LOVE SENT ACROSS SEASPreserving Connection in Philadelphia's Caribbean Diaspora
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Each year immigrants send thousands of shipping barrels back to their families, packed full of clothing, medicines, shoes, trinkets, and other emblems of love that arrive in hometowns with great fanfare and expectation.
"'Love Sent Across Seas' is a free-to-attend two-week pop-up art exhibition that explores the experiences of Caribbean migrants and refugees to Philadelphia through the object of the shipping barrel. Each year immigrants send thousands of shipping barrels back to their families, packed full of clothing, medicines, shoes, trinkets, and other emblems of love that arrive in hometowns with great fanfare and expectation. The act of filling a barrel is a labor of love, a process that spans days and even months.
Even as migrants navigate the challenges of placemaking in a new social and political climate in Philadelphia, they also carry their home communities with them: packed in suitcases, purchased from specialty groceries in Philadelphia, or grown in their backyards. In this way, newcomers enrich Philadelphia with the tastes, smells, and vibrations of their diverse homelands---bringing the islands to the City of Brotherly Love in nibs of cacao, the richness of local coffee beans, bottles of craft rum, and the rhythm of steelpan and calypso." |
EXHIBIT CONTENTS
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“Love Sent Across Seas” centers around 5 shipping barrels that have been transformed by artists in Philadelphia. The barrels will be accompanied with filmed oral histories showcasing stories and experiences of Caribbean migrants to Philadelphia.
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ORGANIZATIONS
“Love Sent Across Seas” is a project of the Caribbean Community in Philadelphia, produced in collaboration with the Center for Experimental Ethnography at the University of Pennsylvania, and hosted by the Penn Museum.
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CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY IN PHILADELPHIA
ABOUT Caribbean Community in Philadelphia is an organization that was established almost 11 years ago with Arts & Culture at the forefront of its operation. They now operate a year-round 8-part programming. They are fiscally sponsored by CultureTrust Greater Philadelphia for the last 7 years. Post COVID, they recognized the need for more Caribbean cultural art displays and exhibits around Philadelphia. This project was inspired by a painted fundraiser barrel – ‘Heart for Haiti.’ THE CENTER FOR EXPERIMENTAL ETHNOGRAPHY
ABOUT The Center for Experimental Ethnography was established in 2018 at the University of Pennsylvania as a creative laboratory for critical multimodal research. A basic premise that underlies their efforts is the contention that an expanded and multi-modal definition of what counts as scholarship will lead to a more diverse university community in which artistic practice is a cornerstone not only for engaged and participatory democracy and social justice, but also for the reimagining and transformation of the university as a whole. PENN MUSEUM
ABOUT The Penn Museum’s mission is to be a center for inquiry and the ongoing exploration of humanity for our University of Pennsylvania, regional, national, and global communities, following ethical standards and practices. Through conducting research, stewarding collections, creating learning opportunities, sharing stories, and creating experiences that expand access to archaeology and anthropology, the Museum builds empathy and connections across diverse cultures. VOICE LAB
The Caribbean immigrant narrative project was funded through the VocalizED Identity Crafting and Exploration (VOICE) Lab, which is housed in the English department at Stony Brook University and is directed by Dr. NeishaTerry Young. The VOICE lab is a collaborative cultural identity exploration and narration hub that supports immigrants in utilizing the tools and platforms of multiliteracies to explore, author, and disseminate their identity narratives. The project was completed in collaboration with Dr. Tennecia Dacass from Central Washington University. |
SUPPORTED BY |
This project is being generously supported by CCP’s 2024 grant with Philadelphia Cultural Treasures with additional support from the Philadelphia Cultural Fund. Additional collaborators; The Center for Experimental Ethnography, The Penn Museum, The Barra Foundation, The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, William Penn Foundation, and Wyncote Foundation.
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