What is Caribbeing? 

“Caribbeing” was founded as a means to organize Caribbean groups in Flatbush through art. The founder, Shelley Worrell, a Caribbean-American “Flatbush native,” noticed a lack of places dedicated to Caribbean art and programming. In 2015, Worrell created the Caribbeing organization to host Caribbean events in Flatbush and Crown Heights. The organization created an art gallery, the “Carribeing House”, as a site for Caribbean art to be exhibited. Eventually the organization became more political. Worrell noticed that despite Flatbush being a large Caribbean enclave, it was never given the title “Little Caribbean.” Although events like J’ouvert and the parade exist every year, she states “You’re not only Caribbean once a year,” to bring attention to the clear inequality. Using the Caribbeing organization, Worrell created an initiative to officially declare Flatbush as Little Caribbean. Caribbeing is a clear example of how art is a segue into political activism. Caribbean artists creating a space to display their work allows them to establish a greater sense of personal identity as a Caribbean-American, while also allowing them to have greater ties to their neighborhood and community. Art is necessary in the movement to establish “Little Caribbean” because the presence of art declares Caribbean ownership over a space. Instead of just living and working in an area, Caribbean people express their culture and flourish in these areas. Similar to how art was necessary in the Caribbean in forming a Caribbean identity, art is necessary in the diaspora forming an identity.

Esprit: Sacred Art of Haiti

In April, the Caribbeing House opened their latest gallery, Esprit: Sacred Art of Haiti. I went to the opening of the exhibit and had the opportunity to speak with Nathalie Jolivert, a Haitian immigrant whose art was featured in the gallery. Jolivert explained to me how she began creating her art. She was born in Haiti and immigrated to the United States to attend Rhode Island School of design as an architecture major. She graduated with a degree in architecture and then began her work in Haiti. She said that living in Haiti, she began feeling confused about how people lived in Port-Au-Prince. She also felt conflicted about who was benefitting from her art. She told me how as an architect in Haiti she was working under foreign contractors, so Haitian companies weren’t profiting from her labor. She also realized how elitist the art world was and how only Westernized art was considered “fine art. These circumstances fueled her desire to create art that was accessible to the general Haitian demographic. Much of Jolivert’s art featured in the exhibit used representational imagery, similar to traditional Haitian art. Attempting to prove the validity of traditional Haitian art among Western art, Jolivert took time off of her career as an architect to study traditional art and learn how to create imagery that was recognizable for average Haitian people. Her paintings show depictions of everyday scenes in Port-Au-Prince, such as vendors, people talking, and the public transportation system used.

Although many of her paintings appear to be simple scenes of Haitian life, they all carry political messages. Jolivert stated that “Art says what people don’t want to say.” For example, the paintings in the exhibit were all black and white or in a grayscale. Jolivert stated the purpose was to show that “although bright colors are associated with Haiti, more dark things are occurring there,” like corruption, poverty, and political oppression. She described to me a specific painting that mocked the concept of Haiti as a “free state.” The piece shows a man with a fish on his head with the phrase “April Fool’s” in French repeated in the background and the word “LIBRE” written underneath. Jolivert shows the viewer that although Hiati is the first independent black nation in the world, Haiti still isn’t “free” and is subject to exploitation and neocolonialism in the west. For Caribbean artists in New York, creating art that isn’t considered political is a challenge. The act of creating art as a “foreigner” and that is not influenced by the pressure of western perceptions of what is and isn’t art is in itself an act of defiance and freedom.

April Fool’s Painting

 

References

https://patch.com/new-york/ditmaspark/caribbeing-celebrates-brooklyns-caribbean-culture-year-round

To see more of Nathalie Jolivert’s work, visit http://www.jolivert.com/