You’re invited to join us for an intimate evening with the creators of Forgotten Lands, an annual publication that provides a platform for the many forgotten stories of the Caribbean while interconnecting and showcasing the region’s unique history.
Moderated by CCCADI’s Crossroads Senior Program Associate, Marissel Hernández Romero, Cory Torres Bishop and Don Brodie will introduce their most recent issue, Volume 05: The Haunted Tropics, which showcases 18 artists across the Caribbean and the diaspora while examining the colonial origins that are still at work within and around the Caribbean today. Joining Cory and Don in conversation are two of the featured artists of Vol. 5, Guarionex Rodriguez Jr. and Savannah Lyons Anthony.
While we delve into this neocolonial theme, it’s imperative to also consider the context of these matrixed layers of identity and the reality of our own displacement in the current post-globalized world.
Forgotten Lands Vol. 5 - The Haunted Tropics and the ‘Decolonize the Caribbean’ tshirts will be available for purchase.
November 16, 2023
6 - 8 p.m.
120 E 125th Street
New York, NY 10025
No cost to attend, but RSVP is required.
GUEST SPEAKERS
Cory Bishop & Don Brodie
In 2017 Cory Torres Bishop (@rasbishop) & Don Brodie (@dbp) co-produced a benefit art show in Brooklyn, NY to help those affected by hurricanes Irma & Maria in the Virgin Islands & Puerto Rico. After this exhibit was positively received and proceeds were given back to damaged communities and unrepresented artists from the same diaspora, momentum continued and inspired the team to create an annual publication known today as FORGOTTEN LANDS.
Guarionex Rodriguez Jr.
Guarionex Rodriguez, Jr. is a Dominican-American artist based in Brooklyn, NY. He received a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2011. His work explores the ways in which diasporic unity and niche musical movements have served in the creation of community and identity in the recent past and present. Simultaneously, he experiments with analog techniques to bring elements of abstraction to his figurative images. This manual practice heightens the intimacy of his work while additionally asking himself and the viewer to consider the ways in which we influence and are influenced by our surroundings.
Rodriguez has been featured in various publications including Forgotten Lands, Hola Pardo, It’s Nice That, and Musée Magazine, and he was recently selected as a finalist for Aperture’s 2023 Portfolio Prize.
Savannah Lyons Anthony
Savannah Lyons Anthony is a multidisciplinary performer and writer. She was born and raised in St. John, US Virgin Islands before earning a BA from Bard College in Choreographic Forms. She now splits her time between Harlem, New York, and the Virgin Islands making work within the spaces of theater, dance, and film.
Moderator:
Marissel Hernández Romero
As Senior Program Associate for CCCADI’s Caribbean cultural sustainability initiative, Crossroads, Marissel supports the Interim Program Director by undertaking a variety of administrative and program design duties, including the development, planning, implementation, and management of new activities and programs. She also serves as a liaison with internal and external constituencies in support of the objectives of CCCADI’s Crossroads program.
A Black Puerto Rican Independent Scholar and Afrofeminist, Marissel is a recipient of the 2022 Soros Equality Fellowship for her work on achieving racial equity through art and culture and currently works as a consultant on issues of race, anti-racism, and racial equity. Founder and coordinator of multiple projects including De coco y anís. Proyecto Cortijo and Saberes Afrorriqueños, her most recent initiative examines Afrofuturism in Brazil and the Hispanic Caribbean, proposing current theoretical reflections on music and sound to understand both the processes and the social movements of black and Afro-descendant people.
Marissel earned her Ph.D. in Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Studies from The Graduate Center, CUNY.
We Lit is a CCCADI series dedicated to exploring Black and Brown authors who have beautifully woven their experiences, cultures, and dreams into their works. This series is a call to writers, griots, storytellers, and lovers of the written word to spark collective conservation, reflection, and celebration for African Diasporic literature.