Project Timeline

sx62 special section "States of Crisis: Disaster, Recovery, and Possibility in the Caribbean" guest-edited by Ryan Cecil Jobson

Visual Life of Social Affliction exhibition at TENT, Rotterdam. July - September 2020.

Started in 2016, sx archipelagos becomes independent on its fourth issue in 2020, rebranded as archipelagos: a journal of Caribbean digital praxis

sx 60 special section, "Translating the Caribbean," on José Lezama Lima's "Julián del Casal" by Arnaldo M Cruz Malavé

Caribbean Digital VI by archipelagos journal and the Barnard College Digital Humanities Center

Visual Life of Social Affliction exhibition at the Little Haiti Cultural Center, Miami. November 2019 - February 2020.

Visual Life of Social Affliction exhibition at the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas, Nassau

Rachel L. Mordecai, Caribbean literature scholar and associate professor at University of Massachusetts Amherst, becomes the editor of sx salon, assuming the position from inaugural editor Kelly Baker Josephs. Her debut issue is issue 31. 

sx58 special section, "The Jamaican 1970s"

As of 2019, the Small Axe editorial committee compromises of Charles V. Carnegie, Victoria Collis-Buthelezi, Dixa Ramírez D'Oleo, Andil Gosine, Erica Moiah James, Régine Jean-Charles, Kelly Baker Josephs, Aaron Kamugisha, Antonio López, Wayne Modest, Tami Navarro, Harvey Neptune, Matthew J. Smith, and Vanessa K. Valdés. 

sx 57 special section, "Caribbean In/securities,” guest edited by Patricia Noxolo

sx56 special section, "Contemporary Dominican Gender and Sexualities Studies," guest-edited by Maja Horn

Caribbean Digital V by sx archipelagos journal and the Barnard College Digital Humanities Center

Visual Life of Social Affliction symposium at the University of Miami Lowe Art Museum

sx55 special section, "Eulogizing Creoleness?: Rereading Éloge de la Créolité, Part II" guest-edited by Celia Britton and Martin Munro

Nine years after it's founding in 2009, the sx literary competition drew to a close in 2018.

sx 54 special section, “The Jamaican 1960s”

Caribbean Digital IV by sx archipelagos journal and the Barnard College Digital Humanities Center

Artist and critical and creative writer Rosamond S. King joins sx salon as its creative editor. Her debut issue is issue 25. 

sx 52 special section, "Art as Caribbean Feminist Practice," guest-edited by Annalee Davis, Joscelyn Gardner, Erica James, and Jerry Philogene

sx 53 special section, “Art After Indenture,” guest-edited by Andil Gosine

sx 51 special section, “The Idea of the Hispanophone Caribbean,” guest-edited by Vanessa Pérez-Rosario

Caribbean Queer Visualities exhibition at Transmission Gallery, Glasgow. February - March 2017.

Read more here

Caribbean Digital III by sx archipelagos journal and the Barnard College Digital Humanities Center

The Idea of Hispanophone Caribbean Studies: A Small Axe Conversation at Sulzberger Parlor, Barnard College. Read more here.

Caribbean Queer Visualities exhibition at the Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast. November 2016. Catalogue available here.

What Is Journal Work?: A Small Axe Conversation at Sulzberger Parlor, Barnard College. Read more here.

Small Axe's blog sx live makes its first post in 2016, which you can read here

The publication of Small Axe 50 (July 2016) marks an important milestone in the history of the journal. This issue features a significant discussion on the question: "What is Journal Work?"

Small Axe launches sx archipelagos, "a born-digital, peer-reviewed publication" and joint venture with Kaiama L. Glover and Alex Gil

Two new platforms of the Small Axe Project were launched in May 2016: sx archipelagos (a platform seeking to think through the implications of the digital humanities for Caribbean scholarship), and sx visualities (a platform seeking to think about Caribbean visual practice).

"Visual Arts After Indenture" was a symposium co-organized with Andil Gosine at York University, Toronto, and held there on 19 March 2016. A conversation between artists and writers, the symposium aimed to consider the connections between visual art practice and the aftermath of Indian indentureship in the Caribbean and elsewhere.

"The Caribbean Digital II," held on 4 December 2015, was the second in an ongoing series of symposia exploring the role and impact of the digital humanities in Caribbean scholarship.

Caribbean Digital II by sx archipelagos journal and the Barnard College Digital Humanities Center

"The Jamaican 1960s," a symposium co-organized with Donette Francis at the University of Miami, and held there between 29 and 30 October 2015, was the first in a series of symposia rethinking the making of the Jamaican cultural-political modern. The essays from the symposium are to be published in Small Axe 53 (July 2017).

"Caribbean Queer Visualities II" was the second symposium in the series around this theme. This event was co-sponsored by The Andy Warhol Foundation; the Department of Anthropology, the Digital Black Atlantic Project, the Center for the Study of Social Difference, the Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality, and the Institute for Research in African American Studies, all at Columbia University.

In this issue of sx salon, contributors think about the gendered character of the body in Caribbean literary practice.

The Caribbean Digital I, convened between 4 and 5 December 2014, was the first in an ongoing series of exploratory symposia thinking about the impact of the digital on Caribbean scholarship.

Caribbean Digital I by sx archipelagos journal and the Barnard College Digital Humanities Center

The first of two symposia on the theme "Caribbean Queer Visualities" was held at Yale University between 14 and 15 November 2014. The event was co-sponsored by The Andy Warhol Foundation, the Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Memorial Fund of the Whitney and Betty Macmillan Center for International and Area Studies, at Yale University; the departments of African American Studies, and of the History of Art, at Yale University; and the Council for Latin American and Iberian Studies at Yale University.

As a reflection of the growing interest in the platform, in October 2014 sx salon expands its periodicity from two to three times per year.

In this issue of sx salon, guest-edited by Terri Francis, the film archives of the Caribbean becomes the subject of a searching discussion.

In June 2014 the Small Axe Project receives its third grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation, to support our project Caribbean Queer Visualities.

In this issue, sx salon considers representations of the Chinese in Caribbean literature.

In this issue, sx salon takes us in the world of the writing and publication of Caribbean children's literature.

In this issue, sx salon reflects on memories and representations of Caribbean sovereignty fifty years after the beginnings of political independence in the Anglophone Caribbean.

In this issue, sx salon engages the much-neglected question of the status of the "book review" in Caribbean critical discussions.

In this issue sx salon published an important intervention in the regional and diasporic discussion of LGBT histories.

"The Idea of a Black Radical Tradition" was a symposium organized at Columbia University between 22 and 23 April 2011. It was co-sponsored by the Office of the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, the Institute for Research in African American Studies, the Department of Anthropology, and the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, Columbia University. The essays were published in Small Axe 40 (March 2013).

"What is Caribbean Studies? Prisms, Paradigms, Practices" was a joint venture between the Small Axe Project and colleagues Hazel Carby and Kamari Clarke at Yale University. It was co-sponsored by the Initiative on Race, Gender, and Globalization; the Center for Transnational Cultural Analysis; and the Department of African American Studies. The essays were published in Small Axe 41 (July 2013).

sx salon publishes an important discussion around digital work in arts and culture.

sx salon was launched in October as our born-digital literary platform, published twice per year. This was a milestone in the evolution of the Small Axe Project.

As of 2009 Small Axe was published under contract by Duke University Press for Small Axe Inc in March, July, and November.

In February 2009 the Small Axe Literary competition was launched, with 30 April 2009 as the first deadline for submissions. The competition was established for emerging writers in two categories, poetry and short fiction. The competition offered prizes for first and second place in each category. The successful poems and short stories were then published in Small Axe 31 (July 2010).

In June 2008 Small Axe Inc received its first grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for its project "Visual Memory in the Caribbean." The project entailed inviting artists and writers to consider the role memory in Caribbean visual arts. The resulting work was published in Small Axe 28 (March 2009), Small Axe 29 (July 2009) and Small Axe 30 (November 2009).

"Blackness Unbound" was the third in the series of Ford Foundation funded symposia. It took place between 28 and 29 September 2007 at SUNY Albany. The essays were published in Small Axe 29 (July 2009).

"Archeologies of Black Memory" was the second of the Ford Foundation funded symposia. It took place between 21 and 29 June 2007 at the University of Miami, and was a collaboration with colleagues in Caribbean Literary Studies there. The essays were published in Small Axe 26 (June 2008).

With increased content and interest the periodicity of Small Axe increased to three issues per year, February, June, and October

With generous funding provided by the Ford Foundation the Small Axe Collective organizes the first of three symposia: "Diasporic Knowledges: Caribbean Inflections and African American Conversations" held at Brown University 7-9 April 2005.

Small Axe 7 (March 2000) guest edited by Faith Smith is published. The production of this issue was very controversial and it was the beginning of the end of our publishing arrangement with the University of the West Indies Press.

After the second issue Small Axe moves to the University of the West Indies Press, and continues to be published twice her year.

After discussions begun in 1996, Small Axe no. 1 is published by Ian Randle Publishers twice per year for the Small Axe Collective