About the Project
Caribbean folktales whisper extraordinary characters and warn us about corrupt entities hidden within our day-to-day environments. In Trinidad and Tobago, the lore details narratives that are vibrant, devastating, and alive. Just as the telling of these tales is embodied, contemporary expressions of these characters are often performed during Carnival and feature the intricate crafting of costumes, dance, and music. Caribbean folktales are living artifacts, activated through listening. If we listen, we might hear parts of ourselves and insights drawn from experiences that seem both distant and familiar.
Conversations and Constellations is a body of creative research that engages with Caribbean folktales and the histories from which they emerged to encourage the continued exchange and mutuality of oral storytelling. Folktales, like people, move across space and change over time. Caribbean folktales emerge from a range of periods and regions, detailing histories that resist systems of colonialism specific to the Caribbean and belonging to the wounds of global slavery.
This Caribbean-diasporic research is a heritage project that situates objects across generations within the context of Jumbie stories. There are as many variations of Jumbie stories as there are the lifetimes they reflect. Conversations x Constellations is a personal praxis space to embrace this lifetime of artful meaning-making and the lifetimes that have informed the present moment.
Caribbean folktales whisper extraordinary characters and warn us about corrupt entities hidden within our day-to-day environments. In Trinidad and Tobago, the lore details narratives that are vibrant, devastating, and alive. Just as the telling of these tales is embodied, contemporary expressions of these characters are often performed during Carnival and feature the intricate crafting of costumes, dance, and music. Caribbean folktales are living artifacts, activated through listening. If we listen, we might hear parts of ourselves and insights drawn from experiences that seem both distant and familiar.
Conversations and Constellations is a body of creative research that engages with Caribbean folktales and the histories from which they emerged to encourage the continued exchange and mutuality of oral storytelling. Folktales, like people, move across space and change over time. Caribbean folktales emerge from a range of periods and regions, detailing histories that resist systems of colonialism specific to the Caribbean and belonging to the wounds of global slavery.
This Caribbean-diasporic research is a heritage project that situates objects across generations within the context of Jumbie stories. There are as many variations of Jumbie stories as there are the lifetimes they reflect. Conversations x Constellations is a personal praxis space to embrace this lifetime of artful meaning-making and the lifetimes that have informed the present moment.
Butler is a 2023-24 Fulbright Research Fellowship recipient, affiliated with The University of the West Indies, Saint Augustine. She is undertaking research with the Department of Creative and Festival Arts, in tandem with a film premiering in Summer 2024.