The last three years for many and for me too, a complete black stripe. Death, disease, wars, violence, refugees.
It all began with the deaths of David, who threw me out of a fabulous and seemingly stable life, in a house with a garden on Portabello Road, with fireworks of projects and friends into a tiny studio overlooking the bridge where a homeless Nigerian stayed – almost the only constant acquaintance I had in that lonely Covid year.
For three years, a significant part of my life has been linked to David’s archive. Taking care of the deceased husband’s inheritance, the corpse of his works (corpse – corpse or collection of works translated from Lat) is the traditional fate of widows.
I would love to cheat my own destiny and live my life my own way. I would like to stay free.
The hope is that David’s archive, like David himself, unlike many celebrity “corpses” is a sudden and rebellious project designed to open spaces of freedom and complicity, not to enslave, manipulate and mediate in the redistribution of power.
I began to think about some unexpected move – a move to a new world, a complete shift in the paradigm of all relationships. At the beginning of the leaving year, I started looking for information about Madagascar. David worked there for two years, he wrote his favorite book, “Magic and Slavery in Madagascar,” which then built all his reflections. We owe the appearance of David’s texts to the Chicago School of Anthropology, Russian-Jewish-American anarchist tradition, Dostoevsky and Bakhtin and Madagascar.
It seemed fair to return to Madagascar or at least to the global south what they once gave all of us.
What if we tried to repeat what David once did – to see our own world through the eyes of another and, by doing so, reinvent ourselves?
I even started emailing a few people discussing a possible move to Madagascar.
However, the Madagascar project turned out to be too large and dangerous: French language, a huge country with a complex colonial past and present.
By chance, I found myself on St. Vincent’s island in the Caribbean Sea. This is a very small country with a population of 100,000 people living on 30 islands. There are no useful fossils and great government interests here. It’s in the Global South but it’s part of the Commonwealth.
There are already several universities on the island where students from the U.S. and Canada study because it is cheaper, the weather is nice, and the diplomas are the same as back home.
I started the process of getting a license and organizing workshops and summer schools.
This is my third time coming here and I’m thinking of partially moving and living on the island. For this I need to find a very good house sitter.
Please message me if you know anyone or if you would be interested in trying.
Here’s what you need to know:
– The infrastructure is bad here and you can only get anywhere by car (and I don’t know and I don’t want to learn to drive).
– Any living in a new place, especially in the countries of the Global South, requires brute manpower: something always breaks and needs to be fixed, arranged, organized, and so on. Either you need to be able to negotiate quickly with the locals or be possessing brute man power yourself.
– There are many beautiful things on the island – tennis courts, coral reefs, horseback riding and boating, flowers and fruit, fresh fish and a film festival. As everywhere else, to adapt to local life requires patience and tact.
The David Graeber Institute (DGI) is a graduate program offering a range of interdisciplinary curricula in the arts and social sciences combined with a dedicated climate change program. Scheduled to open in 2027 in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, it plans to hold face-to-face sessions two times a year for four weeks and operate online the rest of the time.
The David Graeber Institute (DGI) plans to create an academic institution that will provide faculty members with *maximum freedom to pursue collaborative projects not only with students but also with the general public. To this end, the institute will encourage projects related to the lives of residents of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, such as the annual carnival as well as practical aspects of dealing with the negative effects of climate breakdown.
The David Graeber Institute (DGI) is an educational project that stands on the shoulders of the ideas of the Bauhaus, Joseph Beuys Open School and Proletkult.
A pivotal aspect of the program will be at the crossroads of science, art and humanity studies. The DGI will create an academic institution to provide faculty members *maximum freedom to pursue collaborative projects not only with students but also with the general public, creating public works made by the public to answer public needs. A particular focus of the work will be dealing with the negative practicalities of climate change.
The institute’s mission is to explore how technology can help create a system where essential resources—like food, education, energy, and medicine—can be produced and distributed freely. That is, the DGI in St. Vincent seeks to support the production of intellectually intensive, not labour-intensive technology. We are looking for technologies, traditional and cutting-edge, that are centred on the reproduction of life instead of the reproduction of capital.
Excited to share the news from the DGI on the discussion circles series in June! Carnival, one of the key themes of the discussions, is also central for the Museum of Care. Read more here: https://museum.care/room/everyday-carnival/
DGI in St Vincent begins its work with what we have called “discussion circles” which will be held between the 19th and the 26th of June. The aim of our hybrid (online and offline) discussions is to foster a space for dialogue that includes all stakeholders. Participants will include members of the general public, activists, educators, scientists, economists, friends of the Museum of Care and of the David Graeber Institute. Together, we will explore the following questions:
What might a genuinely decolonial institution look like?
What contribution can DGI make to strengthening communities most vulnerable to climate change?
What could members of the DGI and locals learn from each other and undertake together?
“Discussion circles” will concentrate on 3 key themes: Carnival, Technology and the work of David Graeber.
*The institute’s mission is to explore how technology can help create a system where essential resources—like food, education, energy, and medicine—can be produced and distributed freely. That is, the DGI in St. Vincent seeks to support the production of intellectually intensive, not labour-intensive technology. **We are looking for technologies, traditional and cutting-edge, that are centred on the reproduction of life instead of the reproduction of capital.
legit freedom will only happen if it’s all of us.. and in order to be all of us.. has to be sans any form of m\a\p
**if only.. not new/diff.. need to be focused on itch-in-the-soul
The days are split in two parts: the open discussion on hybrid format is followed by a community meal, planned and prepared by one of the participants. We will share the menu and words from out participants closer to the dates.
Follow the links below to find out more about the events and register!
JUNE 20th: WHO IS DAVID GRAEBER? WHY ARE WE IN ST VINCENT?
JUNE 21st: TECHNOLOGY AS A SOCIAL RELATIONSHIP
JUNE 24th: LIVING THE CARNIVALESQUE WAY
JUNE 25th: HOW TO REPLACE PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION WITH CARE AND FREEDOM?
Now a very definite offer: I am looking for manager of the future campus of the David Greber Institute in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
Who reads my FB, knows that initially there was an idea to go to Madagascar, which I didn’t think of. But with St. Vincent, the plans are already more definite.
As always, I start with careful small steps.
Meanwhile, I am buying a house in which guests and participants will live during the summer and winter schools.
Please advise or pass on to someone looking to move to a large (old) house in the Caribbean 3 minutes from a beautiful beach. I’m looking for someone who can organize repairs and subsequently supervise construction but also able to break down administrative issues from renting out empty rooms (we are not going to live/work like this all the time) to organizing island projects (we are planning to build playgrounds for the locals).
picture for attention (but this is actually the house I plan on buying)
be you. 