Representing Gender-Based Violence: Literature, Performance and Activism in the Anglophone Caribbean

A 2013 World Health Organisation study found that globally, 35% of women have experienced intimate partner violence or sexual assault, and low to middle income countries of the global South are disproportionately affected. Presented by the WHO and the UN as a global public health crisis, GBV is particularly pervasive in Anglophone Caribbean countries, which have some of the highest rates of reported rape and feminicide in the world. Homophobic and transphobic violence is also regarded as an urgent human rights issue in the region. Despite the launch, in recent years, of government programmes in the Anglophone Caribbean dedicated to combatting GBV, it remains a critical issue in the region.

Research on GBV, which is mainly social science based, has recently shifted from strategies which focus on individuals, such as developing support services for victims, enhancing women's safety and working with perpetrators, to a broader focus on the sociocultural contexts and structural inequalities which generate GBV. There has been a corresponding policy shift towards primary prevention (an approach which aims to prevent GBV before it occurs), and in 2015 the UN called for an increase in primary prevention programmes globally. Despite the current emphasis in GBV research, activism and policy on the cultural contexts of GBV and the need for a 'culture change', there is no sustained scholarly work on how literary and cultural production reflects the norms and attitudes which underpin GBV, or on its potential to critique those norms, transform attitudes, and generate change. Additionally, research on GBV has focused primarily on the experiences of women in the global North.

The project will address these gaps by analysing the complex ways in which twenty-first century Caribbean literary and performance cultures shape, reinforce or resist dominant perspectives on and narratives of GBV. The gender dynamics of Jamaican dancehall culture, a genre once associated with misogyny and homophobia, are changing. Moreover, a pilot study led by the PI identified an emerging body of soca songs by female artists which are challenging gender roles and norms, a thriving spoken word movement in Trinidad which is breaking new ground in its treatment of issues such as sexual violence, intimate partner violence, homophobic violence and toxic masculinities, and an expanding corpus of Caribbean fiction, drama and poetry which critically engages with the topic of GBV. The study also found that increasing numbers of Caribbean writers and musicians are participating in public debate on GBV both at live events and via social media.

The project will investigate the use of these aesthetic forms as sites of activism against GBV, while also generating new creative work. Working with writers, spoken word poets, dancehall artists and performing arts collectives, the project team will engage young people in anti-GBV activism through the following initiatives: 1.) a fiction and poetry commission targeted at writers under 30 from across the region; 2.) a five-week workshop series in three schools in Trinidad where 60 students aged 13-17 will watch, discuss and perform a spoken word play and produce their own scripts; 3.) a five-week workshop series in three schools in Jamaica where 60 students aged 13-17 will write, perform and record dancehall songs, which will be collated into an open access digital archive. Outputs will include a fiction and poetry anthology, an annotated edition of the spoken word play Common Grounds with an introduction, notes and an integrated facilitation guide, a toolkit on performing arts approaches to GBV education, a journal special issue, and journal articles. The research will benefit the secondary school students who are directly involved, the collaborating organisations and creative practitioners, and the wider public within and beyond the region who will have access to the project's live, print and digital outputs.

The project will benefit the following groups:

1. Secondary school students

120 secondary school students in Jamaica and Trinidad will be involved through their participation in weekly 90-minute workshops across five weeks. The students will watch, discuss, write and perform spoken word drama (in Trinidad) and dancehall songs (in Jamaica) on the theme of GBV. Through these activities, students will increase their understanding of GBV and develop their insight into gender roles, norms and expectations and how these contribute to GBV. The workshops will also equip them to take leadership in anti-GBV advocacy among their peers and in their communities. Students' live performances at the end of the series will raise awareness about GBV within the broader environment of each school. Additionally, the resources which will result from these workshops - an edition of a spoken word play about GBV with an integrated facilitation guide, and a toolkit on performing arts approaches to GBV education - will be available to download via the project webpages and circulated to schools and theatre groups across the region by the project partners, who will also integrate these resources into their future work. Students in other secondary schools in Trinidad, Jamaica and the wider region will therefore benefit in the longer term.

2. Writers, spoken word poets, dancehall artists and performing arts collectives

The spoken word drama workshops will be facilitated by members of the spoken word poetry collective The 2 Cents Movement, and the dancehall workshops will be facilitated by members of the performing arts collective Tribe Sankofa, with contributions from two high profile dancehall artists, Ce'cile and Bounty Killer. 2 Cents' and Tribe Sankofa's participation in the project will extend the repertoire of these organisations' work with school and youth groups, and develop their members' expertise in dealing with GBV in their outreach work. All those involved in the workshops will benefit from two days of training which will provide them with access to the project's theoretical and methodological framework, and create an opportunity for cross-sector collaboration and exchange. The project will also commission fiction and poetry on the subject of GBV by ten writers. These writers will participate in a writing masterclass at Bocas Lit Fest, delivered by an established writer (Shivanee Ramlochan) and preceded by a public discussion panel featuring project researchers, Ramlochan and GBV activist Glenroy Murray. The commissioned writers will benefit from the writer development and networking opportunities generated by the masterclass, and exposure to scholarly and activist debates on GBV. Furthermore, publication in a Peekash Press anthology will enable them to access new audiences locally and internationally.

3. The wider public in the Anglophone Caribbean and globally

Dancehall songs produced during the schools workshops in Jamaica will be filmed and made available as part of an open access digital archive. Three of the songs will be professionally recorded, and aired on local and national radio. These outputs will be shared through the project's and project partners' networks and social media platforms. The circulation of these dancehall songs, the publication and distribution of a fiction and poetry anthology, the public launch of the anthology at Bocas Lit Fest, and the two public symposia on GBV and arts activism hosted by the UWI Mona and UWI St Augustine in May 2022, will all provide opportunities for the wider public in the Caribbean and beyond to engage with the project's activities and outputs. With these activities and outputs, we aim to raise public awareness about the forms and contexts of GBV, and the cultural norms, ideologies and practices which enable it. The project mobilises arts activism as a means of generating the widespread 'culture change' that is necessary to reduce the incidence of GBV in the region.