“The Caribbean is really a critical space...”

Critical Space is a short video featuring a conversation between Alice Yard co-instigator Christopher Cozier and Draconian Switch publisher Richard Rawlins. It explores ideas about how to define the Caribbean and its creative possibilities, and examines the collaborative networks, off- and online, that are evolving around Alice Yard and its partners.

The genesis of the video was an invitation for Cozier to participate in the Transformations: New Directions in Black Art conference, organised by Lowery Stokes Sims and Leslie King-Hammond at the Maryland Institute College of Art (22 to 25 October, 2009). Unable to attend in person, Cozier proposed that the conference screen a video conversation instead, and enlisted the creative team behind Draconian Switch as collaborators. The video was shot and edited in the space of forty-eight hours.

Critical Space is an artzpub films production. Director: Darryn Boodan. Editor: Tracy J. Hutchings. Photography: Rodell Warner, Richard Rawlins, and Damian Libert. Equipment provided by: Dave Williams, firsttfloor studios.

Introducing Town

Broadsides from the first issue of Town posted at the entrance to Alice Yard


Town is a new literary magazine launched in October 2009, associated with Alice Yard. Planned to appear at irregular intervals (approximately every six to eight weeks), Town publishes poems, short prose, and art in broadside editions posted in public locations around Port of Spain, and online. It is edited by Alice Yard co-instigator Nicholas Laughlin together with writers Anu Lakhan and Vahni Capildeo. The first issue includes poems by the three editors, short fiction by Kelvin Christopher James, and images by Nikolai Noel. PDFs of all the broadsides from each issue of the magazine are available for download at the Town website. Readers can print copies and post them in their own neighbourhoods, homes, offices, or schools.

Read more about the project here, and see the table of contents of the first issue here. Photos of the Town broadsides around Port of Spain are posted here.