CLIMATE CULTURES IN JAMAICA I
From Plantationocene to Resistance
With Esther Figueroa/ Jamaica, Imani Tafari-Ama/ Jamaica
Languages: English, German
Esther Figueroa and Imani Tafari will discuss some of the causes of the climate crisis to which Jamaica has a central role, such as plantation capitalism, tourism and extractive industries, as well as some of the impacts of climate change on the island, such as sea level rise, extreme weather events, unpredictable seasons, water and food scarcity.
Esther will read excerpts from her environmental novel “Limbo” to illustrate some of these systemic problems, as well as Jamaican cultural responses that embody liberatory values that counter oppression.
In response to these literary excerpts, Imani and Esther will have a conversation based on their lived personal experiences and the activist work they do that is embedded in community empowerment.
On the Podium
Esther Figueroa PhD, is a Jamaican independent filmmaker, writer, educator and linguist. Her activist filmmaking gives voice to those outside of mainstream media. In 2020, she founded “The Global Extraction Film Festival”, the first online film festival focused on global extraction. Her environmental novel “Limbo”, was a finalist in the National Indie Excellence Awards for Multi-cultural Fiction.
• 2014 Limbo. A Novel
• 2019 Fly Me to the Moon (84 min)
↗Esther Figueroa's YouTube channel
Dr. Imani Tafari-Ama, a Pan-Africanist and Womanist Scholar, is currently Research Fellow at the Institute for Gender and Development Studies at the University of the West Indies. During 2016-17, she served as International Fellow and Curator at the Flensburg Maritime Museum, to participate in the year-long “Fellow Me! Mobile Academy” and curated the acclaimed “Rum, Sweat and Tears” exhibition as a critical response to Danish colonialism in the Virgin Islands. Flensburg was formerly Danish and therefore has a historical share in the Danish colonialism in the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean.