Designed to support the urgent needs of artists and cultural workers in the Caribbean.
ABOUT
In 2021, CCCADI created an area of its work specifically designed to support the urgent needs of artists and cultural workers in the Caribbean, focusing on cultural sustainability, innovation, and self-reliance entitled CROSSROADS. In line with the belief that strengthening Pan-Caribbean solidarity and support is critical for the advancement of racial and social justice for the global African Diaspora, CROSSROADS is based out of the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico and is symbolic of the many roads and routes that the African Diaspora has crossed, leaving ancestral knowledge, art, and beliefs along the way that have shaped civilizations and cultures around the world. The African Diaspora is connected through these crossroads.
THE ROADMAP
Since its inception, CROSSROADS has been mapping out a decolonizing and holistic healing justice approach to develop a self-sustainable ecosystem through skills development, supporting individuals, and sustaining their contributions to culture, economy and collective wellbeing. This work is done through the following avenues; CROSSROADS is where they meet:
-
Cultural Sustainability
Through strategic partnerships across the broader Caribbean with like-missioned organizations, CROSSROADS nurtures cultural autonomy and strengthens Diasporic connections.
-
Innovation
Through ongoing in-person and virtual programs, CROSSROADS fosters innovation by providing platforms for exchange.
-
Self-Reliance
CROSSROADS promotes independence through workshops that support skillset development covering topics such as grant writing, financial education, and marketing.
-
Preserving Cultural Memory
CROSSROADS promotes artist capacity to preserve cultural memory and heritage. The programming vision for the future is to build up the next generation of griots and capture the stories of Caribbean matriarchs.
THE JOURNEY
Anchored in its approach, CROSSROADS has undergone a series of development phases, to date. Recognizing that to do this work the Caribbean community of artists and cultural workers need to be connected and advised by those deeply steeped in the realities of life in the region, the CROSSROADS Advisory Board was formed of individuals representing 8 Caribbean nations and partnerships with like-missioned organizations.
Meet the Advisory Board
-
![]()
Micherline Islanda Aduel
Ayiti
Micherline Islanda Aduel from Haïti is a member of the Campesina Tèt Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen movement and of CLOC-La Via Campesina. She is part of the youth sector of the organization as a coordinator and also a member of the International Coordination Committee (ICC) of La Via Campesina.
She studied political science and legal science at the State University of Haïti.
-
![]()
La Vaughn Belle
U.S. Virgin Islands
La Vaughn Belle makes visible the unremembered. By exploring the material culture, looking for hidden stories and connections, Belle creates narratives from fragments. Working in a variety of disciplines her practice includes: painting, installation, photography, writing, video and public interventions. She has exhibited her work in the Caribbean, the USA and Europe in institutions such as the Museo del Barrio (NY), Casa de las Americas (Cuba), the Museum of the African Diaspora (CA) and Kunsthal Charlottenborg (DK). Her art is in the collections of the National Photography Museum and the Vestsjælland Museum in Denmark. She is the co-creator of I Am Queen Mary, the artist-led groundbreaking monument that confronted the Danish colonial amnesia while commemorating the legacies of resistance of the African people who were brought to the former Danish West Indies. The project was featured in over 100 media outlets around the world including the NY Times, Politiken, VICE, the BBC and Le Monde. Belle holds an MFA from the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana, Cuba and an MA and BA from Columbia University in NY. Her studio is based in the Virgin Islands.
-
![]()
David Gumbs
Saint Martin
David Gumbs is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist from the Caribbean island of Saint-Martin, based in Martinique. Recent projects include his Manifest EU European award, the Mondes Nouveaux national awards for his project Ethno Spirits, the BAC Sonic Clinic exhibition at Mocada NY. He’s participated in the Zonamaco, the JustLX, and the JustMAD art fairs.
His first solo museum exhibition in the U.S. was, From Dust to Gold, at the Telfair Museums in Savanah, a year-long exhibition of selected works at the Frist Art Museum in Nashville, Illuminate Coral Gables in Miami, Tod Town Expo in Shanghai, the Currents New Media digital festival in Santa Fe, and the touring exhibition Relational Undercurrents which is a major survey of Latin American and Caribbean Art in the United States.
The show opened at MOLAA Los Angeles and has traveled to the Portland Museum of Art, the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, and the Wallach Gallery New York. Select works also shown at the TVE Caribbean visual Exchange in Melbourne, Australia. In 2017, Gumbs was part of the Prizm Art Fair during Miami Art week, the Jamaica Biennal, and won the National Street Art contest for the islands of Martinique and Saint-Martin.
-
![]()
Zuleica Margarita Romay Guerra
Cuba
Director of the Program of Afro American Studies at Casa de las Americas. Formerly president of the Cuban Book Institute, Zuleica is now at the prestigious Casa de las Americas, where she started the Program of Afro American Studies. Graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Chemistry in 1981. Master's Degree in Marketing and Business Management at the ESEM (Spain, 2002); Diploma in Sociology of Communication (Cuba, 2000) and Diploma in Public Administration (Cuba, 2014). She has published, Estudios de Opinión Pública en el ocaso de la neocolonia cubana (2003); Elogio de la altea o las paradojas de la racialidad (2012, Casa de las Américas Extraordinary Award on the Black Presence in the Americas and the Caribbean and Scientific-Technical Critics Award 2013), and Cepos de la memoria. Impronta de la esclavitud en el imaginario social cubano (2015) winner of the Annual Prize of the Cuban Academy of Language in 2016. As a co-author, she has published more than 40 articles and essays on Sociocultural Studies and Communication in national and foreign magazines and anthologies. Zuleica has presented her work in Cuba, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Puerto Rico and the United States. She acted as a jury in international literary and film awards, such as Casa de las Américas Award on Black Cultures in the Americas (2017), International Festival of New Latin American Cinema (2019) and Ricardo Miró National Literature Contest (Panama, 2022).
She is a member of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (Uneac by its acronym in Spanish) Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO) and the Chair of Caribbean Studies of the University of Havana among others affiliations. She is also a member of the editorial board of the Casa de las Américas journal and the advisory boards of the Fernando Ortiz Foundation and the journal Temas.
-
![]()
mapenzi chibale nonó
Puerto Rico
mapenzi, one of the afro-diasporic sibling duo Las Nietas de Nonó, embarks on a creative journey rooted in ancestral memory through personal archives. Their artistic practice spans performance, found objects, biomaterials, ecology, fiction, video, and installation. They co-created Ilustraciones de la Mecánica in 2016, a multimedia installation later commissioned by the 10th Berlin Biennale (2018) and the 79th Whitney Biennial (2019). Mapenzi along with their sister, mulowayi iyaye nonó has been honored with the Catalyst for Change from NALAC (2023-2024), the Latinx Artist Fellowship from the US Latinx Art Forum (2022), the Rome Prize in Visual Art from the American Academy in Rome (2022), the United States Artist Award (2018), The Art of Change from the Ford Foundation (2017), and the Global Arts Fund from the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice (2017 & 2020). Their artworks have been exhibited internationally. In 2019, they co-founded Parceleras Afrocaribeñas, an organization led by Black women, dedicated to fostering spaces for environmental and racial justice amidst industrial developments threatening the barrio of San Antón in Carolina, Puerto Rico.
-
![]()
Rafael Ramos
Colombia
Percussionist and guitarist, Rafael accompanied Totó La Momposina on various tours around the world and became an independent manager of various artists. Founder and director of Corporación Cultural Cabildo. Through his organization, Rafael Ramos has promoted Encuentros de Fiestas y Saberes populares, el Festival de Músicas del Mundo, Escuela Taller Tambores de Cabildo, and functions as a consultant to regional Festivities and Festivals.
-
![]()
Abril Troncoso
República Dominicana
Abril Troncoso is a teacher, writer, and cultural manager from rural areas of the Dominican Republic. She is the founding president of the Culture for Development Foundation and the Beach Poetry Festival. Currently, she is studying Psychology and coordinates the Miriam Beras Porrata Youth Literature Group in Miches, El Seibo. She is in charge of Academic Planning in Cultural Management at the Deputy Ministry of Development and Innovation of the Ministry of Culture of the Dominican Republic.
-
![]()
Natalie Willis Whylly
Bahamas
Natalie is a queer British-Bahamian curator and cultural worker. Born and raised in Grand Bahama, she received her BA (Hons) and MA in Fine Art at York St John University in the UK before returning home, where she has worked since. Willis’ curatorial practice is grounded in care, sensitivity, and service to underserved and marginalised communities, including those she belongs to. Following her 6 year tenure at National Art Gallery of The Bahamas, Willis now primarily works independently as a curator, art + curatorial consultant, and writer.
Activating key players with decision-making power is also a critical area of focus for CROSSROADS. The team, based out of Puerto Rico, has leveraged opportunities to voice the needs of artists in the Caribbean through the SOMOS and Grantmakers for the Arts conferences in the fall of 2023. By participating on panels and engaging attendees in Service Day activities, CROSSROADS has been able to:
Advocate for and contribute to building effective strategies for engaging an intergenerational audience.
Engage participants in an immersive Afro-Caribbean cultural encounter, narrating the history of the African Diaspora through a guided tour by artist Imna Arroyo of her exhibition, Travesias/Crossings, curated by Humberto Figueroa.
CCCADI was able to provide financial support, through its CROSSROADS program, to the exhibition, Travesías/Crossings curated by Humberto Figueroa. Travesías is a retrospective of artist Imna Arroyo’s 40+ years of work. Aligned with the message and vision of CROSSROADS, through mixed media encompassing printmaking, batik, ceramic, drawing, and installations, this exhibition awakens an ancestral connection, stirs emotions of anger, yet, instills a powerful sense of agency, paying homage to the resilience, spiritual fortitude, and enduring legacy of the African people.
CROSSROADS has begun its next phase of offering public programs through the launch of its virtual lunchtime talk series, La Fiambrera. The series represents the cultivation of sustainable practices through the exchange of experiences and advice among Caribbean artists and cultural producers.
UPCOMING
Meet the CROSSROADS Team
-
Senior Program Associate
As Senior Program Associate for CCCADI’s Caribbean cultural sustainability initiative, Crossroads, Marissel supports the Interim Program Director by undertaking a variety of administrative and program design duties, including the development, planning, implementation, and management of new activities and programs. She also serves as a liaison with internal and external constituencies in support of the objectives of CCCADI’s Crossroads program.
A Black Puerto Rican Independent Scholar and Afrofeminist, Marissel is a recipient of the 2022 Soros Equality Fellowship for her work on achieving racial equity through art and culture and currently works as a consultant on issues of race, anti-racism, and racial equity. Founder and coordinator of multiple projects including De coco y anís. Proyecto Cortijo and Saberes Afrorriqueños, her most recent initiative examines Afrofuturism in Brazil and the Hispanic Caribbean, proposing current theoretical reflections on music and sound to understand both the processes and the social movements of black and Afro-descendant people.
Marissel has presented her work in Latin America and the Caribbean, including Cuba, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Brazil and the United States. She also relates to a general audience through op-eds published in the newspapers Claridad, Revista Marea, Afroféminas y Afrocubanas, and La Revista, addressing issues of racism and anti-racism and Blackness in Puerto Rico.
Among her passion for music, food, Brazilian literature, and sci-fi, is her activism to eradicate racism by dismantling the established narrative.
Marissel earned her Ph.D. in Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Studies from The Graduate Center, CUNY.
-
Program Associate
Yelimara is part of CCCADI’s CROSSROADS team, the organization’s Caribbean cultural sustainability initiative. In her role, she supports the Senior Program Associate in developing, planning, implementing and managing programs and initiatives for artists and cultural producers of the Caribbean region.
A multi-talented artist, dancer, therapist, community builder, and mother, originally from Bayamón, Puerto Rico and adopted by NYC, Yelimara founded Afro-Inspira in 2014, a platform dedicated to promoting well-being within Brown and Black communities in the United States and the Caribbean. Her work combines Afro-Caribbean healing traditions with dance/movement psychotherapy, placing a strong emphasis on exploring cultural identity, engaging in expressive art-making and honoring our ancestral body memory.
Most recently Afro-Inspira won the Local Community Impact Award at the Enterprize Business Competition 2022.
Yelimara’s artistic contributions have graced renowned venues like Carnegie Hall, Pratt Institute, and Princeton University, showcasing her talent and commitment to using art as a means of healing and expression. She has also presented her work at influential conferences such as ADTA (American Dance Therapy Association), NWSA (National Women's Studies Association), and Dance Black Joy at Duke University.
A passionate advocate for Afro-Caribbean traditions as a self-contained healing system, her work is a testament to the power of art, culture, and therapy in fostering well-being and social change, particularly within marginalized communities.
Yelimara possesses a Master's degree in Dance Movement Therapy from Pratt Institute.
Support This Work
Help us to strengthen the routes and pathways that culturally connect Caribbean communities to one another. Support our efforts of retracing our ancestral interconnectedness and rebuilding the bridges that will pave the way for a just Afro Future.