Legacies of Art and Activism: Black Feminist Resistance, Transformation, and Collective Care in the Caribbean

Abstract

This thesis explores the central role of art, storytelling, and community organizing in Caribbean Black feminist activism, tracing intergenerational continuities from the 1980s to the present. Using a Critical Black Feminist Analysis, it brings the Sistren Theatre Collective’s magazine archive into dialogue with interviews from eight contemporary activists across the Anglophone Caribbean. It argues that art and storytelling have long been radical tools to resist colonialism, capitalism, patriarchy, and racial injustice. Analyzing two issues of Sistren magazine (1986, 1988), the study highlights how theatre, comics, and poetry critiqued labor exploitation and gender violence. Contemporary activists extend these strategies through digital platforms and community-based care. This work contributes to Caribbean and Black Feminist Thought by centering cultural practices as feminist epistemologies of resistance, care, and transformation