A lecture by Teju Cole
In a review of Teju Cole’s essay collection, Known and Strange Things, the American author Claudia Rankine said that it “journeys through all the landscapes he has access to: international, personal, cultural, technological and emotional.»
Cole’s notion of belonging is a global one: He is American, Nigerian, African, influenced by the histories of Europe, Asia and Latin America as well as those of North America and Africa. In his work, he crosses borders, real and imaginary, allowing his various influences and roots to connect and open up for both known and strange things.
In August, Teju Cole journeys to Norway, taking up a residency in Oslo, courtesy of Litteraturhuset and Kunstnernes Hus. In this lecture, Cole will elaborate on his Norwegian days. What happens when Cole looks at museums here, and joins what he sees with what he hears and reads? What do they reveal about the way we usually think in terms of us and them, and Norway’s place in the world?
Wednesday, August 29, Teju Cole will perform his critically acclaimed performance Black Paper (https://litteraturhuset.no/en/arrangement/black-paper-2/), about living in a Black body in Trump’s America, before meeting Valeria Luiselli and Nadifa Mohamed in conversation about migration, race, discrimination and the open wounds of history. (https://litteraturhuset.no/en/arrangement/precarious-bodies/)
Litteraturhuset Wergeland https://litteraturhuset.ticketco.events/no/nb/e/norwegian_days sesongåpning