Dark Laboratory, From Columbus to the Climate Crisis.

In 1492, Christopher Columbus arrived on the Caribbean Island of Guanahaní to find an Edenic beauty that was soon mythologized. But behind the myth of paradise, the Caribbean and its people would come to pay the price of relentless Western exploitation and abuse. In her book and talk on Dark Laboratory, Tao Leigh Goffe embarks on a historical journey to chart the forces that have shaped these islands: the legacy of slavery, indentured servitude, and the forced labour of Chinese and enslaved Black people excavating the islands’ bounty. Along with sugarcane, guano, at the time, was more valuable than gold.

Through the lens of memoir—and shot through with cultural and social history— Goffe transforms how we conceive of Blackness, natural history, colonialism, and the climate crisis, dismantling the many layers of entrenched imperialist thinking to reveal the cause and effect of a global human catastrophe.

Using the Caribbean as both warning and guide, Goffe offers solutions based on island ecologies, closely situating the origins of racism and climate catastrophe in a colonial context. And in redressing these twin apocalypses, Dark Laboratory becomes a record of the violence that continues to shape the Caribbean today. But even more urgently, Goffe has written an impassioned testament to the capacity for change and renewal.

Tao Leigh Goffe is a writer, theorist, and interdisciplinary artist who grew up between the UK and the US. Her research explores Black diasporic intellectual histories, political, and ecological life. She studied English literature at Princeton University before pursuing a PhD at Yale University. She lives and works in Manhattan where she is currently an Associate Professor at Hunter College, CUNY. Dark Laboratory is her first trade book. Tao is visiting the UK for a short tour in March

Victoria Okoye is a Lecturer in Black Geographies based at the School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh.

In association with the Centre for Black Studies, Department of History, University of Nottingham

Lakeside Arts is close to tram and bus routes: www.nottingham.ac.uk/about/visitorinformation/mapsanddirections/universityparkcampus.aspx

This event is free, but booking required

Refreshments provided