We were pleased to recently have former acla:works architect, Leniqueca Welcome host our 3rd SOCIAL entitled ‘Turn Up The Volume’.

Leniqueca is currently a Ph.D. candidate in anthropology (with an emphasis in urban studies) at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research in Trinidad looks at the histories and structures behind the criminalization and policing of local urban geographies and the material consequences for populations categorized as “threat to national security”.

Her area of focus is East Port of Spain. Alongside participant -observation, interviews, spatial analysis, mapping, and archival research; photography forms a major part of her methodology.

Through ‘Turn Up the Volume’ she discussed her works and the power of visual production in academic and activist work.

Before introducing us to her photography, Leniqueca reminded us of the quotidian images of hopelessness and violence in East Port of Spain that are perpetuated across all forms of media.

Covers of Trinidadian Newspapers Photo Source: https://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/ , https://newsday.co.tt

She asked us to call to mind a few questions;

• How do we unlearn what we know about places and people?
• How do we listen more closely and see more deeply?
• How do we decriminalize spaces?
• What are the visions we have for these spaces, and what are these visions rooted in?
• How do we see our own complicity in the very social problems we seek to solve?
• What collaborations, methods, theories etc. can we enlist to bring about sustainable change?

The curation of her photography into three different collages managed to sensitize us by not only offering an entirely different perspective on the happenings in Laventille, but by assiduously attempting to bridge the gap between Laventille and the rest of Trinidad and Tobago.

Her three collages which are published in the second issue of PREE can be found below.

Collage 1:

Collage 2:

Collage 3:

Images courtesy Leniqueca Welcome

Read more on “Turn Up the Volume” here.