A Voice Silenced - A book by Ingrid and Joachim Wall

‘I wake up in the middle of the night. Two different ideas have taken root in my consciousness during my half‐slumber, ideas refusing to be silenced until I’ve acted on them. The first is that Kim needs to live on through a memorial fund, she will not be forgotten. The second is this book; the truth must be told, and we will write it. Kim will be depicted as the engaging and strong woman she was, as the human and journalist Kim—not as the victim. The decision gives me some respite—a luta continua—the struggle continues.’ — Ingrid Wall

10 August 2017. Kim Wall leaves the home she shares with her partner, Ole, to research a story about a submarine and its builder in Copenhagen. Several witnesses watch them cast off from the harbour. Just an- other day at work for a freelance journalist who loves writng about subcultures and underground factions. Soon, she is meant to be moving to Beijing with Ole, a new life waiting for her. But Kim never comes back. Instead of writing the headlines, she becomes the headlines.

The book is centered on two main themes: the journey her parents undertook after being awoken by a phone call in the middle of the night to hear Kim was missing. Their story is one of grief, joy, love, and the yawning, great void left in their lives by her death. It’s about questions that never get answered. And it’s about what lies ahead in their tireless efforts to keep Kim’s memory alive. The second theme concentrates on Kim and her life: her story of growing up an inquisitive girl in southern Sweden, to the driven, talented foreign correspondent and journalist she became—without ever losing her curiosity. This book is a celebration of Kim Wall’s extraordinary life, and became an instant bestseller upon publication with over 14,000 copies sold to date.

‘Joachim and Ingrid Wall reclaim the power over the story about Kim Wall in their book.’
— Dagens Nyheter

‘She humanized her subjects and sources.’ — Washington Post

Ingrid and Joachim Wall, Kim Wall’s parents, are both journalists. They live near Trelleborg in southern Sweden.

Kim Honored By Rose In Her Name

Recently, a rose was named after Kim Wall to salute her spirit. It was
produced by a retired Danish schoolteacher named Per Eskelund
Mortensen.

"When Barack Obama was still the president of the United States, I
sent him a letter there and told him that my daughter Sara and I have
the highest respect for him and that we want to name one of our newly
invented roses after him. Unfortunately, we didn't get any reply,"
Mortensen, said. "Now, this rose will bear the name of Kim Wall."

The Kim Wall rose will be registered and soon sold worldwide. On July
7, 2019, a ceremony will be held in Kim's hometown, Trelleborg in
southern Sweden, to announce the sale of 300 plants in neighboring
cities. Part of the proceedings will go to the Kim Wall Memorial Fund
to support other young female journalists.

Me and Kim were born in the same year, 1987, in different countries- and I never met her. Odds are I would not have. But the fact we were the same age meant it hit me harder and I haven't stopped following the story or thinking of Kim. 

This is in no small part to do with just how compelling and beautiful Kim is, and not the details of her death, which are at odds with who she was.

People try and say ''it's too dark'' to keep following, but I wanted so much to understand- Kim was a real human and hasn't stopped being, and how she died doesn't change that in the least. I didn't want to turn my eyes away from understanding all of this, the reality of it, of her, and of the people left behind who knew her.

Some things in life don't in fact make sense, events simply conspire beyond your control. I felt angry, outraged, shocked, disgusted, appalled & sickened that the world was robbed of a talented young woman who wanted to reach out and make known the unknown, could and would have made people's lives richer and more humane. Could have inspired other women and created. Was trying to do just that. 

Well she still will help & inspire other women.

When I turned 31 I was conscious of how she should/would have been turning 31 this year too. Kim you were my peer, even if we have had very different life experiences. We could have been friends somehow, somewhere, some place, some time. 

I delved into her Instagram and I love the way she saw the world- it is uniquely beautiful, oddball, a sideways glance and poignantly perceptive all at once. An eye for the pretty and the serious, the formal and the bizarre. 

The image of the old woman in Sri Lanka stroking the beached whale is one of the most singularly incredible images I have ever seen, the simply wonderful video of the Asian otters, a woman in Cuba kissing a parrot, a sleepy trio in Seoul captured at dawn blurred and beautiful and funny and glamorous, the sweet seal sneezing, the Haitian dancer, fireworks in Reykjavik, the funny beaver with the French (Quebec?) voices in the background...………. All of it, LIFE!

I admire her courage to live life fully in all its complexities and in the layers & layers & layers & layers & layers & layers & layers of existence with equal exuberance and embrace, from the big to the small, the sweet to the strange. What a stunning vision. I suspect she had an uproarious sense of humour too...…

Kim you've inspired me to live more fully and meet life head on in its uniqueness in the moment, as you did. 

Much love,

Ellen Jamieson, United Kingdom

In writing these lines remembering Kim, who I knew from when we were students at LSE, I was very inspired by a piece in the Guardian written by Kim’s friend Sruthi Gottipati (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/20/kim-wall-reminder-female-journalists-danger). For me, what has happened to Kim has felt to me as an instance of the personal and political colliding with strong force.

Lately, I have been reading and thinking a lot about women occupying space and the voice of female writers. In writing on cities, my own field, the voice of women is often conspicuously absent. Matthew Beaumont’s book ’Night Walking: A Nocturnal History of London’ discusses walking the city at night through the lens of English literary history, without featuring a single female author or protagonist. In her recent book ’Flâneuse: Women Walk the City…’, Lauren Elkin points out that most iconic English writers on cities offer a distinctly male psychogeography (think Will Self). There is something about this ambling, entirely carefree exploration of the edges and dark corners of territory that reeks of male privilege. The same must be true for so many genres of adventure: from Victorian explorers to contemporary reporting on conflict.

I would like to remember Kim as one of the women who refused to be limited by the gendered world we live in: a woman who fearlessly explored the world and occupied space, and who shaped the world through her voice and writing.

Many witnesses who saw the Nautilus submarine sail past have remarked that Kim looked so sympathetic, smiley and happy while standing and waving at the top of that boat. She looks stunning in the photo used by the media in covering the story. All of those who know Kim would agree that these are some of her qualities. She is a very kind, very alive person.

However, there is a risk – or indeed what I feel is already a demonstrated tendency – that what has happened is remembered as a story of the tragic mystery disappearance of a female reporter. Fascination with violence towards beautiful, defenceless women is rife in popular culture. Even I caught myself thinking that the specifics of the situation resembled a film or TV narrative.

But Kim’s story should not be told in that way: as a story of a woman who tragically ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time, and disappeared by the hands of an evil man who had the mental and physical upper hand.

What happened in the Öresund strait is not just an incident that fills me with sadness, it’s the fate of a woman that makes me the most furious I have been in a long time, even with all the other horrors and injustices of the world. In opening a news website, we have to stare in the face of the incredible arrogance of this man who told the Danish police he has ’buried her at sea’.

The world should know that this is the story of the fierce Kim that we know – a woman and writer who travelled the world and has been faced with many more dangerous and challenging situations that that of this bastard’s boat. She was not at the wrong place at the wrong time: she chose to get on that boat, facing up to risk, as she had so many times before.

I would like to remember Kim as someone who refused to be limited by the fact that she was a woman, with whatever impacts that may have had on her safety. Not limited in the extent to which she occupied this world, conquered physical space and filled it with her reporting, which shone with her empathy and endless curiosity for the humans around her.

To quote from Sruthi’s piece:

”the world has a way of knocking down women who are sharp, funny and bold. It has a habit of strangling the voices who dare to speak up, of humiliating the women who step outside their comfort zones, of crushing the ones who break the rules”.

I will tell the story of what happened to Kim as one of a woman who probably paid the price for this cruel truth. What happened to her makes me so sad, but above all it makes me livid. Beyond seeing the person responsible being brought to justice, it makes me all the more determined to continue the struggle for an equal society. A society in which there are no limits to the space women can safely occupy.

Kim, you have inspired me. I can’t think of a better way to remember you than this memorial fund.

- Emmy Smeds, London

One September morning whilst living in Beijing, I received a message from a Swedish girl on couchsurfing looking for somewhere to stay that evening for a few days. Her enthusiasm to meet new people, discover the bewildering city, and the promise to invite me for dinner at her yet non-existent flat made me say yes.

Late that afternoon, there was a knock on the door of my flat and I met Kim for the first time. Opening the door let a bundle of joy, energy and eagerness into the room. Kim and I sat on the balcony on the 13th floor in a huge 1960s tower block looking south over Beijing at what was both our new home. Whilst drinking Qingdao and eating sunflower seeds, we barely paused for breath getting to know each other. By the time my flatmate arrived home an hour later you’d have thought we’d have been friends for years, having bypassed most pleasantries for in depth discussions on: the power of karaoke to unite people; Shakira's talent to height ratio; and trying new foods. Her warmth, generosity and openness were clear from that first time we met.

One of my clearest memories of Kim was when has a picnic in the park to celebrate our friend’s birthday on an oppressively humid day, having splashed out on imported cheese and bought large quantities of red wine. After a while, the hazy sky turned a deep yellow before a huge dark cloud rolled over. The heavens opened and rather than save the food or look for shelter, Kim jumped up and started dancing in the torrential rain. She got us all to join in through the look of sheer joy on her face at the absurdness of the situation.

Every time Kim would come back from one of her trips to stay on someone’s sofa, she would regale us with the most incredible stories of the adventures she’d had. These were told with no ego or to impress, but a desire to share the narratives of the people that she’d met. They always came across in a way like Kim couldn’t quite understand why everyone wasn’t doing these things, as running away from Sri Lankan police or getting stuck up a mountain in South West China were perfectly normal activities. It was this outgoing, judgemental and curious attitude that made her a wonderful friend and an absolute powerhouse of a journalist. 

-Jonny

I have no idea how to begin to say goodbye to Kim. I said goodbye to her so many times in NY, either because she had become fed up with the various challenges living in NY throws at you, or because she was embarking on another adventure, or both. She always came back with a ton of great stories and a mischievous glint in her eye and it was as if she had never left. 

I have so many great memories of Kim, from dancing to Cher at a roof top party in Brooklyn, to numerous Sunday brunches discussing our love lives, to drinking Pastis on another roof (hers) trying to watch fireworks in the rain. One 4th of July, Kim, our friend Niall and I decided to go to the beach at Fort Tilden. It took us an eternity to get there and when we arrived it was freezing and completely deserted except from a miserable looking solitary figure huddled under a sunshade. Kim was fascinated by this man; what was he doing here? What was his story? Why did he look so sad? We concocted some elaborate theories and after a while he picked up his sun shade and shuffled off, forever a mystery. We went back to eating chips and exchanging stories and laughs. She had a way of transforming a failed experiment into a magical adventure.

She had a honest curiosity that made her an excellent journalist as well as a great friend. Her ability to inject even the most serious subject with her unique wit was incredible. She was incredibly brave and lived life to the full and I miss her very much.

-Rachel Jennings 

I am so disheartened and horrified to learn of Kim's passing. I met Kim in May 2013 when we both received a prize from the Foreign Press Association in New York. She won first prize, and I won third prize. The attached is a photo of us holding our awards. I had the privilege of dining in her company at the awards dinner and hearing her acceptance speech. I only knew Kim for one evening and yet I remember vividly how kind, lively and attentive she was to everyone around her. She had not a hint of arrogance about her and was interested in sharing in the celebration of young foreigners studying journalism in the United States. (See http://www.foreignpressassociation.org/scholarship/fpa-scholarship-fund-winners-2013/#more-1721) What I will take away from this horrific news is that we all need to be more like Kim was: have a predisposition of generous curiosity towards everyone around us, even those we only share one meal with, as I did with Kim. For we truly never know what will become of them the next day or four years down the line. I am proud to have known Kim and I am devastated to learn she is no longer with us.

I am totally unable to process this news right now. I am keeping Kim's family and friends in my prayers. I am so incredibly sorry that this has happened.

-Joanna Nurmis (née Margueritte-Giecewicz) 

Kim would regularly organize "leaving drinks" for herself in New York. Sometimes, these were before short reporting trips and other times they marked more permanent moves like China.  We never took these too seriously; she inevitably returned every three months or so and hosted another "going-away" party, fuelled by whatever potent and obscure liquor she had purchased on her travels. 

Kim and I would visit the Russian and Turkish baths together in the East Village, she was fascinated by the motley clientele it attracted. We had one particularly memorable afternoon there last summer where we talked and sweated for hours and finished the evening off over the spiciest Sri Lankan food. She continually referred to it as our "magical date" in the months that followed. Shortly thereafter, she was off to Sri Lanka herself and sending me photos of even better curries.

A story that Kim told over a New York dinner in early 2017 sticks in my mind. Having finished her last reporting stint in Sri Lanka, she had gone to a meditative retreat to unwind for a few days, a purely personal visit. However, upon discovering she was a journalist, the retreat organizers had insisted she leave immediately and she was unceremoniously put on the next bus. She recounted briefly feeling frustration about her failed attempts to find zen, which quickly gave way to laughter about the ridiculousness of the whole situation. She described the eventual contentment she felt on the long bus journey, listening to her feminist podcasts and feeling like she didn't need anything else to be happy. That's how I will remember her; fully embracing both the difficulties and joys of pursuing her dreams. 

With love from Brooklyn,
Aoife O'Leary

For a period of time at JSchool, Chris loved to hack into our Facebook accounts and prank us. One Saturday, Kim was working from Stabile and realized Chris' Facebook session had been left open on the computer she was on. She immediately called me on the phone and told me to come to school at once, that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and that we needed to jump on the occasion immediately. I arrived to find her eagerly standing by the computer, ready to jump into action. We spent a good hour updating info on Chris' account and finding the best things to post on there. His grandma got a bit mad at some of our jokes (yes, she is on Facebook) but it was definitely worth it and remains as one of my favorite memories from that year. 

Right before Hurricane Sandy hit, while most of us were taking coverage, Kim was taking pictures of deserted Time Square. She then spent the evening reporting from my couch while we drank our share of wine and ate French cheese. In the following weeks we reported from Hoboken, Coney Island, and Staten Island together. Kim was full of energy and inexhaustible. But what impressed me most was her reporting skills. People who had just lost everything in the hurricane opened up to us because of her warmth and genuine empathy and curiosity.

-Marie Telling

Hi there,

Like many of us, I knew Kim as a journalist and colleague — but above that, I knew her as my friend. She has always been a person I care for and cherish, and I continue to do that. I'm not sure if this is the kind of tribute you are looking for for the page, but I felt I would share these stories anyways because they are good stories. Feel free to post them or not post them. I don't mind.

I got the sense in J School that Kim was destined to cover all that is weird and wonderful in our world — she became fascinated with the Coney Island side show performers, and would spend days and days with them, even trying to learn some of their tricks. She once let one of them throw knives at her, and confessed that she had a small crush on the man with elastic skin. They were just the start. 

Kim and I talked about subcultures a lot. I love subcultures, but just for my own interest. When I was younger, I was a goth and a steam punk and I was into body modification, so Kim was fascinated to learn all about it. I love talking about it, so we made a good match. More recently, we talked about even more unusual and niche subcultures — people who install microchips into themselves, for example, so that they can use their own hand as the card key to a building, or some other piece of machinery, and see themselves as cyborgs. The last time she was in New York, around July 4th this year, we were walking in Crown Heights and taking pictures of the neon signs in beauty parlors' windows (when I asked her why she just said, "Because I fucking love neon! And these are amazing!"). At one point she asked me what I thought my "fursona" would be — the persona I would take on if I were a furry. I told her I hadn't thought about it, and she was shocked. I asked what her fursona was, and she said "When I was with the designer, she asked me and I just knew immediately, I don't know why! I am a fox!" Of course she was. 

Some of these conversations turned into stories — interviews with vampires and exposés of furry identity and days with desnudas — they are all stories I wish I had written, but I am so proud that Kim wrote them. She did them justice in a way most writers would not. She looked in from the margins and brought the weird and the wonderful into the light — never to mock or to sensationalize, but to tell the story of her subjects with grace and dignity. Some of our conversations did not turn into stories, but maybe they would have become stories one day. Kim never let a good idea go. 

My boyfriend Ben brought up a funny story about Kim this week. Once, we met for a drink at a bar near where I lived in Bushwick after she had come back from a reporting trip to Uganda. Ben was with me — it was the second time he was meeting Kim I think. He worked for The New York Post at the time as a reporter, and was doing this ridiculous story about homeless people peeing on people's front doors in posh neighborhoods in the city. Kim started telling us about her trip, about Idi Amin's torture chambers, the strangeness of being a tourist in such a place and the stories she was planning. She also told us about becoming an extra in a shoot-em-up film, and all the other amazing things she did there with Mansi and then she just abruptly stopped and turned to Ben, and she said, "So Claire tells me you are following men who pee in the streets here?" I cracked up laughing; Ben looked so surprised. She was totally sincere in her curiosity about it, but he couldn't believe that after her amazing story she would want to talk to him about his story with just as much enthusiasm. But that was just how she was — she really did want to know. Although this was also demonstrative of her healthy sense of humor. 

Kim went above and beyond with every story she decided she was going to pursue. She traveled the world, lived with her subjects and immersed herself in their lives, gaining their trust through her charm, lack of judgement and sheer enthusiasm to learn. Several months ago, she was in Barcelona for a time reporting on feminist porn makers, and ended up being present on set for a few of their shoots as an observer. She was staying in a vegan squat in the city. Once, she said she felt uncomfortable and under pressure on a shoot she was observing, but the woman she was staying with had apologized profusely, telling her it was a rare occasion and wouldn't happen again. I was worried for her then. But Kim being Kim, that wasn't going to put her off. A few days later, I received a frantic message from her asking for help and advice. In my head I just thought "Oh god, here we go." I thought something terrible had happened on one of the shoots she had gone to, or something had gone wrong in the squat she was staying at. In fact, she was having a moral crisis: She had left part of a cake in their vegan-only fridge, thinking that because it was hers, no one would eat it. But in fact, her new housemates had taken it as a gift to them and had eaten it, even leaving a note to say how delicious it was. One had mentioned wanting a recipe. She was mortified — the cake was filled with eggs, cream and butter. No wonder it tasted so good. Not very vegan at all. She was torn over whether to tell them they had eaten all of these animal products or to pretend it was indeed vegan cake to spare them the anxiety and her from their ire. I told her it was best to just nod and smile and that people's memories for cake are usually short and so she could hope that it wouldn't come up again for the rest of her time staying there. She moved out soon afterwards. I don't know if she ever told them. 

I have so many stories about Kim — the Christmas she nearly burned her kitchen down and our friend Richard had to go to the emergency room, the dinner she forgot to tell my lactose intolerant roommate about all the butter in the mashed potatoes, the day we went to the pickle festival, the time we went to a terrible party with weird anti-semitic art on the walls (we got into an argument with the host, whom we didn't know, about it and left pretty quickly), the night we went exploring lofts in Bushwick, the party we met the man with the amethyst belt who hosted gong listening parties, the innumerate nights dancing to Robyn... Kim loved life, and she lived it as best as she could at all times, whether they be bad or good. She never shied away from anything, she was always open-hearted and ready to draw you close to her in a hug. 

Our time together over the last year or two had become a series of comings and goings as she sought to travel the world and establish herself in Beijing. Whenever she was in town, it was always a celebration. When she was in NYC in July of this year, I felt like she was finally hitting her stride. She was prepared to leave New York, finally, and had found a flat in Beijing for her and her partner. She was particularly happy to have found a place where the toilet was not in fact in the kitchen, and which had a door separating the two (not a given, apparently). We were wondering how we had become so adult and what on earth could be next. She convinced me to come to Beijing just so I could go with her to a terrible Chinese hardcore metal show. Apparently it's a big underground scene there, but all the bands are really bad, she said. She told me about the latest editor she'd had a bad experience with, and I suggested some science magazines with a culture section she might pitch to for a story she was thinking of doing. We listened to Robyn and parted ways only when she had to go — she was on deadline, of course. Everything seemed to be falling into place for her. She'd be back, she assured me. 

Kim is one of the most charming, loving, brave and interesting people I have ever met. She is one of those few friends with whom the conversation never stops flowing. Whenever she left to go back to Beijing or on another trip, I missed her greatly, but felt assured I would always see her again. I still feel like that. 

Thanks for reading,
Claire Cameron

To all who loved Kim, as we did, we offer our most sincere condolences on the loss of this beautiful, amazing, talented woman.  Kim was a light in this world and an inspiration to everyone who had the good fortune to know her. 

Kim was a gentle and wise soul who was a vital part of our Thanks To Scandinavia family. We first met Kim in 2013 when she was awarded a scholarship from us, but over the past four years, Kim has become so much more than just one of our former scholars. She became our valued and trusted friend. She was a regular guest at our Thanks To Scandinavia gatherings and we always looked forward to hearing about her non-stop globetrotting, traveling anywhere - and everywhere - from North Korea to Cuba, and all parts in between.  She brought joy and inspiration to everyone she met. We will miss her smile, her sunny outlook, and her extraordinary fearlessness.  

Kim’s spirit will remain within everybody she touched, including the entire Thanks To Scandinavia family.

Laurie Sprayregen and Kelly Ramot, Thanks To Scandinavia 

[WARNING: Expletives abound...kinda]

I first met Kim in 2013 at a Christmas party in Carroll Gardens. The host, like Kim, went to J-School with my friend Claire. She was the one holding the attention of a small circle of people, talking passionately—with accompanying emphatic hand gestures, a glass of wine balancing precariously in one hand—explaining how a major publication (who shall remain nameless) tried to stiff her on what I'd later find to be one of many pieces she'd written only after risking mortal peril, and with next to no support, financial or otherwise. I slowly inched in and merged with the back of the group, drawn in like an awkward moth to a flame. After explaining the lengths she went to get the story, even I—a journalism outsider—found their offering a pittance, as well as a personal offense. "I was like, 'Go fuck yourself!'" she said. Yea, I thought. Fuck 'em. She was the baddest bitch in the room.

Over the years, we would see each other at Claire's parties, or by happenstance at random locations (a RISC talk at the Brooklyn Brewery, in the massive queue for the port-a-potty on the National Mall at the Women's March, in a basement bar in SoHo), and it would always be the same: even if she was on the opposite side of the room, on the other side of an impenetrable tangle of people, I would find my way to her. Like so many others have remarked, one of the most striking things I found about Kim was her light, and the warmth of it. It was the kind of light that kept a smile on your face throughout the entire conversation. And our exchanges of Hey Babe's always felt like they were between the oldest and most intimate of friends, even though I never had the privilege to know her as well as so many others have. Though an insanely talented journalist, whose passion was inescapable, I just remember Kim as a goofy, eccentric adventurer, always off doing things that I could only dare to dream of, coming home to New York and regaling us with weird tales told with equal parts humor, enthusiasm and compassion. Her energy was boundless; I would see her out drinking one night and then see a photo of her running a marathon the next morning, stamina I almost found offensive, as I haven't exercised in maybe (definitely) a solid two years...

I think the story I have of Kim that I'm most endeared to is the one where we ran into each other at the Women's March in D.C. There were millions of people there - what were the odds? We were both in adjacent queues for one of those horrible port-a-potties that, despite event organizers' best efforts, I couldn't escape knowing, had by that point been used by thousands of people. Our eyes met. She was wearing a ridiculous Davy Crockett-style fur hat with a tail, looking absolutely larger than life. I had a friend hold my place as I scurried over to her queue.

"What the fuck are you doing here?!"
"I'm here marching with a bunch of Chinese feminists!"
"Of course you are!"
"But I seem to have lost them..."
"Of course you did! Well, aren't you going to go look for them?"
"Well, no...not yet. I have to pee."
"I love you."

A few days later, I saw her byline in Foreign Policy. When China's Feminists Came to Washington.

Oh shit, I thought. I guess she found them! And I screenshot the page like a proud stage mom.

I'll never forget her.

Frances Nguyen

I remember hearing stories about Kim and all her reporting adventures before actually meeting her in person. My first impressions proved lasting: Kim truly was as vibrant as she came across. I will always remember her sharp, loving energy. I will always admire her courage, conviction, and curiosity. She was a friend and fellow female journalist, the work she leaves us with is testament to her empathy, her charm, and her joy for the world she set out to discover, little by little, layer by layer, with every grant, every trip, every article. In these dark moments following shocking news of her death, I keep returning to that first meeting, to those first and lasting impressions, and find comfort in Kim's larger-than-life spirit.

-Ines Novacic

Dear Ingrid, you and Joachim raised an incredible human being. We’re so lucky to experience Kim’s wit, talent and joyous love for life. Reading these notes make my heart full and since the news broke, fill it with deep sorrow. Thank you for sharing Kim with us and with the world. I’ll never forget her first project for our Columbia photojournalism class. She made those quirky Chinese wedding portraits in Central Park come to life. Her personality was evident in the photos as well as her deep care for the story’s (and any story’s) historical, political and cultural layers. She taught me how to question harder in the stories I had the opportunity to tell with her: loss of identity from ancestral land, a global supply chain in the trade of salvaged copper, nuclear waste, a Marshallese diaspora in Arkansas. These moments, stories and so much more with Kim have been running through my mind. In her work and life, she embodies dignity and grace. Here for you and always just a phone call away. Sending you, Joachim, Tom, the rest of your family and our friends here so much love.

-Coleen Jose, Columbia Journalism School classmate and fellow reporter

I didn’t know Kim as well as some of you and haven’t been sure what to contribute here. But I did have two classes with her at Columbia and shared her interest in China, which was enough to give me a sense of the traits that so many of you have mentioned: her radiance, her originality, her ability to charm cops. The last time I spoke with her was over the phone 2 years ago. She had previously lived in Hong Kong, and I was looking for advice about the job market there. She was in New York that morning, applying for one grant while finishing up the reporting for another (as I recall), and told me that she was also trying to get to mainland China now. Before we hung up, she said something to the extent of, “Well, see you in China!” I ended up taking a new job at a newspaper in Maine, but about 6 months later, I got a Facebook message from Kim: “Hi! Did you ever make it to China? (As it happens, I just moved to Beijing!)” I told her what I was up to and that I hadn’t made it to China. She was excited but nervous about the leap she’d taken and the Mandarin classes she was going to soon start, and also enthusiastic about the work I was doing, and again, she told me to look her up next time I was in China. For the last week, those are the things I’ve been remembering about Kim: her hustle, her ease in hopping from country to country, her kindness and modesty that far outweighs what you’d expect from someone of that talent. It has been stunning, but I’ve really appreciated everything you’ve shared in this group. Thanks, and my best to all of you in this difficult time.

- Charlie Eichacker, Columbia Journalism School classmate

First, I want to express my deepest condolences to the whole Wall family and her friends!

I never met and I didn’t know Kim, but ever since I heard of her being missing, she has been in my heart. Hoping and praying everything would turn out well. I’ve dreamt about her and talked to her in my sleep. What a strange feeling, when you don’t know someone, but you care so much for someone as if you did.

Reading everyone’s post here is so beautiful <3 She reminds me of both myself, and my children – being a bit crazy, but in a good and fun way, loving life, living life and daring doing things that your heart tells you to. It’s beautiful to read about her loving personality and her talent! It outgrows the image of the tabloids. What an amazing young woman <3 

May you find peace and strength within each other and through her memories!

Lots of love <3
Camilla Gisslow, Malmö, Sweden 

I spent some time reflecting about Kim, looking back through all our correspondence, etc. Honestly, she is just such a positive, encouraging person; I remember one occasion she was so earnestly excited when I offered to help edit and give feedback on a video she was making about Haiti. It wasn't the sort of shallow appreciation that is all that so many of us make time for these days. It was earnest, and even if she didn't agree with all my feedback, she made me feel as though I had done something special, even though i hadn't. She'd reach out whenever I'd publish a big article, saying things like "Jacob! I just wanted to say INCREDIBLE STORY (I'm heartbroken)." She always made time to meet for a coffee just to catch up whenever I passed through new york--even if our schedules were tight and it wasn't easy.

-Jacob Kushner

I'm so glad we all get to share with you such lovely stories about your amazing daughter. Kim is one of the sweetest, funniest, kindest girls I know. I love that she would always call me 'baby,' gives the warmest hugs (seriously the best) and looks so effortlessly cool with her tins of snus and amazing sweaters I told her once that I had never tried chinese soup dumplings and as a connoisseur she rectified that instantly taking me downtown and showing me how to eat them properly without looking like a stupid westerner. She also would give the best advice on men, if only I had learnt to take it! I admire her greatly as a phenomenal journalist but more importantly as an all round wonderful girl. I hope you can take some solace in knowing how much we all love her. She's an absolute one off.

-Charlotte Stafford, Columbia Journalism School classmate

We met up on average about once a year after Columbia - although I missed her last time I was in NYC because she was on a reporting trip. Back to Sri Lanka, I think. 

Anyway. Last time we talked Kim was thinking about coming to Beirut because she'd heard it's a fun city (it is!) and she was hatching a story idea (of course). 

Kim Wall is a phenomenal human being. I love her very much. My thoughts are with you and all of the other wonderful people in this group 💜

- Bethan Mckernan, Classmate, Columbia Journalism School

The breadth of Kim’s work truly astonishes me. What a crushing loss for this community and also for the entire industry. We complain so often of the lack of depth and creativity in journalism – Kim was certainly neither. Like others, I did not know Kim very well, but I remember most of our conversations. She reached out to me once to ask about Columbia’s international affairs program, and I thought to myself, my god, you’ve already earned every degree from the finest schools - what more could you possibly learn from being around us? I was out of town at the time and we didn’t follow up on that conversation. Then one day, at the start of a new term at SIPA, there she was in macroeconomics, learning about migration’s affect on economies. To see how much she has accomplished already and still have the drive to keep learning at the highest levels – I’m in awe of that dedication, and the variety of her work reveals so much energy and excitement for life. Even though my personal connection to Kim wasn’t strong, the sense of collective loss here is really touching. So much love to all of you.

-Jefferson Mok, Columbia Journalism School classmate

I din't know her personally but her fate tarts every imagination. 
What a sad brutal death of a talented beautiful girl.

-Karine Maes, a nurse from Belgium. 

A couple silly photos of Kim, myself, and two other reporters in Kampala in February 2016. (We were visiting the city's main mosque, built by Gaddafi). After ten days with Kim on that trip, I had two main impressions -- one, that she was a reporter capable of immediately disarming almost anyone, from government officials to people in weird fringe subcultures. Her curiosity and kindness were just too genuine to ignore. And two, that she was side splittingly funny. Like make you cry / feel the ab muscles you didn't know you had funny.

Ryan Lenora Brown

Dear family and friends of Kim Wall,

My heart is reaching out for you in your loss of Kim Wall. Such a meaningless and cruel act.
Someone else decided to just rip her out of your lives.
I have a daughter. She is also someone’s sister, someone’s girlfriend, and a friend of many -
what happened to Kim Wall makes my heart ache so much and I just cannot imagine what you
are going through right now.
Even the harshest penalty in the law book will not be hard enough - there is no compensation for
this. Thank you for letting me share this, I think about you.

Susanne G Langenskiöld, Stockholm

I remember her big bright eyes, and her infectious laugh. And how she was always working on a unique story in a part of New York that I had never heard of, or knew existed. If there was a place to explore, or report on, she'd find it. 

She had such a sweet spirit, and was genuinely kind. Her stories were one of a kind, and so was she.

Rachael Johnson, Columbia Journalism School.

I have never been so deeply affected by anything, as I am by the loss of Kim Wall. I didn't know her personally, and I never met her, but I am still completely devastated. I have been thinking about Kim constantly ever since she was declared missing. First I was hoping, of course, that she would turn up alive and well. But now I know that this will never happen...

I have been crying... I have been talking to her, hoping that somehow she would hear me, and know that I am thinking about her, and even though I never met her, I still miss her...

Kim, you will never die. You cannot die, because you will live on forever in our minds and in our thoughts... Your beautiful soul and your wonderful spirit will live on forever. And someday, in some kind of higher existence, I hope that I will meet you and get to know you...

Kim, I will never forget you! See you around, and take care! <3

Per Jonsson, Örnsköldsvik, Sweden

Like all of her friends and colleagues around the world, I was shocked and saddened to learn last week of Kim Wall's disappearance. Now we know she won't be coming back. The world is a worse place for it, and I want to add my voice to those offering public remembrances.

Kim and I met on a group reporting trip to the Paris climate summit in December 2015. The low-quality selfie here is from our first night in the city, when we all went to a holiday festival on the Champs-Élysée and got drunk on mulled wine. The next morning we went hungover to a meeting with Jane Goodall. I think I gravitated to Kim because we shared a kind of eye-rolling sense of humor about the ridiculous pageantry of the summit, the palaces and VIPs and diplo-jargon that hogged the spotlight from the refugees, farmers, and other direct victims of climate change who were forced to the side stages. I also recognized her as a fellow New York hipster type, the same age as me, who knew how to dress and wouldn't stand out like a tourist when we escaped the talks to explore Paris at happy hour. I remember a maroon skirt and a giant green cape/sweater thing that she wore everywhere, and her famous top-knot, and her white tennis shoes that were listed in the first missing-person description I saw from the police, even before her name had been released. I remember that those shoes always stood out to me for some reason, and now it seems like a kind of cosmic foresight that I would take note of her shoes two year ago, as if I knew I would need that memory now as proof that the newspaper was talking about the same Kim I knew. 

Our sponsored trip ended before the conference itself did, and after we got booted from our fancy hotel in the 1er Arrondissement, Kim and I decided to share an Airbnb for the rest of the week. It was a little courtyard apartment on the Rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, behind a blue door, and she took the futon in the living room and let me have the bed. Every morning we woke up before dawn, boarded the metro at Couronnes, rode to the Gare du Nord, grabbed an espresso and croissant en route, and caught the train to Le Bourget airport where the talks were happening. She didn't have a working phone, and we had only one key, so we had to plan in advance on where to meet in the evening for the commute home.

I had credentials for the part of the conference where the talks were actually happening, and she didn't, so we would part ways in the morning, and while I went to work in the press gallery with hundreds of people writing versions of the same story, she went off to look for leads among the unwashed, unaccredited masses of activists and vulnerable people who came to Paris because their lives, not their careers, depended on it. I admired her tenacity and creativity and patience in tackling the numerous hurdles and headaches of freelance journalism. And I respected her detachment from the boring inside-baseball minutiae that I and most other reporters were obsessing over. She didn't care about talking to anyone in a suit. She wanted to meet the people who had the most to lose. As a journalist it's very easy to fall into a trap of access, of trading proximity to real people for proximity to power, and I think Kim was never duped into it. She knew who she really worked for, even when she didn't know which publication would buy her story. That's a standard we should all try harder to live up to.

In the evening we had dinner at La Verre Volé, and drank the best bottle of red wine I've ever had, and argued about whether America's fucked-up politics invalidate the country as a whole (Kim thought they did; I argued in favor of, you know, the national parks and jazz and stuff). Then we went dancing at a crazy West African club she knew about. Then we parted ways.

The next time I saw her it was at a going-away party in New York; she was on her way to China, I think, and I was again impressed by her ability to push through the fear and insecurity all freelancers experience and go out into the strange foreign world looking for stories to tell. She leaves behind a record of excellent reporting and a strong reputation among her peers as testaments to her success.

But of course, there are other stories she could and would have told. We grieve for the loss of Kim, but we also grieve for the loss of her future work. For plights unheard-of, politicians unpressured, visions of the world undispatched. Other people have observed how Kim's death underscores the routine danger journalists, especially women, face, even in what you would assume to be friendly terrain. But Kim was undaunted, and while we wait for closure and justice in her case, and throughout our lives, we owe it to her to remain so ourselves.

Tim McDonnell

Amongst the many journalists, writers, film makers I had worked and travelled with, Kim Wall was amongst the more daring and sensitive. And we also had some fun, even though our travels were during the dangerous and difficult days of Rajapakse regime. And people we met liked her.

After all the travels and work, the only picture I could find of her was in a pub in Colombo.  But photos she took in the Vanni under intense military surveillance were featured by Al Jazeera. 

She was one of the first journalists to look at tourism and reconciliation in Sri Lanka 's former war zone. Here is another of her posts from that eventful trip. 

It's perhaps an irony that she was killed on the job in Denmark - close to her home and a country not so famous for killing of journalists. After having travelled far and wide and survived countries notorious for killing journalists, like Sri Lanka. 

Sad that I couldn't spend much time with her in her last visit. But hope Mansi will  be able to publish some of their work with women in Sri Lanka. 

May you rest in peace. And may your family find some peace through the wonderful work you had done. 

-Ruki, Sri Lanka

I spent "orphan's Christmas" with Kim at her loft in South Williamsburg on Christmas of 2014. 

Christmas Eve was pouring rain. Kim made glögg, Swedish meatballs and gingerbread cookies. She decided that the theme of the Christmas tree would be "crushed dreams and broken promises" so we made lovely paper decorations out of rejection letters. A consensus was reached that it was the most beautiful tree in Williamsburg and we drank a lot more glögg and danced to Robyn around the tree. 

The following morning after watching Die Hard we walked off our hangovers with a brisk walk over the bridge and then back to Kim's to roast a duck. 

Disaster ensued when the duck fat caught on fire. The oven was in flames and burning fat spilled all over the lovely hardwood floors. With the fire extinguished, the duck fat mopped up and head chef Richard off to the hospital to be treated for burns we finally sat down to dinner. 

Ding dong, a Christmas crasher with designs on Kim shows up at the door looking to be fed (and more). This guy had to go. He was spoiling our perfect friend's Christmas between Kim, Niall, Richard's empty placemat, 2 orphan dogs and me. There was only one solution. A quick knowing glance was exchanged between Niall and Kim and in a flash we are up dancing on the furniture with Robyn blasting at full volume. The Christmas crasher bade us a Happy New Year and made for the door. 

On Christmas night Kim and I shared her bed and I said goodbye to her at 4am when she got up to go to Arkansas to meet Marshalese immigrants working in chicken factories. 

I felt lonely after Kim left for Arkansas. It was a loneliness that stemmed from how much fun we'd had over Christmas. The loneliness I feel today is a bottomless chasm left by her loss. I try to remind myself that this heartbreak will serve as a forever reminder of all of the fun, the laughter, the crude jokes, the karaoke and the hugs Kim and I shared throughout our New York years. 

- Sorcha Murphy

First, I want to convey my deepest condolences to the whole Wall family!

A former colleague and colleague, together with his wife and son, has been forced to pay the highest price you can imagine. Their daughter, during the performance of his duties as a journalist, has set the stage for a drunkenness! A story has been rolled up, as for each day that went, appeared as more and more strange. Kim was used to dealing with things that many others never even come close to.

She listened a lot to the little man and would certainly give each person a voice. A voice that could be disclosure, but also credible and reality based.

It's getting quieter now, much quieter!

The whole world needs these journalists who do not fear the reality that man creates.

That Kim would be bad, just outside Copenhagen, feels simply unreal. Not many miles from her growing city.

I'm suffering from her family, relatives and friends. Being forced to realize that one's child is no longer is nothing that any parent wants or should have to experience.

I met Kim the first time, when she was around 2 - 2.5 years old and already she impressed. That's why I remember that meeting today. It was at the Evening Post's editorial office when it was on Krusegatan. I was looking for some color pencils, because Kim would draw. I found a three-four pieces in different colors. When I gave her these, she looked at me wondering if there were no colors, because here you made a newspaper!

I was watching the search for Kim last week, around Barsebäck and Vikhög. I had a very strange feeling all the time, when I walked along the beach! A feeling I could not put my finger on, but it was awkward.

I heard the chairman of the "Report without borders" this morning about the information provided by the Danish police today. In addition to condemning the event itself, he addressed the vulnerable situation many journalists have today. One will do everything, listen, write, film and record. This is an exposed situation for very many. Then many people want to work and enjoy themselves.

I often work for myself too, but I have never been afraid of what I remember.

Now I hope that everything will be resolved, that the preliminary investigation and the subsequent trial will continue. This is because Kim's parents, brother and relatives will try to move on.

The memory of Kim Wall will always be left.

Rest in Peace Best KIM!

-Rickard Nilsson

Words cannot describe how deeply sorry we are for your devastating loss. Kim was such an inspiring, unique, talented, positive, beautiful person in all possible ways. We had the pleasure of getting to know Kim when we were all studying at LSE in London, and later on when we all lived in New Delhi, where the photos we sent are from. We distinctly remember her sense of community - making an alien, different, distant place her own - belonging, understanding its issues but always being positive. She introduced us to some hidden gems in Delhi of which even the locals weren't aware. Kim was a remarkable and brave woman, a talented journalist who will be missed by so many people all over the world. She was as sharp as she was fun and we are remembering her as the brilliant, funny, quirky and real person that she always will be. Our deepest condolences to you – Kim is in our thoughts and the mark she left on the world will never be forgotten.

-Sini Rämö (Finland) and Sriya Coomer (India)

Tribute links

"Kim left a lasting impression of zest and gentle inquisitiveness — qualities on ample display among good young journalists, but particularly vital and palpable in her." 

-David Wertime, Journalists like Kim Wall deserve more support, PRI Daily

"After traveling and reporting in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, it was in her native Scandinavia, a supposed bastion of gender parity, in which Kim has disappeared. It’s a chilling reminder that women’s safety can’t be shrugged off as a problem specific to developing countries, as if the west is immune to misogyny."

-Sruthi Gottipati, My friend Kim Wall's disappearance in Denmark shows: female journalists face danger everywhere, The Guardian

"And her body of journalistic work was almost as expansive as her spirit. Talk to anyone who met her, even once, and they were immediately touched by her almost enchanting positivity. Her humble smile, her crisp wit. She was always excited to see you. And she gave the best hugs."

- Jon Gerberg, Journalist Kim Wall’s wit shone through her work and life, PBS 

"Kim was as prolific in her writing as she was talented, creative and empathetic. The topics she covered spanned generations, cultures and government agencies. She wrote of the tour buses traversing Sri Lanka’s battlefields, Chinese feminists in the D.C. Women’s March, and Idi Amin’s torture chambers in Uganda, humanizing these and many other stories for a global audience."

-Coleen Jose, Remembering My Friend, Kim Wall, Overseas Press Club 

"For all the skills we teach at Columbia, we can’t teach curiosity and hunger, and yet those are the traits that distinguish a talented feature writer: one who’s never quite satisfied, one who can always think of a few more questions to ask. Kim Wall announced at the start of my semester-long feature writing class that she wanted to write “unexpected” stories, and proceeded to do exactly that."

Karen Stabiner, She was alive in ways that most of us can only dream of being alive, Columbia Journalism Review

"Kim had an astute skill for communicating cultural and political nuance for an international audience. She did so with detail and care as she wrote of Marshallese ancestral land and how the nuclear testing era decimated traditions in sea voyaging, music and cultivation on the low-lying atolls. The bombs also poisoned the islands for generations, causing intractable illnesses among its population."

-Coleen Jose, Kim Wall was a journalist most aspire to be, CNN

"She radiated boldness, the kind that you don’t see often in people out of their early twenties. Many of her friends remember her kindness, intelligence, and courage. She was warm and silly and wanted to know about the world. That inquisitiveness helped fuel her work."

-Alexis Okeowo, My Friend Kim Wall, The New Yorker

"I did not know Kim well, but I met her on a number of occasions and was in frequent email correspondence with her. I admired her hugely and write this piece in the hope that she will be remembered, as she rightly should, as one of the most courageous and principled international journalists to have covered Sri Lanka in the post-war period."

-Fred Carver, Director of the Sri Lanka Campaign (2011-2016), A Tribute to Kim Wall, The Sri Lanka Campaign

"We must not let the narrative of Kim Wall be just another story of a woman killed by a man. Kim would not have wanted that. She would have wanted more women out in the world, engaging with whatever life threw at them, and becoming stronger from it. And so, as Kim’s mother, Ingrid Wall, so powerfully told all of us who have been in touch since her untimely death, don’t let the dark side win. Rather than focusing on lamenting what could have been, I draw strength and peace from the knowledge that we knew we were going for it."

-Sonia Paul, Kim Wall Was More Than Just Another Woman Killed By A Man, Buzzfeed

"Kim’s reporting outfit – white tennis shoes, her hair in a messy bun – was always somewhere in between casual and confident, clumsy only at a first glance. A bit like her. Biting a pen in the corner of her mouth, she would absent-mindedly stare outside the car window, at a blank spot in her imagination, and then scribble down questions on her notebook until we got to the interview location.

There, she’d start her magic."

- Caterina Clerici, Kim Wall was born to tell stories. I miss my friend's light, and her love, The Guardian

I didn't have the pleasure of knowing Kim. But as a fellow female journalist (and one nowhere near as brave as she was) I am deeply moved by her story, and have been hugely inspired by her journalism which I am now just discovering.

You have my deepest condolences on her death - I can't imagine the emotional impact the loss of such a special person would have. I hope it gives you comfort that millions of people worldwide are rooting for you and will demand justice for Kim and safety for women journalists everywhere.

All my love and solidarity.

Faye Lipson

I didn’t know Kim personally but feel I have gotten to know her through this website and the many tributes and film clips her family and friends have shared. What shines through is her talent, her dedication, her fearlessness, her warmth, her humour and her love of life, of this world, and the people who inhabits it.

It seems completely and utterly against nature that any person, and particularly a person like Kim, should be brutally ripped away from this world. Her death is something incomprehensible, a devastating loss not only for her family and loved ones, but also for the rest of us who had discovered her brilliance as a journalist, or who would have done so in the future. I am sure I would have done the latter, and I would have loved it so very much! Her interests and take on the world is right up my alley.
This woman was only in the very beginning of her career, and she had so much more to give, more than we will ever know now.

I can’t help but feel angry also,  if I’m honest, that she was taken away in the brutal and unfathomable way she was. This unnecessary grief and pain, this loss of life. This beautiful and wonderful person that no longer is here among us.

I hope and think Kim Wall will be remembered for her work and talent; for her fearlessness, her warmth and humour; and for being a great daughter, sister, girlfriend, colleague, friend and journalist. And her vision of the world will live on through the Kim Wall Memorial Fund.
We owe it to her. And we deserve it.

A big warm hug from me to the family and loved ones of Kim Wall,
Eleonor, Malmö, Sweden.

Kim came into our Beijing lives all of a sudden and she lit them up. I don't know if I'm remembering the timing correctly but it felt like she brought the spring with all her smiles and silliness. From day one we discovered her karaoke was super on point. And that's what I knew her for first. excellent hiphop renditions, and outstanding dance moves were what she showed well before I realised she was one of the smartest, most thoughtful humans I'd ever have the privilege to meet. In Beijing when we met it took minutes for all of us there to feel like she was part of our little gang, and to wish she was going to stay a while. And she did. And she made the time there a bit more sparkly, she made it easy to laugh and to see your surroundings afresh because she was so excited to be there. And that was contagious. Then she went off on what I thought was just a holiday but it turned out when she came back that this funny, silly, joking girl was actually a hard hitting journalist and she came back from Sri Lanka with stories from a military camp in the jungle. I was so so impressed. And that's what she's been doing ever since, surprising people, caring for people, giving her time to tell peoples' stories. All with a wonderful humility. A beautiful soul. Even now she's inspiring those of us who knew her to remember that every minute is a precious gift. Kim was magic.  

Megan

I never (unfortunately) knew Kim Wall. And sadly it is only now, in the wake of her loss, that I am finally reading her brilliant articles. I feel, however, that I recognize her in spirit. She was possessed with a slightly clumsy but open-hearted, humor-infused yearning to meet, hear and feel the story of 'the other'. Her work was meticulously researched and documented, which was in itself an act of respect to her subjects. I remember vividly almost 20 years ago boarding a plane that would take me into the heart of the volatile Central African Republic... a country now, unfortunately, convulsing in the throes of civil war. My aim was to meet our closest primate cousins, chimpanzees and gorillas. I was a little frightened, but also excited beyond belief. Like Kim Wall, I had the support of my family and my community. I came face to face not only with some of the last surviving and thriving chimpanzee and gorilla cultures, but also found myself immersed in the vivid worlds of some of my fellow humans, who spoke Lingala, Sangho, or maybe French, who ate manioc instead of pasta and for whom the 'voice of god' was the radio and not television or (at least until recently) the internet. My life and my perspective were permanently set on a different course. 20 years later, my exploratory fires have cooled, and yet I still do everything in my power to broadcast the stories and perspectives of those beings and those cultures out into the 'global society'. It is inspiring now to read Kim Wall's articles, the writings of a young woman who threw herself into the wider world armed with nothing but a reporter's pen and boundless curiosity and humor. She had a singular gift of elucidating greater societal phenomena through the quirky voices of 'oddballs' and quite specific subcultures. That spirit must burn on, despite the forces of brutality and domination that seek to silence it. Thank you, to her family and friends, for not allowing Kim Wall's spirit to be lost in the tragedy of what happened. Instead, her voice must shine through loud and clear across time. The planet is lucky to have been graced with Kim Wall for 30 years. Let's keep reading her articles and strive every day to see the world as best we can through her bright and burning eyes.

-Cleve Hicks

On veut te parler de Kim Wall. 

On ne la connaissait pas personnellement, mais on sait qu’on l’aurait adorée. Kim Wall avait 30 ans et vivait comme freelance des reportages qu’elle vendait aux journaux du monde entier ; alors forcément, on s’identifie pas mal, aux Journalopes.

Elle a été assassinée cet été au Danemark, alors qu’elle était en train de travailler. Principal suspect : l’homme qu’elle venait d’interviewer et dont elle voulait faire le portrait - un constructeur danois de sous-marin artisanal.

De nombreux médias ont relaté ce crime comme si c’était une fiction, comme s’il s’agissait d’un polar scandinave divertissant. Plutôt que les sordides détails des articles qui racontent avec une espèce de gourmandise où, comment et quels morceaux du corps de la jeune femme ont été retrouvés, on te propose de lire les articles de Kim.  

Kim faisait des reportages sur le biohacking, sur les chinois en Afrique de l’Est, sur comment le vaudou tentait de survivre en Haïti, sur les vampires de la vraie vie, comment les gens se cultivent à Cuba sans internet, sur cette prof de fitness ronde,  ou encore sur les braconniers-chasseurs de tigres en Inde. Sans oublier ce portrait de ce couple de vieillards étranges qui avaient passé leur vie à lancer des fusées dans le désert libyen. Bref, que des pures idées, toujours écrites avec drôlerie, humanité, joie, curiosité. Un modèle pour nous. On sait qu’elle va manquer à énormément de monde. Comme nous, tu peux faire un don à lafondation Kim Wall, qui remettra chaque année une bourse à une jeune reporter pour écrire sur les cultures alternatives.

Ses proches racontent qu’elle voulait qu’il y ait plus de femmes qui “parcourent le monde et se frottent à la vie.” On compte bien lui faire honneur.

Source: https://mailchi.mp/d9c19d463cc8/mange-la-vie

It took my awhile to write on this wall…

We just met Kim a couple of times, but it felt like we had known her our hole life…

Our first meeting was in New York.We brought things from Sweden that her mother wanted to give her.

We saw her from far away, happy, exuberant jumping up n down…A bun on her head wearing a long skirt smiling at us..

We started with a hug and then decided to grab something to eat.

A lot of laugh and exchange from all our trips kept us busy that day!

We made so many happy and lovely memories that evening, which kept us linked in a strange way.

There is no words for this tragic and how I feel. Didn’t know that so few meetings could put so deep tracks in ones life….

Kim was a big inspiration to people 

ALL OVER THE WORLD.

I wish I had the opportunity to get to know u better, Kim.

You will be so missed.♥

Mr and Mrs Aytuglu

Lev väl,
Anette