Crafted Kinship

Through gorgeous images and powerful interviews with 65 artists of Caribbean heritage, Crafted Kinship takes readers on an important journey through the world of Black Caribbean art. This is the first book where Caribbean makers are sharing the intimate stories of their artmaking process, and how their countries of origin-the “land” -influences and informs how and what they create.

Author Malene Barnett is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist and textile designer of the Caribbean diaspora, with roots in Saint Vincent and Jamaica, and the founder of the Black Artists + Designers Guild, a global platform and community of independent Black artists, makers, and designers. Barnett’s artistic practice is inseparable from her work as a community builder. She exhibits nationally, gives talks, and publishes work raising awareness around Caribbean makers and ceramic art traditions of the Black diaspora. There is no one more respected or trusted in the Caribbean art community who could curate this intimate and extraordinary collection of influential artists. Included are artists from over 20 Caribbean islands working across all genres–ceramics to wood, to interior design and filmmaking. Some live in the Black Diaspora, and some have moved back or live in their country of origins. Meet Basil Watson, a Jamaican figurative artist and sculptor whose famous for his stunning bronze figures that are exhibited outdoors all over the world; Shenequa Brooks, a multimedia artist who uses traditional craft of weaving, including with thread and hair to tell heritage stories through her artwork; and Lisandro Suriel, a photographer and filmmaker from Saint Martin, living there now too, whose work centres on the exploration of Black imagination. The artist profiles cover everything from the history of the artist’s origin country, the artist’s creative practice, why they use certain materials when making art, their origin stories, the Caribbean’s influence on the world, how they honour their ancestors in the work they do, and more.

Crafted Kinship is the book that’s missing from the Caribbean art archives. It’s for artists, Caribbean art enthusiasts, students, teachers, and for anyone who wants a true and real window into the meaning of where the art and artists originate from.