Artist La Vaughn Belle led a performance art walk Sunday evening through downtown Christiansted, St. Croix, guided by the town’s historic wells.
The walk closed out the dECOlonial Feelin Symposium, a series that “aims to explore the Virgin Islands through art, creative writing, archiving, philosophy, storytelling, and spiritual practice,” according to the Virgin Islands Studies Collective. Earlier series took place on St. Thomas in May 2024 and Atlanta in September.
Belle said the walk was a way of “remapping” the town, the history of which is usually told through a colonial lens. Belle said she wanted to use the wells because they represent “these markers that are here, that are kind of semi-visible — visible, but people maybe don’t quite notice them anymore.”
“Because they were incredibly powerful gathering spaces — the baobab tree, all the wells we went to today,” she said.
La Vaughn Belle leads “Out of the Sunken Mist of Our Desire,” a performance art walk through downtown Christiansted Sunday evening centered on the town’s historic wells. (Source photo by Kit MacAvoy)The setting sun illuminates the historic water well Sunday evening in Christiansted’s Sunday Market Square. (Source photo by Kit MacAvoy)La Vaughn Belle’s “Out of the Sunken Mist of Our Desire” performance art walk stops at a coral limestone wall Sunday evening in downtown Christiansted. (Source photo by Kit MacAvoy)La Vaughn Belle makes a rubbing from a coral stone wall after describing its history during “Out of the Sunken Mist of Our Desire,” a performance art walk through Christiansted Sunday evening on St. Croix. (Source photo by Kit MacAvoy)Artist La Vaughn Belle stands atop the well at the Christiansted Fish Market Sunday evening on St. Croix. (Source photo by Kit MacAvoy)La Vaughn Belle leads art walk participants up Company Street Sunday evening on St. Croix. (Source photo by Kit MacAvoy)La Vaughn Belle stops under the baobab tree in the Christiansted parking lot Sunday evening on St. Croix during “Out of the Sunken Mist of Our Desire,” a performance art walk part of the dECOlonial Feelin Symposium series of events. (Source photo by Kit MacAvoy)La Vaughn Belle leads the art walk to the historic well on Water Gut Street during “Out of the Sunken Mist of Our Desire” Sunday evening on St. Croix. (Source photo by Kit MacAvoy)From left, Laurelle Holley, Shanell Petersen and Lauren Prince listen to closing remarks from artist La Vaughn Belle Sunday evening in Christiansted. (Source photo by Kit MacAvoy)Art walk participants circle around the well at Christiansted’s Sunday Market Square while Hadiya Sewer, center left, acknowledges the final iteration of the dECOlonial Feelin Symposium. The symposium followed series that began in St. Thomas last year and continued with programming in Atlanta last September. (Source photo by Kit MacAvoy)
