Alanna Lockward (23 March 1961 – 7 January 2019) was an author, curator and filmmaker based in Berlin and Santo Domingo. She was the founding director of Art Labour Archives, a platform for theory, political activism and art created in 1996. Lockward conceptualised and curated the trans-disciplinary meeting BE.BOP. Black Europe Body Politics (2012–2016) through which she engaged with many artists and peers of African and Caribbean heritage.
Her books include Apremio: apuntes sobre el pensamiento y la creación contemporánea desde el Caribe (Cendeac, 2006), a collection of essays, the short novel Marassà & The Nothingness (Partridge Africa 2016), and Un Haití Dominicano. Tatuajes fantasmas y narrativas bilaterales (1994-2014), a compilation of her investigative work on the history and current challenges between both island-nations (Santuario 2014).
A cultural editor for Listín Diario, journalist at Rumbo magazine and Miami Herald columnist, her essays and reviews have also been widely published in Afrikadaa, ARTECONTEXTO, Arte X Excelencias, Art Nexus, Atlántica, Camera Austria, Caribbean InTransit and Savvy Journal.
She held a number of official positions as Director of International Affairs at the Museo de Arte Moderno, Santo Domingo (1988); Selection Jury of the XX Bienal Nacional de Artes Visuales (1996) and Award Jury in its 26th edition (2011).
As a scholar, she lectured internationally and was Adjunct Professor of Audiovisual Theory and Investigative Journalism at the Pontifical University of Santo Domingo (PUCMM).
She was also an accomplished ballet dancer.
Alanna Lockward passed away aged 57 on 7 January 2019 in Santo Domingo during surgery for a gastric condition.
She is leaving an invaluable intellectual legacy and will be sorely missed within the arts community.
Our thoughts go out to her family and friends.
Cover image: Alanna Lockward, photo by Miguel Gómez, 2016.
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