Alanna Lockward

To those of us who met Alanna, and especially those who saw the New Year message she posted on Facebook, in which she wished us a "2019 with culture and the arts as a common language," the news of her death on Monday, January 7, shocked us. Just a few days before, we had seen her in a video, seated in a lotus position, smiling, full of life, and proud of her achievements, especially for having obtained her Ph.D. with honors (Magna Cum Laude) at the Humboldt University, in Berlin, this past December. It is difficult to accept that this young woman with so many plans and goals to fulfill, left this world in such a sudden way. Alanna stood out as a ballet dancer, journalist, author, filmmaker, curator, and scholar. In the field of dance, she received her diploma in Education from the Royal Academy of Dance, and she danced professionally with major companies, including the Ballet Clásico Nacional (Santo Domingo), Ballet de Cámara de Jalisco (Guadalajara), Neubert Ballet (New York), and the Australian Opera (Sídney). She received her Bachelor's Degree in Communication Sciences from the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco, in Mexico City (1983). Her passion for the arts led her to work as a journalist, writer, and researcher. She was the editor of Listín Diario, an investigative journalist for Rumbo magazine, and a columnist for the Miami Herald and Acento.com.do. Her texts were published in Afrikadaa, Archipielago, ARTECONTEXTO, ArtNexus, Arte por Excelencias, Atlántica Noticias de Arte, Camera Austria, and Savvy Journal. At the institutional level, she served as director of International Affairs at the Museo de Arte Moderno de Santo Domingo (1988), and the 4th Biennial of the X Caribbean. He was a jury member in several national and international events, including the XX National Biennial of Visual Arts (1996). In the academic field, she was assistant professor of Audiovisual Theory and Journalism of Research at the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM), and a guest professor at the Humboldt University of Berlin, Decolonial Summer School of Middelburg, the University of Warwick, the Dutch Institute of Art, and the Goldsmiths University of London. She was also a panelist at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, in South Africa, and at Duke, Columbia, and Princeton in the United States. She was a consultant for the Master and Ph.D. programs at the Transart Institute (Berlin/NYC), and an associate of the Black Diaspora of Young Schoolchildren, funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the German Government. Alanna received her Master of Arts in Context at the Universität der Künste in Berlin (2006). That same year she published Apremio: Notes on Contemporary Thought and Creation from the Caribbean (Cendeac, 2006). She subsequently published a collection of essays, the novel Marassá y La Nada (Sanctuary, 2013), and a compilation of her research work on the history and current challenges between the two island nations, A Dominican Haiti. Ghost Tattoos and Bilateral Narratives (1994-2014) (Sanctuary, 2014). One of her greatest achievements was to found and direct, since 1996, Art Labor Archives, a transdisciplinary platform that offered advice and organized high-level cultural events in the Caribbean, the United States, Europe, and Africa. She received several awards from several institutions including the Allianz Cultural Foundation, the Danish Council of Arts, and the Nordic Council of Ministers. Her first documentary project on the Theology of Black Liberation and the transnational history of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) received the production prize FONPROCINE, in 2013. Those of us who had the privilege of knowing her will always remember her as an intelligent, enterprising, cheerful woman, and a great friend. In the ...