What determines how we live and die lies in our capacity. Capacity: the extent to which one can contain/can feel/can do. What happens in its excess? Welcomed presence or forced reality. Irrepressible release. What does it mean to be pushed to internal revolution? Mouths overflowing with giggles, weeping, wailing, shrieks. Catharsis demands the whole being. Giving reminders that material restraints are incapable of containing that which bubbles over. Invisible hands keeping little feet steady as they hop from concrete to concrete. Duppy naa baks im, di baby too sweet. Death propels change, while living asks if we are willing to adjust or grip tightly to its shadow. Everything lives for as long as we have the capacity to keep them alive.
Memory is a portal to future-making. In my work, I document past and present experiences to create futures that prioritize marginalized perspectives. For Out A Tomb / Outa Tuum, I proposed a study for a larger project that creates a sculptural new media installation merging a graveyard and playground scene, pulling on elements of syncretic Jamaican death rites, and memories of playing in the family cemetery at my childhood home in Manchester, Jamaica. The equivalent of of saying “in the backyard” or “out in the cemetery” in my household, the title of the project pulls on childhood days of running, jumping, and spreading a blanket to read on top of the graves in my backyard, often against the warnings of adults. I don’t think the ghosts minded.
Much like grave digging and sankey singing at nine nights, residential burials are becoming relics of Jamaican death rites, with this practice being discouraged or disallowed in some parishes. A culture is marked by its rites of passages. When a country prioritizes western assimilation, syncretic traditions are often sacrificed. As a folk practitioner, my practice is built on excavation of Jamaican traditions, mythologies and superstitions for a clearer understanding of syncretism.
This study is an exploration of Saturnian and Plutonian significations of grief, death, and ancestry through a Jamaican lens. Concepts ruled by Saturn—difficulty and rewards through, tradition, morbidity, death, cemeteries / burials, grief, sepulchres, bones—and Pluto—mortality, morbidity, catharsis, inheritances / the hereditary, cemeteries, shrines, tombs, ancestors, transmutation, regeneration, alchemy, surrender. It highlights the role of syncretism, play and presence in the process of grief. The media found in the illusory and illustrative cemetery/playground are gathered from my current home in Jamaica, my childhood home in Manchester, NASA images and videos of Saturn and Pluto, public medical x-rays, and images relating to the red snake and ram goat horn—two species of Jamaican wildlife. The pathway of the playground is a meditative exercise using lyrics from nine night bands, which are hired bands usually singing mento, revival music or revival style gospel music, and lyrics from children’s ring games.
Children who attend primary schools in rural and poor urban communities are less likely to have access to playgrounds. In the last decade, multiple playgrounds have been installed in Jamaica, with most of them located in Kingston. Neglected cemeteries are more likely to be in rural parishes. Some practices, though nourishing for the land, are in direct conflict with what is considered safe for the living or feasible for “land development.” Even with a drastic reduction of home plots, space for private and public cemeteries are limited and rapidly decreasing. Why not provide alternatives to burial and strengthen infrastructure?
I considered that less home burials are a direct impact of imperialism / westernization of traditions. While that is definitely true of rituals in some cases and how people value their land, it is also an issue of power. Government and private companies moving cemeteries to “develop” land and land use, thus decreasing space for cemeteries on a small island which signals a need for alternatives to burials altogether. The research process led to thinking about the parallels of class in both access to playgrounds and access to dignified burial. Class determines so much of how we live and die.
Out A Tomb / Outa Tuum challenges colonial fear mongering of death, spirits, and their separation from earthly life. It is a reframing of veneration as necessary nourishment, recognizing tradition as a cornerstone for childhood. Queering and intentionally blurring concepts of life, death, and veneration. Whether alive and able or transitioning planes, we all play.
[1] Keyumars Keyvan; Fatemeh Sadat Marashian; Zahra Dasht Bozorgi, Zahra Saboohi; Fatemeh Gudarzi; Zahra Jalili, Fatemeh Palizvan; Rokhsareh Badami; Zahra Serjuei, Medine Yilmaz; Feyza Dereli; Gulcin Uyanık; Gamze Agartioglu Kundakci; Julide Gulizar Yildirim, Maryam Asgari; Hassan Shafaei; Sheyda Ranjbari; Sedigheh Khajeh Aflatoon Mofrad; Saeed Ghorbani, Sara Bagheri; Monir Rostamabadi; Sedigheh Khajeh Aflatoon Mofrad; Sholeh Khodadad Kashi; Valiollah Shahedi, Zohreh Ghasemi Mehrabadi; Sahar Safarzadeh; Parvin Ehteshamzadeh; Zahra Dasht Bozorgi, and Ashlee A Gardner; Amy Weems. “Effects of Playground Availability on Participation of Children in Physical Activity: The Role of Socioeconomic Status.” International Journal of School Health. Accessed September 1, 2025. https://intjsh.sums.ac.ir/.
[2] Environmental impact Assessment: Proposed Expansion Of Meadowrest Memorial Gardens, Whittaker’s Mountain, St. Catherine. Accessed September 1, 2025. https://www.nepa.gov.jm/sites/default/files/2019-12/EIA_MMG_Finalv2.pdf.
[3] Miller, Bryan. Hanover faces burial site challenges. Accessed September 1, 2025. https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20210423/hanover-faces-burial-site-challenges.
[4] Williams, Paul H. “Funerary Art.” Art & Leisure | Jamaica Gleaner, February 23, 2014. https://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20140223/arts/arts1.html.
[5] Tamoy Ashman | Reporter. “Family Plot Twist.” Jamaica Observer, July 5, 2025. https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2025/03/02/family-plot-twist/.
[6] Gloudon, Barbara. “Death and Funerals.” Jamaica Observer, February 21, 2020. https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2020/02/20/death-and-funerals/.
[7] Afro-Caribbean Culture – Death Rituals in Jamaica. Accessed September 1, 2025. https://acij-ioj.org.jm/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Death-Rituals-in-Jamaica.pdf.
[8] Tamoy Ashman | Reporter. “Burial Sites on Private Land Is Risky Business.” Jamaica Observer, July 5, 2025. https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2025/03/02/burial-sites-private-land-risky-business/.
[9] “Grave Worry.” Lead Stories | Jamaica Gleaner, October 15, 2023. https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20231015/grave-worry.
[10] “Westmoreland Pulling Plug on Backyard Burials – Some Communities Blacklisted, Deputy Mayor Wants Parishwide Ban.” Westmoreland pulling plug on backyard burials – Some communities blacklisted, deputy mayor wants parishwide ban | Lead Stories | Jamaica Gleaner, April 16, 2019. https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20190416/westmoreland-pulling-plug-backyard-burials-some-communities.
[11] Gayle, Kaneal. “Backyard Burials.” YouTube. Accessed September 1, 2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XZo8R09cJM.
