Lọlá Ákínmádé
@LolaAkinmade
Followers
15,109
Following
11,758
Media
4,493
Statuses
41,158
@Hasselblad Heroine, Storyteller + Photographer + Believer. WROTE: @InEveryMirror @NotEnoughBook @LagomBook @DueNorthBook - RUN: @GeotravelMedia 🇳🇬 🇺🇸 🇸🇪
Stockholm, Sweden
Joined December 2008
Don't wanna be here?
Send us removal request.
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Pinned Tweet
Here’s your chance to travel with me to
#Mongolia
,
#Montenegro
,
#Croatia
,
#BosniaHerzegovina
, and
#SwedishLapland
on my
@GeotravelMedia
photo experiences! -
Only 6 spots on each trip so sign up as soon as you can!
#phototour
#tour
#womenintravel
#travel
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@theferocity
It’s so exhausting. One was looking over my shoulder trying to read my seat number as if I’m mistaken.
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@susanbgoldberg
Thank you so much for your poignant
@natgeo
op-ed. Thank you! As a travel photographer also repped by
@NatGeoCreative
and of Nigerian descent, I’ve been fighting for years to change that narrative through my own images of people
#Respect
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I remember taking this photo of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie at the Stockholm Literature Festival in 2013. I had a press badge on.
She asked me if I was also Nigerian, smiled, and posed for this shot.
Behind her… a sea of homogenous faces witnessing our moment of connection. 1/2
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My mom just turned 70 looking like this, so I officially need to get my life together 💖🌸🙌🏾
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I swear… What is it about a Black woman sitting quietly minding her own business that just triggers some people?
I’m sitting in my car waiting with the engine running since it’s -7 degrees... I see this woman whose car is parked in front of mine. /1
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If you’re stunned by all the incredible Black authors releasing books and sweeping awards lately, you better be outraged by decades of gatekeeping that kept so many of those voices out of the industry for far too long.
#OwnVoices
#Publishing
#WritingCommunity
#BlackVoices
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Then she walks up to me. I wind down like “Yes?”
She says I should turn off my engine and move because it’s bothering her.
In a public grocery parking lot
I wound my window back up & took a photo of her car too.
The daily micro aggressions are real.
#MiddleAgedWhiteWoman
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When you think you're the 5th
@U2
band member... This guy wins the night!!!
#joshuatreetour2017
#U2TheJoshuaTree2017
#CrokePark
#Winning
#U2
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So proud of the little man I’m raising.
Me reading
@Lupita_Nyongo
’s book,
#Sulwe
, to him about a beautiful little girl who felt she wasn’t beautiful because she was too dark.
My son: “Don’t they have a mirror at home? Hasn’t she looked in the mirror yet?”
🥰❤️
#BlackBeauty
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Peak
#swedesplaining
…
White Swedish man: “I read your
@nytimes
article.”
Me waiting for feedback: “Ok?”
White Swedish man: “I’ll send you a more nuanced article…”
And he sends me an article by another White man in Swedish discussing only the dinner tradition.
#SwedenGate
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When I moved to
#Stockholm
13 years ago, I gave up my comfortable life as a GIS system architect to start from scratch as a storyteller.
Fast forward 13 years, life has moved so fast that I sometimes forget to stop and count God’s blessings.
Today I stopped… 🙏🏾❤️
#Gratitude
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My solo
#exhibition
is officially open at Galleri Mats Bergman / Edition Vulfovitch in
#Stockholm
& runs through May 28. You’ll find two floors of my fine art
#photography
-> Norrtullsgatan 53
For limited edition signed prints, you can buy from
Välkomna!
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I have explored so many memorable places all over Sweden but this place will stay with me for awhile... Rock carvings at Nämforsen dating as far back as 4,500 B.C.
#Sweden
#Culture
#History
#Archeology
@swedense
@visitsweden
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She already looks nervous because she’s loading her trunk with groceries. As if I’m going to attack her and steal her groceries. Then I see her typing something on her phone and then taking a quick picture of me in my own car… /2
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A 2nd two-book deal is a blessing. So thrilled for
@WmMorrowBooks
's pre-empt, 6-figure offer for my next books
@NotEnoughBook
&
@DeepestWellBook
. Witnessing the tight collaboration between WM &
@HoZ_Books
has been breathtaking. Grateful to have found homes where I can bloom 🙏🏾❤️
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”Two things can always be true: You can be a world leader when it comes to certain issues and still have a lot of work to do in your own backyard.”
@CNN
invited me to write an opinion piece. Thank you
@StephanieBusari
🙏🏾
#Sweden
#inclusion
#publishing
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When journalist Yvonne Perkins / Dagens ETC reached out to interview me, I was expecting a one pager on my book
@ineverymirror
.
The result… A solid 8-page spread & mag cover (!) about my career, life in
#Sweden
+ all hats I wear.
Thank you. So grateful 🙏🏾
📸 Linnéa Tammerås
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@jerichobrown
I so feel you on this! I once sat next to a white lady who asked what I did. I mentioned some things including
@NatGeo
. She looked at me and said “Really? I thought you had to be extraordinary to be published by them?!”. The silence after she said that to me, a complete stranger.
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@iamyvettehenry
I always say one of the most triggering images in society is a Black woman who dares to thrive.
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Insulting is when a major credit card company reaches out to collaborate and says they can't offer compensation. I work way too hard to warrant this kind of disrespect.
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As my family passed another along a hiking trail, I heard the mother say to her kids in Swedish - "You don't need to say hello."
Now, I may be an idealist, but I bet 20-30% of Sweden's integration issues could easily be solved if we simply acknowledged each other with hellos.
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It was her AMERICANAH that inspired me to dig deeper into my own experience as a Black woman immigrant, now naturalized Swede, in Sweden.
It was what birthed IN EVERY MIRROR SHE’S BLACK
@ineverymirror
& EVERYTHING IS NOT ENOUGH
@NotEnoughBook
Books I was meant to write. 2/2
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“Aunties” transcend culture, boundaries, and language. Aunties are universal 😅🙌🏾❤️
Portrait from
#Mongolia
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Can't make this up. Instead of hiring a Black person, they simply photoshopped and filled in the color of the hand. Because why bother?
Oh, and how do we know? Our palms are not the same color as our hands.
Sweden, I love you, but this is not how to do diversity and inclusion.
Har officiellt DÖÖÖÖTT vem fan har photoshoppat den här handen svart? Tips 1. Gör inte så idiot. Tips 2. En svart människas handflata är LJUS!?!🤠 ajajaj 📸
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A company valued at $168 billion (not million) should not ask me to come speak for free about diversity and inclusion during Black History Month.
And no, I’m not dropping names.
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How I celebrate sisters living their dreams, daring to live audaciously, and killing it within their fields 🙌🏾❤️
#BlackGirlMagic
#BlackWomenTwitter
#ProudlyAfrican
| Footage: The Colors of Africa, Fashion by AMBA at MQ Vienna Fashion Week 2018
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The fact that the official account of
@AuschwitzMuseum
had to tweet this makes me so angry. The current social media culture of doing everything for the 'gram is cultivating this continual disrespect of people, places, and cultures. Everything is not a photo op
#Respect
When you come to
@AuschwitzMuseum
remember you are at the site where over 1 million people were killed. Respect their memory. There are better places to learn how to walk on a balance beam than the site which symbolizes deportation of hundreds of thousands to their deaths.
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On Jan 18 last year I tweeted a 2-book deal into existence.
Exactly one year later, it happened.
Jan 18. This was unplanned.
The universe listens. It truly does 🙏🏾
Thank you to my incredible
@HoZ_Books
family for bringing
@NotEnoughBook
this October!
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One of the most inspiring and incredible moments of my life 🙌🏾 with
@MichelleObama
in
#Stockholm
#IAmBecoming
#MichelleObama
#vipnation
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Speaking of disrespect... If my author friend hadn’t flagged this, a publisher would have used a photo of a random Black woman to illustrate me & my contribution to the book that is about to go to print. Yes, you read right. Using a stock photo of another woman to illustrate me.
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Meet the amazing launch team who got The Black Travel Alliance
@TheBlackTravelA
off the ground and is now being amplified and joined by hundreds of fellow Black travel creators🖤
#PullupForTravel
#BlackTravelAlliance
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Semla? Already? 😉
Have you ever tried the beloved, seasonal Swedish pastry ‘semla’? It’s traditionally made up of a cardamom bun filled with sugary almond paste and topped with whipped cream😋
Find out more about the semla bun here:
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Unboxing… She’s absolutely stunning 🙌🏾💖🧡💚
Three weeks away until EVERYTHING IS NOT ENOUGH
@NotEnoughBook
drops 🔥
Thank you
@HoZ_Books
for my UK copies and
@OnyiWrites
for that incredible scorcher of a cover quote! 😍
#EverythingIsNotEnough
#Book
#Fiction
#Publishing
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@dancingofpens
This is a great and important post. Hope you don’t delete it. I addressed this very issue in the first two opening pages of my upcoming novel
@ineverymirror
! 🧡❤️🖤
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DUE NORTH is a collection of
#travel
observations, reflections, and snapshots across colors, cultures, and continents. Pick up your copy today!
#TravelBook
#TravelTuesday
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After an arduous journey to publication, only glitter would do. How I celebrated
@ineverymirror
in
#Stockholm
on Sept 7! 🎉 Thank you to all who came 🙌🏾🧡❤️🖤 -
#InEveryMirrorShesBlack
#Fiction
#OwnVoices
#WeDidIt
#BookTwitter
#BookTwt
#Debut
#authorlife
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Honoring BOTH
@theblackpanther
and
@WomanKingMovie
here in Sweden with this warrior woman king look 🙏🏾🖤
Channeling all that power as we head into the dark throes of winter.
#Sweden
#Stockholm
#WomanKing
#WakandaForever
#AfroSwede
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Authors, especially women, of color deserve so much better.
my heart is broken. today i had one of those book events that authors of color warn each other early about, and that we hope no one else has to ever endure
⠀
-the event was for a women’s association, and i was one of three authors to speak. the other authors were a white man and
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Just back… Netherlands 🇳🇱 + France 🇫🇷 Mother-Daughter getaway. More like steal-away. I travel quite a bit with both kids. I simply keep those memories/faces publicly offline. I want them to decide how they want to show up in the world on their own terms & when they’re ready ❤️
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Looks like someone at
@MurdochBooks
was "inspired" by my book cover published in 2017... I mean it's down to font style, color, image composition (isolation) and book name.
Needless to say
@murdochbooks
, I am livid right now because you didn't even try.
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So I got some new author/photographer headshots for press created by the incredible Jessica Wikström!
#NewProfiIePic
#Author
#Photographer
#headshot
#Press
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For those wondering why, despite its international accolades and being a bestseller, that there still isn’t a Swedish version of
@ineverymirror
- a book set in Sweden about Black women in Sweden… Read my comment below.
#Sweden
#Literature
#Book
#Publishing
#OwnVoices
#Swedish
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My latest for
@British_Airways
-> "I’ve spent a lifetime decoding them. Those slow crawls of curiosity over my dark skin whenever I find myself exploring a new place. Stares so prolonged that they can unsettle the most intrepid of travellers." -
#Travel
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Beyoncé is in my city and I’m ready 🙌🏾🧡🇸🇪
#RenaissanceWorldTour
#Renaissance
#BEYONCEISCOMING
#BeyonceRenaissanceTour
#Stockholm
#Sweden
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And here are my tips for photographing the Northern Lights in Sweden via
@LolaAkinmade
@SwedishLapland
#Aurora
#Sweden
#NorthernLights
#SwedishLapland
#Abisko
#Kiruna
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1/ I woke up this morning to the incredible honor that I won the Bessie Award for “Creator of the Year” at
@WITSummit
Kansas City (
@sheswanderful
)…
#WITSKC
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The energy around your 2nd novel vs your debut is so different. You’re more confident. You trust the process more & its schedule. You lean back yet know when to rev up. You let the work morph where it wants to go. You tackle less yet say more.
#WritingCommunity
#Publishing
#Book
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Last year today… A dream came true.
After writing
#fiction
as a teen, my bestselling novel
@ineverymirror
was published by
@Sourcebooks
@sbkslandmark
.
Thank you to everyone who celebrated this key moment in
#Scandinavian
literature with me 🧡❤️🖤
We did it
@craigliterary
❤️
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One big happy family!
Here's the beautiful cover of the US / North American edition of EVERYTHING IS NOT ENOUGH from
@HarperCollins
@WmMorrowBooks
Please pre-order yours here 💖🧡💚-
#Book
#Fiction
#BooksWorthReading
#EverythingIsNotEnough
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Full house and standing at The English Bookshop last night in Stockholm.
People left seen, heard, and acknowledged 🙏🏾
2024 Nordic Book Tour loading for
@ineverymirror
and
@NotEnoughBook
…
#Grateful
#Book
#Nordic
#Fiction
#Thanksgiving
#Sweden
#Stockholm
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It’s that season in Stockholm when every headline reads “Snökaos” - Snow Chaos - because every year, we have no idea what this white phenomenon is 😂🙌🏾 💛💙
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Performative -> "We are stepping up hiring for a more racially diverse team of photographers... Here are a few of the many incredible Black travel bloggers..."
They included me in that list.
The kicker? I applied to them in the past. They didn't even bother responding then.
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”Hey Ms. Wrap Dress! You’re beautiful” - I will never forget those words from the incredible and forever inspiring
@MichelleObama
when we met in Stockholm. She made me feel fully seen and appreciated. Happy Birthday
@MichelleObama
! Your warmth & love reached us in the Nordics 🎉
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Here is my own article for reference -
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Someone I respected doesn't consider my novels "African Literature" even though they’re written by an African (me) & 2 of the 3 protagonists are Africans (the 3rd has Jamaican heritage).
Are we seriously doing this in 2023?
Are Africans in the Nordics not part of the diaspora?
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Oh my goodness!
@ineverymirror
on the shelf behind
@JLo
🙌🏾🧡❤️🖤
Back home in the Bronx!! Thank you to all the incredible Latina entrepreneurs for sharing your stories and letting me share mine with you yesterday! You inspired me more than you will ever know. Remember, we’re not asking for a seat at the table … we’re the CEOs at the table!
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I had something on my mind so I went to
@nytimes
. Here’s my latest article -> Watching My Child Experience Racism in a Country of Contentment
#Parenting
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I’m joining The Black Travel Alliance
@TheBlackTravelA
in asking the travel industry to pull up for us with actions after words have been spoken.
#PullUpForTravel
#BlackTravelAlliance
#BlackVoicesMatter
#Travel
#TravelTuesday
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Quick check-in from
#Mongolia
which has been incredible. Slowly sorting through tons of photos. Still here for a bit so follow my Insta for BTS stories.
Shot with
@Hasselblad
X1DII 50C / XCD 35-75mm
Pictured: Kazakh Eagle Hunter Jensbek and his golden eagle Kherem.
#Portrait
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This feels so surreal. It’s finally happening this weekend! 🙏🏾
Rehearsals are under way! See you tomorrow
#TEDxFastForward
#TEDxStockholm
#TEDxTalks
@fridaboisen
@LolaAkinmade
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How
@germainethomas8
and I roll while waiting for trains on opposite ends at
#Slussen
in
#Stockholm
/
@TheLocalSweden
#Tunnelbana
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My
#TEDx
Talk - In a world that forces us to be one-dimensional, asking “why not” can help us reflect, understand each other better, challenge the status quo, and personally motivate us, when doors are metaphorically closed to us /
@tedxstockholm
@TEDTalks
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She’s here! Thank you so much
@spinesvines
for the exclusive cover reveal of
@ineverymirror
. Coming Sept 7 from
@sbkslandmark
@Sourcebooks
! 🙌🏾😍🧡❤️🖤
#InEveryMirrorShesBlack
#Preorder
EXCLUSIVE COVER REVEAL!! Coming September 7, 2021
#InEveryMirrorShesBlack
by
@LolaAkinmade
!!!
@sbkslandmark
@ineverymirror
#TeamPreorder
✨ 📚🍷
#spinesvines
#diversespines
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Just picked up a box of beta reader manuscripts of my
#AfroswedeBook
! Some exciting news coming soon. My heart is so full right now.
#Gratitude
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So excited to share that my
@Adventurecom
piece won a
#BessieAward
at the
@WITSummit
for most impactful piece of writing! ->The color of adventure: When will travel show more diversity? -
#adventure
#WITS19
@sheswanderful
THANK YOU!
#RepresentationMatters
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The bias is so real. The number of people who have denied my request to view their rental property simply based on seeing my photo has been something. All they see is “Black woman” and they deny the request. Astounding but not surprising
#Sweden
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It's live! I'm so excited to share that my TEDxStockholm talk titled "The power of asking why not?" is now online.
Check it out on TED and please share if it resonates with you ❤️ -...
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Speak every single language in the world
If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?
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Agreed! When I visited many years ago, I was in tears throughout my visit. Respect and thoughtful behavior is required when you visit Auschwitz so history is never repeated.
@LolaAkinmade
While of course the images we presented had been found in social media, we rather ask for general respectful and thoughtful behavior at the site of the Memorial - no matter if it is photographed or not.
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Thank you so much
@WaterstonesTraf
,
@HoZ_Books
& the incredible
@OnyiWrites
for a wonderful book event in London right at Trafalgar Square! Thank you
@OkojieAyo
for everything! My book
@NotEnoughBook
is out in the world 🙌🏾🔥💖🧡💚
#EverythingIsNotEnough
#Book
#Sweden
#Fiction
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Publication: “We would like you to write this.”
Me: “Currently tied up for a month but here’s another writer who could do it...”
Publication: “We’ll wait the month. We want you to write it.”
😭
#YearsOfHardWork
#RemainGrateful
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I had something on my mind... So I turned in my deepest opinion piece to the biggest media publication. Will share once it's up.
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I’ve got mail! Copies of the inaugural print edition of
@MarriottBonvoy
Traveler have arrived. I shot the cover photo and wrote/shot the feature story on
#Ghana
🇬🇭 /
#Travel
#WomenPhotograph
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@mbifebooks
@jtbigelow
So sorry you’re experiencing this. Hope it gets resolved soon. It brings back my own painful memories of this. It happened during the early stages of the pandemic when there were waves of uncertainty and people were losing jobs, so I chose to give them grace.
Looks like someone at
@MurdochBooks
was "inspired" by my book cover published in 2017... I mean it's down to font style, color, image composition (isolation) and book name.
Needless to say
@murdochbooks
, I am livid right now because you didn't even try.
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Excited to be joining the
@masobebooks
family with my upcoming novel
@NotEnoughBook
🙏🏾🇳🇬
BREAKING NEWS!
Masobe Books is set to publish three exciting authors: Wole Talabi takes readers on an epic mythic journey of gods, revenge, and a daring heist that spans two worlds in "Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon"; Noo Saro-Wiwa's travel…
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Read this incredible thread by
@katherinemzhou
🙏🏾 The responses to her lived experiences will give you a crash course on Gaslighting 101 and deep insight into why
@ineverymirror
hasn’t been published in Swedish yet.
Two things can be true. This side is unfortunately true too.
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The
@guardian
@GuardianTravel
asked me to write about the moment I fell in love with my adopted home - Stockholm.
Read about that moment here (alongside 16 other travel writers on their adopted homes too) -
#Stockholm
#Sweden
@visitstockholm
@Sweden
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I wonder what I would tell my little self if I could go back in time... “You’re right. Keep trusting your own voice even when the world wants to make you someone else.” 💕
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So a middle-aged White woman says
@ineverymirror
does a disservice to Black women, painting them as “weak”…. The levels of irony in her statement. From falling into the “Strong Black Woman” stereotype to the audacity of telling a Black woman how to document her own experience.
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In major news... This is happening on Nov 16... I will be taking the stage at TEDxStockholm. So many emotions are coursing through me right now... from gratitude to humility to elation to joy.
Friends in Stockholm - Hope to see you there ❤️
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Moments I do not take for granted… Realizing I have two (2) bestselling books in the span of 5 years, including one in 18 languages 🙏🏾
My books have taken on lives of their own and even have their own social media personalities 😎
@ineverymirror
&
@lagombook
#Grateful
#AllGod
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The whole mission of my academy is to put the heart back into the craft.
I am excited to finally share that it is now open with the first three courses, plus coaching sessions with me.
Welcome to my academy! -
Thank you
@AbbieMood
@JorisSluiter
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In more positive news, when dreams you never even had, catch you by surprise and come true 🙏🏾🧡❤️🖤
#GodIsGood
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