Las Antillas para los Antillanos

Taking Ramón Emeterio Betances’ 19th century phrase “The Antilles for the Antilleans” as a starting point, I have invited a group of artists, historians, writers, and thinkers, to contribute to the research center by responding to Betances’ call for an Antillean Federation as a strategy to establish autonomy while resisting colonialism in the Caribbean Region.

The Center will provide a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the social, cultural and economic characteristics of the Caribbean community. Paramount to the research center’s potential is a need to build connections between cultural producers in a region where political and economic paradigms have prevented the development of a creative and fair flux between islands. This has historically been due to language barriers, cultural and ethnic differences, as well as economic and political infrastructures implemented by colonial powers. It is therefore the research center’s core intention, to prompt a much-needed dialogue about what it means to be Caribbean through an articulation of collective social exchange. In other words only through collective action can we (The Antilleans) work together towards a consideration in decolonization strategies through a creative supportive network.

Programing:

Artist Mireya Lucio will activate the materials in the research center through a series of embodied interventions. On October 1st, during the opening reception she will perform poems from the collection, including Luis Llorens Torres's poem "Canción de las Antillas." On October 5th, there will be an open studio/rehearsal in the space during opening hours, with the resulting performance on October 9th, the closing day of the research center.