Being Black in a predominantly white society  felt often unsafe and confusing. It made me doubt my identity and where I belonged. I did not feel completely at home in the Surinamese culture, but also not completely in the Dutch culture. I could only escape my Otherness in my imaginary world. In my inner world I could be who I wanted to be.  Within my imaginary world all  borders  dissolved  and my freedom allowed became a reality of possibilities. My  body and  skin color aren't just as a being. They also a variable boundary, a surface whose (im)penetrability is regulated politically and according to sexual stereotypes. Through the language of the imagination I try to free the inner soul that is trapped in the outer body, which is determined by race, gender and hierarchy. Only then an open space can be created where  within the Other can move freely and be without judgement. The philosopher Emmanuel Levinas says that only in the encounter with the Other can we experience our existence as justified. Levinas writes the name of the Other with a capital letter, because not every random fellow human being is meant, but among others the stranger. (  De verbeelding van het denken)

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