☽

USA. NYC. In a subway. 1996 Harry Gruyaert

Next stop, Instagram foto shoot - The Gothamist

junji ito tomie rug

@taeseru

GRENADA. 1979. A leaf is used as an umbrella along the northwest coast of Grenada. Alex Webb.

Clinton Ave, The Bronx, December 2020.

Today my jaw dropped when I saw this tree at my aunts house. There are hundreds of mangoes in it!! It looks like heaven.. hahaha. When I got home my neighbour also had a bunch of kenepa’s for me, which is a really sweet fruit you only find in the Caribbean.

In anticipation of the (now virtual) New York Caribbean Week and the annual Labor Day Parade, this August we’re highlighting artworks in the Museum’s collection that celebrate the presence of Caribbean culture and its diasporas.

New York’s annual Labor Day Parade, also known as the West Indian Day Parade, originated in Harlem with Trinidadian Jessie Waddell, in the 1930’s. In homage to Trinidad’s annual Carnival, Waddell hosted costume parties amongst friends in landmark enclaves, like the Savoy and Audubon Ballrooms, which progressed into a street parade in Harlem in 1947. In 1969, the parade relocated to Brooklyn, under the direction of the late Carlos Lezama (aka “The Father of Brooklyn Carnival”) where it has resided ever since. Participation in the parade is both a rite of passage and an extension of lineage, as a span of all generations flock to indulge in the conducted chaos, as seen in Catherine Green’s images. Green captures the essence of tradition and the nuance of evolution as themes of cultural pride and extravagance meet ancestral reverence and sacredness. 

Cap Haitien, Haiti

DMX, Yonkers, NY, 1997 | Jonathan Mannion

Movie matinée, Joe’s NYC

two 2008 Barbados stamps from a series on algae

[id: two postage stamps, both with botanical illustrations of two different kinds of algae. both seem leafy and green. end id]

Yeah, I really cannot stress how selfish it is to be traveling to Caribbean islands during a pandemic. It’s that US/UK privilege coming through, and it makes you start acting silly. First of all, nobody should be going anywhere. Not without quite a few more people getting the vaccine. Second of all, you’re flying to predominantly black islands, who don’t have the hospital infrastructure, and claiming you “need a getaway from all the Covid stresses”. So, what’s their getaway? Oh right, they don’t have one. They get to work for you, who likely will neither quarantine, nor get tested, and watch you frolick around their islands, most likely spreading a highly contagious disease that does not show symptoms in like, 30-40% of people. Cool.

Daughter of an immigrant working in New York City, Fuzhou, China, 2007

Chien-Chi Chang

west village, new york city, february 2nd, 2021