Introduction

Gina Athena Ulysse | Wesleyan University

“For Caribbean man, the word is first and foremost sound.
Noise is essential to speech. Din is discourse. Creole
organizes speech as a blast of sound”¹

Don’t you mean rasanblé or rasanbleman?

No, ra-san-blaj in Kreyòl.

n. assembly, compilation, enlisting, regrouping (of ideas,
things, people, spirits. For example, fè yon rasanblaj, do
a gathering, a ceremony, a protest)

The CALL
born to Encounters
with Rebellion

Emerged
Out of

epistemic conflicts
& embodied nightmares

embodied conflicts
& epistemic nightmares

It got trapped in times
brutal times reminiscent of the
colonization of the Americas
and plantation Slavery²

D E L
A Y E D

S U S P
E N D E D

by
Constitutions
Treaties
Neo Black Codes

Had we gotten lost
in the malaise of our civilization…
drifting as a species in parallel catastrophe?³

“Because these observers did not find
grammar books or dictionaries among
the savages, because they could not
understand or apply the grammatical
rules that governed these languages,
they promptly concluded that such
rules did not exist.”⁴

“…The decree of January 3, 1788,
required free men of color ‘to take out
permits to work anywhere other than in the
fields’… liberation means assimilation”⁵

shedding bourgeois attachments to restraint

Things started to disappear
if our bodies are our language then
we be portals shape shifters memory
carriers professing slackness engaging
in processions through the crossroads
so dismembered bodies can dedouble
reconstituting new historical time coz
the dead do not like to be forgotten

On the other side of the water we were
drowning in a landfill of hashtags
time passed keeps passing we try to
patch over fissures speculating in
unknown tongues doing round dances
reconnecting Land-based revolutionaries
saluting the four cardinal points
mistaken for a bow to the West

undoing enlightened reason⁶

Confronting facts of Otherness⁷
still beholden 2 too many isms
Freedom ≠ Liberty
53+1=54+1=55/Letter of the Year
performance = connectivity
archiving drag assemblages
(hip)wining the decolonial
drumming to conjure ancestors summoning spirits

Excavating indigenous roots
slithering through old corridors
scrambling geographies of empire
remapping newworld cacophonic routes
inventing collective epistemic imaginaries
moving beyond somatic liberation
recharting cartographies of convergences
dissidence overstretching diasporas into outer/spaces

breaking metaphysical currents

Are we in the midst
of a transformative shift…
Calling into question what it means to be human?⁸

N O U
L A

W E
H E R E

We do not need a verb to validate our existence

Ou pa chwazi sa ou vle le w’ap fè yon rasanblaj
ou ranmanse tout bagay.⁹ Catalyst. Você não pode ficar
escolhendo do lixo, deve recolher tudo. Keyword.
On ne choisi pas entre les choses quand on fait un
rasanblaj, on ramasse tout . Method. No escogemos de
aquí y allá entre los desechos: debemos
ensamblar todo junto. Practice.
You don’t pick and choose
when you make a rasanblaj,
you gather everything.
Project.

Comment on Cover
It is most fitting then that this virtual Caribbean rasanblaj,
e-misférica's first animated cover,
features Jeannette Ehlers' homage to the Haitian Revolution.
Sky meets ocean.
Black youths become Back Bullets
if you watch long enough you see them
split multiply float
defying logic of gravity
then submerge
anba dlo
entering this neo-citadel of
unknown futures.

Gina Athena Ulysse is a feminist performance artist-anthropologist-activist and a self-proclaimed Post-Zora Interventionist. She is the author of Downtown Ladies: Informal Commercial Importers, A Haitian Anthropologist and Self-Making in Jamaica (Chicago, 2007) and Why Haiti Needs New Narratives: A Post Quake Chronicle (Wesleyan, 2015), as well numerous articles, creative works, and opinion pieces. Her most recent writing has been published in AnthroNow, Gastronomica, Transition Magazine, and Souls. She also blogs intermittently for Huffington Post, Ms Magazine, and Tikkun Daily. Her performative multimedia works include VooDooDoll, What if Haiti Were a Woman: On ti Travay sou 21 Pwen or an Alter(ed)native in Something Other than Fiction, a performance/installation project (curated by Lucian Gomoll), which debuted at Encuentro in Montreal in 2014, and Contemplating Distances a new piece on black bodies, grain shortage, and the slave trade. She is currently engaged in meditative battle with an old memoir, Loving Haiti, Loving Vodou: A Book of Rememories, Recipes and Rants. She is an associate professor of anthropology at Wesleyan University. www.ginaathenaulysse.com

Notes

¹ Edouard Glissant. 1989. Caribbean Discourse: Selected Essays. Translated by J. Michael Dash. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 123-124.

² Rinado Wolcott. 2015. “Genres of Human: Multiculturalism, Cosmo-Politics, and the Caribbean Basin.” In Sylvia Wynter on Being Human as Praxis. Katherine McKittrick, ed. Durham: Duke University Press, 188.

³ Suzanne Césaire. 2009 [1942]. The Great Camouflage: Writings of Dissent (1941-1945), ed. Daniel Maximin. Trans. Keith L. Walker. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press; Sylvia Wynter and Katherine McKittrick. 2015. Sylvia Wynter on Being Human as Praxis. Ed. Katherine McKittrick. Durham: Duke University Press.

⁴ Rolph Trouillot. 1995. Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History. Boston: Beacon Press, 7.

⁵ Césaire, ibid., 31.

⁶ Gina Athena Ulysse. 2016. “It All Started with a Black Woman: Writing and Performing Rage.” In Are All the Women Still White? Rethinking Race, Expanding Feminisms. Ed. Janell Hobson. (Forthcoming, May 2016)

⁷ Frantz Fanon. 1991 [1967]. Black Skins White Masks. Trans. Charles Lam Markmann. New York: Grove Press.

⁸ Demetrius Eudell. 2015. “‘Come on Kid, Let’s Go Get the Thing’: The Sociogenic Principle and the Being of Being Black/Human.” In Sylvia Wynter on Being Human as Praxis. Ed. Katherine McKittrick. Durham: Duke University Press, 243.

⁹ Madame Jacqueline Epingle, personal conversation, December 2014.

Entwodiksyon

Gina Athena Ulysse | Wesleyan University

"Pou moun Karayib, pawòl la se premye son.
Bri a lesansyèl nan lapawòl. Espektak se diskou.
Kreyòl la òganize diskou kòm yon eksplozyon son."¹

Se pa rasanble oswa rasanbleman ou vle di?

Non, ra-san-blaj an Kreyòl.

n. asanble, konpilasyon, chèche sipò, regwoupman, (de lide,
de bagay, de moun, de lespri. Pa egzanp, fè yon rasanblaj,
fè yon rasanbleman, yon seremoni, yon manifestasyon)

Konvokasyon an
fèt nan Rankont
ak Rebelyon

Sòti
Nan

konfli konsyans
& kochma enkòpore

konfli enkòpore
& kochma konsyans

Li vin bloke nan tan
nan tan brital ki fè nou sonje
kolonizasyon Amerik yo
ak Esklavaj plantasyon an²

A N R
E T A

S I S P
A N N

pa
Konstitisyon
Trete
Nouvo Kòd Nwa

Èske nou vin pèdi
nan malèz sivilizasyon an pa nou…
kòm yon espès nan yon katastwòf paralèl?³

“Paske obsèvatè sa yo pa te jwenn
liv gramè ou diksyonè pami
sovaj yo, paske yo pa te kapab
konprann ou aplike règ
gramatikal ki gouvène lang sa yo,
san pèdi tan yo konkli ke
règ sa yo pa te egziste.”⁴

“…Dekrè a 3 janvye 1788
mande nèg lib yo 'pou pran
pèmi pou travay nenpòt lòt kote pase
nan jaden yo' ... liberasyon vle di asimilasyon”⁵

lache atachman boujwa a kontrent

Bagay yo te konmanse disparèt
si kò nou se lang nou lè sa,
nou se pòtay fòm manèt memwa
transpòtè k ap pwofèsè stagnasyon angaje
nan pwosesyon ki pase nan kafou yo
se konsa kò demanbre mèt dedouble
rekonstitye nouvo tan istorik paske
mò yo pa renmen lè nou bliye yo

Sou lòt bò dlo a nou t ap
nwaye nan yon dechaj achtag
tan pase kontinye pase nou eseye
mete plak sou fant k ap kesyonnen nan
lang enkonni fè dans wonn
rekonekte moun revolisyonè an ki baze sou tè a
k ap salye kat pwen kadinal yo
yo pran sa pou yon chapò ba devann Lwès la

defèt rezon eklere⁶

Konfwonte reyalite de sans Lòt⁷
Toujou atache a twòp -isms
Liberasyon ≠ Libète
53+1=54+1=55/Lèt pou Ane a
pèfòmans = konektivite
achiv travesti rale asanblaj yo
woule hanch dekolonyal
bat tanbou pou evoke zansèt yo konvoke lespri yo

Dekouvri rasin endijèn yo
rale vant nan ansyen koulwa
deranje jeyografi anpi
rekreye kat wout tènouvo plen bri
envante imajinasyon kolektif konsyan
depase liberasyon an fizik
replanifye kat konvèjans
disidans k ap lonje djyaspora yo nan espas/andeyò

kraze kouran yo metafizik

Èske nou nan mitan
yon transfòmasyon…
K ap fè nou mande signifikasyon kesyon eske tout moun se moun?⁸

N O U
L A

N O U
L A

Nou pa bezwen yon vèb pou valide egzistans nou

You don’t pick and choose when you do a rasanblaj,
you gather everything. Katalis. Você não pode ficar
escolhendo do lixo, deve recolher tudo. Mò kle.
On ne choisi pas entre les choses quand on fait un
rasanblaj, on ramasse tout . Metòd. No escogemos de
aquí y allá entre los desechos: debemos
ensamblar todo junto. Pratik. Ou pa
chwazi sa ou vle lè w ap
fè yon rasanblaj ou
ranmanse tout bagay.⁹
Pwojè.

Kòmantè sou Kouvèti a
Li apwopriye ke rasanblaj vityèl Karayib sa a
primye kouvèti anime e-misférica
met aksan sou omaj Ehler a Revolisyon Ayisyen an
lasyèl la rankontre ak Lanmè a
jèn nwa vin tounen bal nwa
si w gade lontan w ap wè yo
fann miltipliye flute
defye lojik gravite
epi simèje
anba dlo
antre nan nouvo-sitadèl de
lavni enkonni.

Tradui pa Wynnie Lamour.

Gina Athena Ulysse se yon atis pèfòmans-antwopològ-aktivis feminis ki pwoklame tèt li yon Post-Zora Entèvansyonis. Li se otè Downtown Ladies: Informal Commercial Importers, A Haitian Anthropologist and Self-Making in Jamaica (Chicago, 2007) ak Why Haiti Needs New Narratives: A Post Quake Chronicle (Wesleyan, 2015), osi byen anpil atik, travay kreyatif , ak pyès opinyon. Pi resan zèv li te pibliye nan AnthroNow, Gastronomica, Transition Magazine, ak Souls. Tanzantan li ekri pou for Huffington Post,Ms Magazine, ak Tikkun Daily. Travay miltimedya pèrfòmativ li enkli VooDooDoll, What if Haiti Were a Woman: On ti Travay sou 21 Pwen or an Alter(ed)native in Something Other than Fiction, yon pwojè pèfòmans/enstalasyon (òganize pa Lucian Gomoll), ki premye nan Encuentro nan Monreyal nan 2014, ak Contemplating Distances, yon nouvo pyès sou kò nwa, mank grenn jaden, ak komès esklav la. Kounyea li angaje nan yon batay meditasyon ak yon vye Byografi,Loving Haiti, Loving Vodou: A Book of Rememories, Recipes and Rants. Li se yon pwofesè asosye nan antwopoloji nan Wesleyan University. www.ginaathenaulysse.com

Notes

¹ Eduard Glissant. 1989. Caribbean Discourse: Selected Essays. Translated by J. Michael Dash. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 123-124.

² Rinado Wolcott. 2015. “Genres of Human: Multiculturalism, Cosmo-Politics, and the Caribbean Basin.” In Sylvia Wynter on Being Human as Praxis. Katherine McKittrick, ed. Durham: Duke University Press, 188.

³ Suzanne Césaire. 2009 [1942]. The Great Camouflage: Writings of Dissent (1941-1945), ed. Daniel Maximin. Trans. Keith L. Walker. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press; Sylvia Wynter and Katherine McKittrick. 2015. Sylvia Wynter on Being Human as Praxis. Ed. Katherine McKittrick. Durham: Duke University Press.

⁴ Rolph Trouillot. 1995. Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History. Boston: Beacon Press, 7.

⁵ Césaire, ibid., 31.

⁶ Gina Athena Ulysse. 2016. “It All Started with a Black Woman: Writing and Performing Rage.” In Are All the Women Still White? Rethinking Race, Expanding Feminisms. Ed. Janell Hobson. (Forthcoming, May 2016)

⁷ Frantz Fanon. 1991 [1967]. Black Skins White Masks. Trans. Charles Lam Markmann. New York: Grove Press.

⁸ Demetrius Eudell. 2015. “‘Come on Kid, Let’s Go Get the Thing’: The Sociogenic Principle and the Being of Being Black/Human.” In Sylvia Wynter on Being Human as Praxis. Ed. Katherine McKittrick. Durham: Duke University Press, 243.

⁹ Madame Jacqueline Epingle, personal conversation, December 2014.