Design: Pardo
Flotation #2; Bocas del Toro, Panama, June 30–July 7, 2024; The Current IV Caribbean: “otras montañas, las que andan sueltas bajo el agua” (other mountains, adrift beneath the waves), Curated by Yina Jiménez Suriel (2023–2025). Photo: Nadia Huggins
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CONVENING #2A two-day multidisciplinary festival curated by Yina Jiménez Suriel, Curatorial Fellow of The Current IV: Caribbean: "otras montañas, las que andan sueltas bajo el agua" [other mountains, adrift beneath the waves].“The festival Convening #2: … telling of oceanic transformations begins in the geological system of the Blue Mountains because they witness both the oceanic perspective of the region and some of the emancipatory processes of the human species that have made it their home, as is the case of the Marronage through the Cuna Cuna Pass, one of the most important trails for that process to take place in the island.”—Yina Jiménez Suriel
Inspired by the continuous movement of the tides and the Earth’s crust and reflecting on improvisation~freestyle as a practice related to the experience of Marronage, the festival invites us to challenge a land-based understanding of the Caribbean from an oceanic perspective.
The festival presents an extensive program of activities that are free and open to the public of all ages, including workshops, roundtable conversations, a hiking trip to the Blue Mountains, film screenings, and other activities that explore the links between art, gastronomy, geology, and biology. Establishing a dialogue between local, regional, and international practices, the program of Convening #2 on January 10–11, 2025, in Port Antonio, Jamaica, will showcase the Jamaican cultural and artistic ecosystem, including Annie Paul, Oneika Russell, and Ina Vandebroek, together with a diverse lineup of international guests, such as Nohora Arrieta Fernández, Monique Johnson, Tessa Mars, and Yewande Yoyo Odunubi.
The practice of convening—coming together—is one of the most essential methods of opening up the research of The Current to a broad audience. This Convening is the second public moment of gathering of TBA21–Academy's curatorial fellowship program The Current IV Caribbean: otras montañas, las que andan sueltas bajo el agua [other mountains, adrift beneath the waves] led by Dominican curator Yina Jiménez Suriel and represents a return to Jamaica after ten years of TBA21's collaboration with the Alligator Head Foundation, as well as the tenth anniversary of The Current program itself.
Temitope Ajose-Cutting is a choreographer, dancer and movement director who staged works for the Royal Opera House, The Place, DanceXchange, RichMix, Dancebase and the Soho Joyce (New York), among others.
Nohora Arrieta Fernández is a writer, researcher, scholar and an Assistant Professor of Afro-Latin American studies at UCLA, focused on researching the aesthetics and intellectual traditions of the African Diaspora in the Americas.
Lisa and Christopher Binns run STUSH in the BUSH, a Farm-to-Table Dining Experience in the cool hills of St. Ann, Jamaica. Since 2014, Lisa and Chris have built a collaborative, rural community-anchored venture that has risen to the forefront of Jamaica’s Ital plant-based movement through farming, cooking and product making.
Nadia Huggins is a visual artist and researcher whose photography work merges documentary and conceptual practices, exploring belonging, identity, and memory through a contemporary approach focused on re-presenting Caribbean landscapes and the sea.
Yina Jiménez Suriel is a curator and researcher with a master's degree in visual studies. Her curatorial practice is nourished by transdisciplinary research on the construction of imagination, contemporary emancipatory processes and reconciliation with the constant movement. She is the Curatorial Fellow of TBA21–Academy's The Current IV.
Monique Johnson is an Earth scientist exploring the impacts of geological hazards in the Eastern Caribbean, including the barriers and capacities for disaster risk reduction in Caribbean Societies.
Quinn Latimer is a California-born poet, critic, and editor whose work often explores feminist economies of writing, reading, and moving-image production.
O’Neil Lawrence is an artist, curator, researcher and writer. He has worked at the National Gallery of Jamaica since 2008, most recently as Chief Curator. His research interests include race, gender and sexuality in Caribbean and African Diasporal art, memory, identity and hidden archives, and photography as a medium and a social vehicle.
Maurice Lee is the founder of Kromanti Experience, a cultural tour company focused on the history of the Maroon community and culture in Jamaica to bring people from the African diaspora closer to their heritage while reviving Black history in a way that extends beyond the narrative of slavery and the colonizer's lens.
Annie Paul is editor-in-chief of the online magazine of Caribbean writing, PREE (preelit.com), and was the 2023 Lakes Writer-in-Residence at Smith College (Massachusetts). A founding editor of the journal Small Axe, she has been published in various international journals and magazines.
Oneika Russell is a visual artist working in various media, with a focus on video, textiles and print-based work. She currently lectures at the Caribbean School of Architecture, UTECH, Jamaica and the Edna Manley College of the Visual & Performing Arts and runs the art initiative Tide Rising Art Projects.
Ina Vandebroek is an ethnobotanist interested in the intersection of traditional knowledge systems and Caribbean biodiversity. She is Editor-in-Chief of the scientific journal Economic Botany and has published scholarly articles, as well as community guidebooks in Jamaica and Bolivia.
Jason West is a family farmer from Portland Parish, Jamaica, with deep roots in the family farming traditions of the John Crow Mountains. He has collaborated extensively with Ina Vandebroek on ethnobotanical research, advocating for greater recognition of Caribbean traditional plant knowledge.
Yewande Yoyo Odunubi is an artist, researcher and cultural producer whose practice revolves around the inquiry: “What does the body need to dream?”. Inspired by freestyle/improvisation as choreographic and pedagogical methodologies, she is interested in how we see, read, shape and practis/ce ourselves.
ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS
Temitope Ajose-Cutting is a choreographer, dancer and movement director who staged works for the Royal Opera House, The Place, DanceXchange, RichMix, Dancebase and the Soho Joyce (New York), among others.
Nohora Arrieta Fernández is a writer, researcher, scholar and an Assistant Professor of Afro-Latin American studies at UCLA, focused on researching the aesthetics and intellectual traditions of the African Diaspora in the Americas.
Lisa and Christopher Binns run STUSH in the BUSH, a Farm-to-Table Dining Experience in the cool hills of St. Ann, Jamaica. Since 2014, Lisa and Chris have built a collaborative, rural community-anchored venture that has risen to the forefront of Jamaica’s Ital plant-based movement through farming, cooking and product making.
Nadia Huggins is a visual artist and researcher whose photography work merges documentary and conceptual practices, exploring belonging, identity, and memory through a contemporary approach focused on re-presenting Caribbean landscapes and the sea.
Yina Jiménez Suriel is a curator and researcher with a master's degree in visual studies. Her curatorial practice is nourished by transdisciplinary research on the construction of imagination, contemporary emancipatory processes and reconciliation with the constant movement. She is the Curatorial Fellow of TBA21–Academy's The Current IV.
Monique Johnson is an Earth scientist exploring the impacts of geological hazards in the Eastern Caribbean, including the barriers and capacities for disaster risk reduction in Caribbean Societies.
Quinn Latimer is a California-born poet, critic, and editor whose work often explores feminist economies of writing, reading, and moving-image production.
O’Neil Lawrence is an artist, curator, researcher and writer. He has worked at the National Gallery of Jamaica since 2008, most recently as Chief Curator. His research interests include race, gender and sexuality in Caribbean and African Diasporal art, memory, identity and hidden archives, and photography as a medium and a social vehicle.
Maurice Lee is the founder of Kromanti Experience, a cultural tour company focused on the history of the Maroon community and culture in Jamaica to bring people from the African diaspora closer to their heritage while reviving Black history in a way that extends beyond the narrative of slavery and the colonizer's lens.
Annie Paul is editor-in-chief of the online magazine of Caribbean writing, PREE (preelit.com), and was the 2023 Lakes Writer-in-Residence at Smith College (Massachusetts). A founding editor of the journal Small Axe, she has been published in various international journals and magazines.
Oneika Russell is a visual artist working in various media, with a focus on video, textiles and print-based work. She currently lectures at the Caribbean School of Architecture, UTECH, Jamaica and the Edna Manley College of the Visual & Performing Arts and runs the art initiative Tide Rising Art Projects.
Ina Vandebroek is an ethnobotanist interested in the intersection of traditional knowledge systems and Caribbean biodiversity. She is Editor-in-Chief of the scientific journal Economic Botany and has published scholarly articles, as well as community guidebooks in Jamaica and Bolivia.
Jason West is a family farmer from Portland Parish, Jamaica, with deep roots in the family farming traditions of the John Crow Mountains. He has collaborated extensively with Ina Vandebroek on ethnobotanical research, advocating for greater recognition of Caribbean traditional plant knowledge.
Yewande Yoyo Odunubi is an artist, researcher and cultural producer whose practice revolves around the inquiry: “What does the body need to dream?”. Inspired by freestyle/improvisation as choreographic and pedagogical methodologies, she is interested in how we see, read, shape and practis/ce ourselves.