
Welcome friends. I’m back at the blogging thing in preparation for Summer 16. This summer is going to be lit. I’m heading to Johannesburg and Cape Town South Africa for a five week study abroad. The program centers on post-apartheid social exclusion and residential segregation, investigating political movements and the integration of global economics with local cultural practice. A lot of different things. I haven’t researched much prior to my departure next week but will be using my time off at home to begin class readings, pack, prep my camera, and whip together a bomb summer playlist. After spending this spring in Selma, and last summer in Ferguson and St. Louis, I am excited to gain perspectives on race and conflict in a new landscape. My goal for the summer is to (1) keep a written daily notes journal and (2) post weekly blogs. I think this is feasible. As a neuroscience major and student activist on campus, I often don’t get the chance to reflect and write on the many intersecting parts of my work and identity. Most of my reflection is disjointed, existing as random thoughts within my head and notes on my phone. This won’t do. As I’ve become dedicated to Travel Noire, and the necessity of Black travel, documenting my trips is becoming more important. Travel is privilege and travel is a new way to view my identity as a Black-identifying Nigerian immigrant traveling to a predominately black country steeped in troubling racial politics. This blog is a means to share but also a means for me to learn. It is for me and it is for you. (I will be blogging on behalf of Northeastern’s Global Experience Office blog, speaking specifically on my experiences and identity abroad and co-posting/supplemental posting to my site.)
Blogs:
- Keeping an Open Mind and Desire to Learn
- Beginnings in Johannesburg: Cultural Resistance and Reconciliation
- The Right To Housing: Discomfort and Connections
- Community History and Landscape
- Thoughts on Food Security and Justice
- Woodstock
- Security and Safety Abroad
- The Myth of Culture Shock