VACATION: Captiva Island and Provicetown feat. Candy w/the Go Go’s and Black Sheep
Notes on contributor Ronaldo V. Wilson, PhD, poet, interdisciplinary artist and academic, is author of Narrative of the Life of the Brown Boy and the White Man, winner of the Cave Canem Prize; Poems of the Black Object, winner of the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry and the Asian American Literary Award in Poetry; […]
Making Irresistible Re-memory
Grace Sanders Johnson So now here is the question: what tools, what methodologies, if you will, do we need to develop to coax memory back into work, to mute the seduction of forgetting and make re-memory irresistible? Of course I am thinking of the late Toni Cade Bambara here and her invitation to make revolution […]
Reparer La Mer/Repairing the Sea
Image by Sidney Regis Title: Antilles Serie: Repare the sea Technic: Black ink and gold ink on old map from the 1930s Size 44×57 cm 2023 Collection of the artistThis detailed historical map titled “ANTILLES” features the Caribbean, centered on Cuba, with neighboring islands like Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, depicted in colors: green for Florida, yellow for […]
Sonic Oracles: The Feedback of Electric Ancestors Yet Unborn
Leyneuf Tines First and foremost, thank you to the coast because without the coast, how do we move from here to there?—Gboyega Odubanjo, Adam1 What comes next cannot without a story of water and offering. The sun shines and we gather because the river allows it. Na from clap dem dey enter dance.—Gboyega Odubanjo, Adam2 […]
Passport Pótoprens
Jennifer Celestin “Sometimes I walk to Church Avenue with no intentions but as soon as I hear, ‘Get manman’ou, ma che.’ I know why I came. For a moment, I was in Port-au-Prince.” – Ramonde, Flatbush resident Vreman vre Flatbush on a hot, congested day can feel like the real thing. Walk down Church Avenue […]
What Rasanblaj Means for Anthropology, Now
Maria D. Vesperi and Emily Martin Like Democracy Now!, the news program that inspired our name, Anthropology Now suggests an assertion, an assessment and a demand. Yes, this is anthropology in the many ways it can be crafted, with room for myriad that have not been configured yet. Yes, anthropology is imperfect and imperiled, in […]
“We Each Are Our Own Archives”
Vanessa K. Valdés No, ra-san-blaj in Kreyòl. n. assembly, compilation, enlisting, regrouping (of ideas, things, people, spirits; for example, fè yon rasanblaj, do a gathering, a ceremony, a protest). —Gina Athena Ulysse I. In memory of Robert Valdés Jr. Iris Delia Valdés I’ve become a writer multiple times throughout my life. There was never one […]
The Meditation on Rasanblaj Questionnaire #9
Carole McGranahan and Gina athena Ulysse Defined as assembly, compilation, enlisting, regrouping (of ideas, things, people, spirits; for example, fè yon rasanblaj, do a gathering, a ceremony, a protest), rasanblaj’s very linguistic formation subverted and resisted colonial oppression (M. Condé). Consider that article 16 of the 1685 French Code noir forbade enslaved of different masters […]
Why Is This Trash Can Yelling at Me? Big Bellies and Clean Green Gentrification
rasanblaj Rasanblaj: n. assembly, compilation, enlisting, regrouping (of ideas, things, people, spirits. For example, fè yon rasanblaj, do a gathering, a ceremony, a protest). “Hey there, good looking!” On a misty December day in downtown Brooklyn, my walk along Fulton Street was interrupted by a slew of high-tech trash cans trying to grab my attention. […]