Expat Diaries: The ‘Third Places’ Black Women Are Creating Around The World

Since 2018, Dr. Londi” Cox, Ph.D., an international psychologist and fellow Black woman traveler who has worked with military families in England and Japan about the importance of third spaces. “We are created for community,” she says. “In a world where we’ve historically been ostracized, these spaces allow us to exist without having to explain ourselves.”

She shares that third spaces provide more than just connection; they offer affirmation and the opportunity to see oneself reflected in others’ experiences.

“It’s about having a space where someone who looks like you has already set thetarget="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Andrea Leeth, a freelance writer and editor in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, third places have emerged through creative and intentional online community, especially with other Black women writers. After leaving her chemical engineering career in 2014 to travel, Leeth explored various countries in Asia and South America before settling in Quito, Ecuador, as an English teacher.

She transitioned to freelance work during the pandemic as a copy editor and proofreader, which led her to seek a structured connection. She joined a co-working group with other Black women, meeting weekly to hold each other accountable. She also participates in an online writing circle she discovered at a women’s publishing conference, where she’s the only member based overseas.

“It’s the consistency that makes it work,” she shares. “We’ve built a sense of community. It feels like a safe space to bounce ideas off of people, to get advice in different situations in life and in business.” These quiet, virtual third places have supported her as she dives into writing her first book about living abroad and starting a freelance career.

Keelah Rose Calloway—a comedian, teacher, and global creative—claims that third places, for her, have looked like stages, green rooms, and after-show hangouts. After leaving law school during the 2008 financial crisis, she began teaching abroad and even built a career in stand-up comedy across countries like Vietnam and South Korea.

“Vietnam was the perfect opportunity to start a comedy career because there was a lot of comedy happening in the north of Vietnam as well as in the south. But based on my analysis of the situation, there was nothing happening in central Vietnam. So, I moved to Hue and I started my own comedy production company,” she says.

Calloway was excited about being part of one of the strongest global female comedy scenes she’d ever experienced. It was more than just telling jokes for fun. It was about being seen, embraced, and understood as a Black woman creative in a place far from home.

Her experience underscores a different kind of third space: one where creative expression becomes the connector. “A lot of us leave the U.S. because we want to actually live, not just hustle,” she says. For her, third places are essential for creative survival.

As I move towards age 50, I’ve reached a place where I no longer want to pass through a town. I’m ready to sit down and stay a while. That’s part of why I am choosing to settle in Central Mexico, where I can take painting classes with local Mexican artists and immerse myself in learning Spanish within a creative community. I first picked up watercolor painting during the pandemic, living alone in Vietnam during lockdown. It became a meditative practice I carried with me to Kigali, Rwanda and Istanbul, Turkey, always looking for a school or a teacher who could help me be better.

And now, in midlife, painting has become more than a hobby. My third place is where I can be a beginner artist and a member of something deeply rooted in my adopted country.

Third places are more than just sites to gather or feel less alone. For Black women, they can also be spaces of becoming. This is where our gifts are noticed, our talents are nurtured, and our value is self-affirmed, not questioned.

This is the opportunity that awaits when a Black woman chooses to leave parts of herself behind in pursuit of something new. Third places abroad can offer the rare freedom to explore identities we may never have had space to fully embody at home.

The world is a safe place for Black women to bloom.

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