Last weekend, I attended the Bankra Caribbean Festival produced by Braata Productions and Andrew Clarke. One of the draws of the festival was looking at the cultural exhibit of puppets made in the image of popular Caribbean folklore characters, including the Soucouyant. Mama D’Leau, the Douens (Dwens), the Moko Jumbie, Papa Bois, and Anancy (Anansi). The slideshow is below with the artwork and the descriptions are after:
Continue reading Astro-Caribbean: Caribbean Folklore
All this month, I will present visionary work from the Afro-Caribbean diaspora. Today’s post is a presentation of visual artists — Sheena Rose, Carlo Theartus, Dirk Joseph, and Alicia Brown.
Since tomorrow I will be moderating the Astro-Caribbean panel, Midnight Robber Chronicles, which was inspired by Nalo Hopkinson’s speculative novel Midnight Robber, I thought I’d share an a British artist whose work centers on exploring the significance of Caribbean carnival.
According to Trinidadian/Irish- British artist Zak Ove, Caribbean carnival, especially those in Trinidad, started as a mockery of European colonialists, but then became a declaration of “we can be anything” and “not just what we’ve been duped” into believing we are by these colonialists. It became an investigation through transfigurement and costume into all kinds of mythologies and into a sense of Africanism that had been subdued and suppressed through slavery.
Happy New Year everyone!
I’m back with a few surprises!
First up is my first official Futuristically Ancient video that I edited, featuring artists Damali Abrams and Dennis RedMoon Darkeem presenting their work JCAL’s First Friday’s in Jamaica, Queens. As we go forth in a new year and with the disturbing atmosphere surrounding us right now due to the upcoming inauguration, cabinet picks, the confirmation hearings, and ethics of it all, I hope these visionary artists can give you a few words of encouragement and upliftment. As Damali said, “if we can’t begin to imagine something outside of tragedy, then we will never be able to create any new realties for ourselves.” I believe both Damali’s and Dennis’s work encapsulate what I’d like to call “scarab imaginations” of what is possible and how to make creative use of pain or waste.
Enjoy!
Damali Abrams and Dennis RedMoon Darkeem from Futuristically Ancient on Vimeo.
We have come to the end of the year 2016. It has been a year filled with loss and with the unbelievable happening, but it has also been a year filled with amazing opportunities and door openings. 2017 is a year coming in like a lion’s roar and our futures seem uncertain, but let us go forth together, facing our fears and welcoming the new opportunities that will be opened with the seismic changes coming our way.
I will leave you with a few visionary artists I learned about during my trip to Barbados and hopefully they will inspire you as we head into the new year. I will see you all in 2017!
Nakazzi Hutchinson is a sculptor, painter and interior designer who is of both Jamaican and Barbadian heritage. She creates life-sized figures and masks out of organic materials. As she said in her artist statement:
Hello! Welcome back to my Astro-Caribbean series with a double dose of Space:Queens for you! Last week, I had artist Shervone Neckles and now I present to you Damali Abrams! Damali is a talented visual artist, writer and herbalist, who is using her talents to help to heal the world. Enjoy my interview with her below:
1) Tell the readers a little bit about yourself.
I am Damali Abrams the Glitter Priestess. I make art and herbal remedies.
My work is about healing and transcendence, as well as creating a space of liberation for the Black imagination.
2) As a visual artist, tell us about the transformative power of image.
I’m a visual thinker as well as a writer. There are certain ideas that I can only express as images, others only as words.
Our culture does not value visual art as much as it does writing but the things that we see affect us so deeply on a subconscious level, in ways we often don’t even realize. Images are very powerful and can be extremely transformative. The things we see most often profoundly affect who and what we become.
Continue reading “Space:Queens” – Damali “The Glitter Priestess” Abrams
Hello Everyone! I am back from my Barbados trip, where I learned a lot about the country, including finding out about some great visionary artists and creatives there. Speaking of visionary artists, below is my interview with Queens-based visual artist, educator, and community activist Shervone Neckles whose work looks at the intersections between science, nature, art, story and community. I hope you have enjoyed my Astro-Caribbean series for the past few weeks and although I am back, I will continue it for a week or two, including some of the artists I found out about in Barbados. Stay tuned!
1) Tell the readers a little bit about yourself.
I’m Shervone Neckles, an interdisciplinary artist, educator, community worker and art administrator. I am a first generation Caribbean-American raised in East Flatbush Brooklyn to Grenadian parents. My work weaves together concepts of nature and science with objects and practices rooted in Afro-Caribbean tradition.The art objects I make (book arts, printmaking, sculpture and multi-media techniques) are part of my ethnographic study on the social meaning of beauty, identity, and cultural authenticity within black womanhood.
In addition, my practice includes social experiments and curatorial projects that explores the commonalities, differences, contradictions, continuities and the many possibilities of cooperative learning and civic responsibility. I believe this exchange between community and artist is crucial to our ability to protect, preserve and make change where we live, work and practice from an informed and respectful place.
