#j'ouvert

BROCKHAMPTON - J’OUVERT, I BEEN BORN AGAIN, IF YOU PRAY RIGHT, NO HALO, BOY BYE, SUGAR, BUZZCUT & COUNT ON ME [artwork concepts in the style of SATURATION I]

"Visual surprise is natural in the Caribbean," said the poet Derek Walcott in his 1992 Nobel lecture. "It comes with the landscape, and faced with its beauty, the sigh of History dissolves." He wondered if his work, rather than evoking the past, could contain "celebrations of a real presence." This sentiment is embodied in the mission of the West Indian American Day Carnival Association (WIADCA), organizers of the New York Caribbean Week and the annual Labor Day Parade. In anticipation of these (now virtual) events, this August we're highlighting artworks in the Museum's collection that explore the complexity of Caribbean identity and celebrate Caribbean culture and its diasporas.