In November last year Sasha Dees started travelling in the Caribbean region, researching the sustainability of contemporary art practices and the influence of international (exchange) projects, funding, markets and politics. During her research she will be keeping a travelogue for Africanah. Her first stop in the region was Ayiti (Haiti). In March she reported about her stay on Korsou (Curacao). In the April edition Aruba was reported on. This month she writes on Jamaica.
In 1975, photographer Marion Kalter grabs her camera and immortalizes the very moment that would trigger the desire to write this text. The crime scene takes place in Paris in Beauford Delaney’s studio located in rue Vercingétorix, Delaney and Ted Joans standing next to each other. Both of them were painters, and Joans was also a Surrealist as well as a jazz musician and poet. When looking at this picture in the 21st century, it is almost impossible to guess the many threads and double visions related to painting and music, jazz and poetry. Unless you start digging more.
Our study focuses on revival of Orchestre Impala, a popular band from the Habyarimana era of the 1970s-80s. We hope this musical revival signals a politics of cultural healing in Rwanda, and coming to terms with the cultural past. This example shows how popular music can contribute to peace-building in post-genocide Rwanda, and perhaps elsewhere.
In November last year Sasha Dees started travelling in the Caribbean region, researching the sustainability of contemporary art practices and the influence of international (exchange) projects, funding, markets and politics. During her research she will be keeping a travelogue for Africanah. Her first stop in the region was Ayiti (Haiti), one of the islands in the region she has not spent any time before (see February edition). In March she reported about her stay on Korsou (Curacao). This month the focus is on Aruba.
Art gives us the ability to acknowledge each other’s humanity. In the words of MLK (Martin Luther King Jr), Justice is what love looks like in public. I believe that but there is clearly a discrepancy as to who gets justice & who doesn’t. We need more love and art, to me this allows us to access parts of ourselves and reimagine a better tomorrow. I don’t think there can be justice without art. There cannot be art without an interrogation of justice.