So I’m back from Europe and getting ready for a trip to Cambodia. here are 10 things i learned and/or observed about ‘dem Europeans: especially the Danes and Parisians:

1.) I now know where the faroe islands are, do you?
2.) Where the fuck is the dialogue about race consciousness? Europeans may snub their big pointy noses at Americans but thank god we had the civil rights movement to propel conversations and actions about racism. I had a good conversation with an Asian American friend living in Paris who talked about the anti-immigrant sentiment and xenophobia pervasive in France. I also had a great talk with a few Korean adoptees who constantly struggle around visibility and identity issues because the Danes just don’t talk openly about race.
3.) Scowls look the worst on Asian people – even if they’re asian people in Europe. we just look mean and ugly which is an awful combination. I had a Filipina in a Filipino corner store stare me down with a most unsightly scowl as I asked about the Filipino community in Denmark. it was like she knew I had an ugly past with Filipinos.
4.) Punk music sounds the same in any language – discordant, angry, loud and makes ya wanna mosh wildly and burn shit. I am honored to rock out to Punk music in Faroese while watching a giant size “fuck you” finger rotate towards the crowd. Viva La Punk Music!
5.) Thank god for Chinatown in the 13th Arrondissement in Paris or else I’d whither away ‘cuz I can’t eat crepes, mushy sandwiches, and creamy slimy entrées all the time.
6.) Copenhagen is a hot town for fashion! There are cute little boutiques owned by emerging designers and fashionistas all over town. Some are even sitting inside sewing new pieces for their line as they wait for customers. I spent way too much money on unique articles of clothing like skirts, shawls, and shirts and some more money on shoes and eyewear. People look damn fashionable and cute as they bike around the city. I will be one of those people as soon as I get my $20 bike from Liz.
7.) Paris is indeed for lovers. the next time I come it will be with a lover or with the intent to find a lover. it’s just wrong to walk along the Siene without someone to cuddle and kiss with as we romantically stroll along old cobblestone roads that remind me of French Colonialism and old gothic churches that remind me of the Bubonic Plague.
8.) If a Santeria priestess tells you to watch yr bags and purse while traveling, listen to her and be extra cautious! Clairvoyant people tell you shit for a reason. The priestess gave me a warning and low and behold – my friend who traveled with me to Paris got her new digital camera stolen while waiting in line at the fitting room of the Zara store. Note: if you are the thief of said incident – could you just send us the memory card that has all her pictures on it, si vous plait?
9.) I don’t understand why people buy so much shit at the Duty Free shops at the airport. there’s nothing cool in those shops. all they have is overpriced alcohol, cartons of smokes, and old people cologne. and if you shop outside the airport apparently you have to jump thru major hoops to get the whole V.A.T money thing back: you need to make sure you ask the shops for a form in which they have to fill out, the shop has to be a member of some global trade/tariff organization and you have to purchase over a certain amount (like $122) per receipt. otherwise you gotta pay their exhorbant sales tax. you get none of yr money back if ya don’t know how it works and of course no one explains this to you upon landing in Europe even though they encourage tourists to buy telling folks that they will get the tax money back. liars! capitalist scoundrels!
10.) I’ve brought the joy of jumping randomly and at landmarks to Europe. check out some of the shots below:
in Copenhagen I jumped with the UFO girls –the first and only all Korean adoptees’ performance group named Unidentified Foreign Objects – they like to wear masks while engaging in community activism, we settled for cloaking ourselves in scarves;
In Paris, I jumped while giving the finger to Churchill and had my cousin’s old French hubby jump with us;
In Torshavn, I jumped at little Stonehenge and near rolling hills!

you can see more pictures here on flickr:
PARIS 2006:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/atomicshogun/sets/72157594158292188/

COPENHAGEN 2006:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/atomicshogun/sets/72057594137029928/

First impressions its fucking cold and where are all the non-smokers?!!!! Everything I wear is soaked in cigarette stink. It’s really quite disgusting. It was actually after my first trip to Europe in 1998 that I completely gave up smoking due to the same kind of disgust. Once upon a time I said I would never travel anywhere that was colder than Chicago. It’s just not right to leave Chicago when it’s just warming up. But of course how often do I get to go to a remote place like The Faroe Islands – let alone share performance work with a completely different audience – everything paid for and then some! Second impressions: the weather is more unpredictable than Chicago; the Faroese love their sheep – meats and wools; mullet hairdos are still popular in Europe; I can’t really eat much of Faroese food – heavy carbs, lots of veal, and super creamy; a majority of the Asians you see in Scandinavia are adoptees; it never gets completely dark here.

Torshavn (pronounced Tors Hawn) is like a little New England town built on a giant series of grass covered rocks. Homes are colorful boxes with large windows built with corrugated metal rooftops. They look like “Lego” homes – many with grass grown on their roof. The Faroe Islands is a colony of Denmark and there are very few people who still talk about independence here. I was told that there was a time that people could not speak Faroese. Somehow the language survived as people secretly spoke it and taught it to their children. Now they are allowed to speak Faroese openly and use Faroese currency as well. What’s impressive about the Nordic Countries is that most people speak more than 2 languages – being their resident country language plus English and sometimes neighboring languages like Danish, German, Swedish, Finnish, etc.

Our time here was so short and full that I didn’t really gain a deep enough understanding of the culture. We arrived late night on Thursday (May 11) evening and had a difficult time finding food since places close down after 9-ish. Our hosts/curators found us some yummy veggie thin crust pizza – apparently the best pizza in town is found at a restaurant owned by an Iranian man. The Faroe Islands is also home to one of the most dangerous runways – apparently the runway is a little short so there have been numerous accidents. We didn’t know this coming in to the country.

The only Faroese word I picked up was “Skaal” which is something one shouts out when one wants to make a toast. Its like saying “cheers!” People here can drink and party – hard! Maybe it was just the artists I happen to be around – maybe we were all just trying to stay warm – maybe because the island life here is so boring. I didn’t pack warm clothes and ended up borrowing a down jacket from an Indonesian artist – tropical girl was more prepared than I was. Shame on me! The artists I rolled with gave the island a good dose of color and fierceness. I swear every time we ran into a person of color which was like all of 2 people they would look at us and have this strange curious expression of, “what are you doing here? Are you real?” The Faroe Islands has a total of 50,000 people with Torshavn numbering 16,000 people within the city.

The project I was invited to be part of is called “Rethinking Nordic Colonialism” which is a curated event in 5 parts that is hosted in 5 different cities within the Nordic countries over the course of 2006. What’s really powerful is that the curators wanted to have an international dialogue about living in post-colonial societies. The organizers not only wanted to bring attention to the marginalized voices of the Nordic country but also present powerful perspectives from performers and artists outside of the Nordic region. The goal was to show how history continues to structure the Nordic society today and how contemporary problems of intolerance, xenophobia and nationalism have their roots in this same history. So I was part of the spoken word series of performances on Saturday May 13 held at the Nordic House on The Faroe Islands. No one has ever heard of spoken word before on the Faroe Islands so I was happy to introduce the genre through my lens. All in all it was fabulous. I wasn’t nervous at all and just did my thing. I had a translator who translated the work simultaneously into Faroese in a headset

Thanks to the local Faroese band “200” – I realized that I’ve always had a special place in my heart for punk rock and I love rocking out to hard rock! I have a crush on the entire band ‘cuz they’re so damn political. The drummer gave me a copy of their CD and I had an interesting conversation with the lead vocalist about why he believed that the Faroese people are not in a post-colonial period ‘cuz they are still living as a colony. What’s so cool about this band is they rock hard – all in Faroese which apparently has never been done. The punk rock bands that come out of this island usually sing in English or Danish – 200 – was the first band to rock out in their native language and in a very political way. The band is not afraid to speak out about the Danish Empire, homophobia and Christian fundamentalism. 200 has an interesting sound that combines Elvis, the Ramones and everything anti-establishment! Oh and what’s so cool is that they rock out with a huge 12 feet tall rotating silver “fuck you” finger. (see picture below).

I was honored to share the evening with this local band along with NYC artist/activist Imani Henry, and fierce activists/artists Jane Jin Kaisen and Tobias Hubinette who through their work and research compared transnational adoption to a modern slave trade. Jane and Tobias are both Korean adoptees who’s ideas are a radical break from the usual dialogue regarding Scandinavia and international adoption. I was deeply moved by the details they provided in their accompanying installation project. My other favorite piece from the art exhibit was by local Faroese painter Rannva Holm Mortensen titled “Communication” – this painting was fiercely feminist, and full of images related to liberation, consumerism and violence. Her piece made me feel like she took one of my poems and made it come alive on her canvas.

Not sure if I’ll ever be back in the Faroe Islands but I was glad to have come and share my stories. I guess you can never really know what kind of impact you make. I know I was present and in the moment and gave pieces of myself and my stories without hesitation. Two young Faroese people did come up to me much later after the show – one was a teenage boy who is into rapping who told me he was very moved by my words and he wanted to keep practicing his own raps so he could sound as articulate one day. I took that as a compliment. He later showed me magic tricks he did with playing cards. The other is another young woman who didn’t have the words to express herself shortly after the performance so she wrote me a comment in my journal. Thanks Ditte for your words of support. It meant a lot!!!! I also connected with a Greenlandic artist – someone I consider to be an elder and doing very important work in documenting indigenous Greenlandic history through photography. By the way, the indigenous people of Greenland look Asian! I gave her a chapbook of my poems and hope we can stay connected despite the distance. All in all – I loved the people I connected with, was deeply moved by the breathtaking ecology of the Faroe Islands, and I know I’ll be back in this region again.

Thanks to Anna for coming out and helping with tech details for the show. And thanks to Tone Olaf Nielsen and Frederikke Hansen for inviting me to participate.

Now its on to Copenhagen and Paris for the week!!! Watch out for more subversive jumping action to happen!!! The world is in need of more local friendly activists – so says my friends from UFOlab!

View more of my pictures on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/atomicshogun/sets/72057594136039409/