I’d been looking forward to this evening for a while. Checking my calendar every so often so I wouldn’t miss the date. You know, fan girl habits!

I’d managed to get a ticket…one degge degge, as we say in patois… to Kulturhuset’s final event in the 2oth anniversary of the International Writers Scene series. This would feature internationally acclaimed author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Amazingly, the visit was suggested and organized by ÖFK, Östersunds Fotbollsklubb who wrote to the author after reading Americanah in their book club. Big up the ballers! I thank them for the rest of us being able to tag along.

Chimamanda entered the stage wearing one of the fabulous creations from her project “Wear Nigerian”. The conversation between Chimamanda (she’s gone the way of the moniker a la Oprah and Beyoncé) and local journalist Amie Bramme Sey, who runs the podcast Raseriet, touched on the topics of racism and feminism, and was as uplifting as it was inspiring.

Chimamanda spoke of encountering, confronting, investigating and finally taking on “blackness”, a negative, foreign and artificial construction for someone who grew up in Nigeria. She spoke also of how feminism is inseparable from her being as a black woman, and called for nuance in the #metoo movement as a way of tackling the backlash.

I can’t recreate everything for you here, and these are out of context, but I can share some key phrases that touched me and will keep me pondering for a long while and will be subjects for many a KRULL discussion to come:

“I became black”

“America forces blackness on you”

“The only reason why color matters is racism”

“Some people just didn’t get the memo about black is beautiful”

And finally, in answer to the question by an audience member, “What is revolutionary about being a black woman?”

P.s. I want those shoes!!

– words & images ANDREA DAVIS KRONLUND