By Yovanka Paquete Perdigao

I have been quite slow to think and react about the migrant crisis affecting Europe. I am a Black woman living in London with many privileges, more preoccupied with my life’s problems such as where to go to party for Notting Hill Carnival, a job, boyfriends, crap TV, friends’ skirmishes, etc. Living in a life relatively free of worries on security, food, and a home has meant that in the whirlwind of life I forget myself.

By Marissa Jackson, Esq.
Visiting Scholar, West African Research Center (CROA)

I hate the Harlem Shake. The meme is amusing, and the execution thereof occasionally hilarious or adorable. The song is, in my opinion, of negligible cultural or artistic value, but where the YouTube videos are concerned it gets the job done. In fact, if I were not so offended by the Harlem Shake, I would probably take a couple hours of out my day to make a Harlem Shake video here in Dakar, Senegal, where I recently moved (from a certain New York neighborhood). Just because.