I was asked to participate in a workshop at Spui 25 today with Nigerian American writer, art historian and photographer Teju Cole. This was my column. (more…) I want to start by thanking Ebbisé Rouw and Johannes Kapteijn for putting Fiep van Bodegom, the producer of today's event, in contact with me. When talking about black intellectual output in whichever context, be that national, international, cultural, social, artistic, athletic or political, we are rarely reminded of the infrastructure that makes that possible. In that sense Ebissé, Johannes and Fiep are part of an emerging Dutch infrastructure that pushes to make space available for troublemakers like myself. The shoulders of giants I say troublemakers because the idea of black intellectual rigor in the Netherlands was up until a few years ago seemingly destined to forever be the domain of the troublemakers. The domain of the black, migrant and refugee women who in 1983 during a feminist conference in Nijmegen stood up and demanded that their knowledge not be summarily dismissed. The domain of Barryl…