Vesta Cay is an iridescent islet, an interdisciplinary inquiry into the deaths and disappearances of numerous LGBTQ+ Jamaicans over the years. Through methodologies of archival recovery, critical fabulation, digital storytelling, public engagement and subversive cartography, this isle offers a balm to questions such as: “where does queer grief go?” and “who remembers the invisibilised?”
Named after 4-Vesta, the brightest asteroid visible from earth, Vesta Cay is a body of its own. Glistening and formed on the sediments of queer memory, grief, and celebration. This project is simultaneously the first of its kind, and a contemporary descendant in a lineage of archival creation and subversive cartographies like Lucas LaRochelle’s Queering the Map, Alexandra Gelbard’s Cabildo De Regla and Dr. Regner Ramos’ Cuirtopia.
The spirit of this dwelling location is localised in the grief held solely and together by tumultuous waves of resistance to oppression. This project is an altar; a fire at the hearth signalling to the spirits of those we have lost that no matter the circumstances of their removal from this plane, there is a place for them to rest and be remembered. For Vesta's living inhabitants, this is a compass to a meeting place. Somewhere to expand our memories, sooth our aches and give direction to our rage.
This digital and social space seeks to increase documentation of the Jamaican queer community, contributing to the correction of the absence of existing memorial space catering exclusively to LGBTQ+ Jamaicans. Vesta Cay carves a corner in Jamaica’s otherwise exclusionary cartography. This island is a legacy; drawing an atlas for people and collectives in other Caribbean territories to use in inquiry of their own contexts.
