Plantation economies and liberation ecologies
When:
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Venue:
Birkbeck 43 Gordon Square
Plantation economies and liberation ecologies
Friday 13th March 2026
17.00 - 19.00 GMT
This film screening event will show the following works:
““Black Atlantis: the Plantationocene” by Ayesha Hameed (22:49)
“The Skin of the Earth” by Morgan Senior (23:29)
"Black Ecologies: The Durham Field School Documentary (2025)" by Jona Alexander (20:51)
“Plot” by JT Roane (11:38)
These works bring together the past, present and future of plantation worlds through engagement with themes of memory, “anthropocene” and future-making. They consider the relationship between climate and ecological change and plantation economies; and reveal how alternative futures for inhabiting the Earth are forged in land and waterscapes.
The screenings will be followed by a discussion with the audience, chaired by Dr Lisa Tilley, Senior Lecturer in Development Studies at SOAS, University of London.
Organised by the BISR Plantations working group:
https://www.bbk.ac.uk/research/centres/birkbeck-institute-for-social-research/plantations-working-group
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Black Atlantis: The Plantationocene
Ayesha Hameed
Black Atlantis: the Plantationocene is the documentation of a live audio visual essay, or live powerpoint cinema. It asks: what is the relationship between climate change and plantation economies, and how might we begin to think of a watery plantationocene? It revolves around two islands: a former plantation in St George’s Parish in Barbados, and the port city of Port of Spain in Trinidad: visiting the heartland of one of the three stops of the triangular trade, and taking seriously Donna Haraway’s and Anna Tsing’s use of the term ‘plantationocene’ which connects the development of a plantation form of production to the beginning of the current geological era that we are in.
Black Ecologies: The Durham Field School Documentary (2025)
Jona Alexander
The Black Ecologies Field School is an experiential learning model that gathers a cross-generational group of students, farmers, scholars, organizers, and artists to explore the intersections of social and ecological histories of Black communities. The film takes you through a three-day gathering in Durham/Orange County, North Carolina, led by descendants and stewards focused on Black and Indigenous stories of the Eno River watershed.
The Skin of the Earth
Morgan Senior
A poetic and personal exploration of the human and ecological traumas of British Colonial rule in Barbados, and the lingering connections between the islands. The film follows the filmmaker’s mother and uncle as they explore Barbados and reflect on their connection to the land.
Plot
J. T. Roane
Plot is an experimental short film by J. T. Roane that uses visual and sonic palimpsest to draw out the myriad meanings and uses of historic rural Black landscapes in the expression of intra and interregional familial and collective identities. Plot was inspired by the loss of the physical structure of JT Roane’s home church, St. Johns Baptist in Desha, Virginia, during a 2015 tornado, by the ongoing “return” pilgrimages to this space his family traces to mourn and to affirm fundamental forms of collectivity, and on research into the worldmaking efforts of these congregations after emancipation. The film explores the ways they built an alternative regional developmental schema though small scale collective cultivation of land and waterscapes. Layered visuals and the film’s score ask the viewer to be immersed, to linger in the past and the present of these sites, to be haunted by them.
Contact name: Matthew Barrington
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