Description:

This presentation is part of the virtual lecture series Archaeology & Heritage, co-sponsored by the Evanston Public Library.

Adom Philogene Heron, Jeanne Royer, and Marica Honychurch in conversation with Mark Hauser. 

Still Standing shares stories of vernacular houses know as Ti Kai in Dominica, Eastern Caribbean. Blending architectural, photographic and ethnographic methods, this book offers portraits and social histories of hurricane hardy popular dwellings – many standing well over 100 years – that were crafted with an intimate knowledge of land, sea and sky. Often overlooked, associated with poverty and the past, these dwellings are under threat of human neglect, destruction, maintenance challenges and the of loss of the knowledge of those that built them (amongst elder carpenters who have passed on). This collaboratively researched and created book argues that at this moment, when the Caribbean begins to feel the devastating effects of planetary warming, we might look to the ti kai as a way of building with the elements. 

This event will celebrate the book’s U.S. launch. 

Bio:

Adom Philogene Heron is an ethnographer of the Caribbean whose work spans black ecologies, hurricanes and repair, post-slavery geographies, and Caribbean kinship. He is the PI on the £0.5M GCRF Surviving Storms | CCC project, aiming to digitally map hurricane survivals and repair in Dominica. He received his PhD in Anthropology from University of St. Andrews.