Hurricane Season and Caribbean Dreams

[Randy Eady]

Artists show the crucial role arts play in translating data sets and dire predictions into relatable terms, reframing the conversation around how changes in climate relate to everyday lived experiences -- as well as to notions of community, family, home. 

“Hurricane Season” features 58 works in a range of media by six artists from across the Caribbean archipelago and its diaspora: Firelei Báez, Lionel Cruet, Teresita Fernández, Tamika Galanis, Deborah Jack, and Hew Locke.

Through art, they succeed in converting a global crisis into human scale, acknowledge some harsh realities about future climate refugees: emphasizing its toll on people and yet, also the possibilities of a better future. It is an exhibition about homes under threat as well as cycles of environmental violence and repair.

[Randy Eady]

Dominica, which is moving towards becoming the world’s first climate-resilient country, appealed to the international community on Wednesday to honor its obligations due to the impact of climate change on small island developing states (SIDS) like itself.

“We stand today at a critical juncture in human history. Climate change, as we know, is not just an environmental challenge; it is a threat to every aspect of life as we know it. For Dominica, as for many Small Island Developing States, this is not a distant or abstract issue; it is a daily reality,” President Sylvania Burton told the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

Burton, the first President of Indigenous descent from Dominica, (supported by the first female Indigenous Chief in 4 centuries Anette Sanford) told her global audience that on an annual basis, Dominica and other SIDS brace for the onslaught caused by intensified hurricanes, devastating floods, and prolonged droughts

“My ancestors, the Kalinago people, lived in harmony with Mother Nature, drawing on nature for food and general wellbeing, including medicinal products. There are many benefits to a life in harmony with Mother Nature.

“Their impact on the environment was minimal. The benefits to human health were long, active lives with minimal burden of chronic diseases. My ancestors also lived a communal life marked by social cohesion. My delegation recommends this way of life, of our Kalinago people, to this body,” Burton said.