Enduring as Stones: Performing Memories of Violence and the Labour of Care

Abstract

Letters from the Dead is a cycle of collaborative performances that mourns and remembers all those who have died in the Caribbean and its diaspora as a result of state violence, gendered violence and the violence of armed strongmen. As both performance process and product, the cycle tells of the living worlds of those who have died as a result of violence and creates a space in which the restorative and caring labour of mourning and remembrance can Figure 1. Street Performance of Letters from the Dead, Kingston, Jamaica, 2009. Photo: Deborah Thomas