, further cementing her passion for publishing – a field she would officially enter while in college.

Brown went on to work for Welsh Publishing while studying writing at the New School in Manhattan. While at the New School, she studied under Jane Lazarre and Suzanne Lori Parks. At Welsh, she honed her commercial writing. After graduating from college, she assisted Marie D. Brown of Marie Brown Associates – a literary legend- and freelanced for magazines such as Vibe, The Source, and One World magazines.

Once she landed in Denmark, she focused on education and continued to publish in anthologies. she also began her critically-acclaimed blog, Blackgirl on Mars in 2005. She has two published books, one of which was recently nominated for “The Purple Prize.”

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