[Many thanks to Maria Cristina Fumagalli for bringing this news to our attention.] José Rafael Sosa (Acento) reports on the sudden death of Dominican curator, educator, columnist, filmmaker, and cultural activist Dr. Alanna Lockward, which has shocked the academic and art world in the Caribbean and the diaspora. Sosa refers to her death as the second loss to art and culture this year in the Dominican Republic. The first loss he refers to Ángelo Valenzuela. Here are translated excerpts from Sosa’s article.

Alanna Lockward, who died of natural causes on Monday, January 7, at six in the morning, was an art curator, university professor, columnist and filmmaker, who was born in Santo Domingo on March 23, 1961. The place and time of her wake are still not set due to legal processes under way.

With her death, we have two young public figures who departed this world in the first week of 2019. The first one was Ángelo Valenzuela.

She was the director of the documentary Historia del Protestantismo en Dominicana [History of Protestantism in the Dominican Republic], in which she recounts the trajectory of the African Episcopal Methodist Church (AME) and other Protestant congregations in the Dominican Republic. Her great uncle was the singer and composer Juan Lockward.

From 1979 to 1983, Lockward studied at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana in Xochimilco, Mexico City, and completed her master’s degree in art at the Universitat der Künste in Berlin. Her thesis was a review of articles from the renowned German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel. Her focus here was on the linguistic construction of black identities (“Contra-reflexión de un campo de palabras en el espejo diario”).

In 1988, she was Director of International Affairs at the Museum of Modern Art in Santo Domingo [Museo de Arte Moderno de Santo Domingo] and she has served on several occasions as a member of several award juries in national and international biennials.

The wake will take place starting at 6:00pm today at Blandindo Funeral Home, Abraham Lincoln Avenue, in Santo Domingo. Peace to her soul. [. . .]

[Excerpts translated by Ivette Romero. For the original article, see https://acento.com.do/2019/cultura/8640129-alanna-lockward-segunda-gran-perdida-del-arte-la-cultura-2019/.]