Cereus Villa

Cereus Villa is a queer Jamaican space where its community members live, work and gather as they wade through the waves of life. One evening at Cereus Villa’s weekly movie night, Max, Vim,  Deen, and a few friends listen to Max share his abortion experience. 

Amaryllis Ara (ze/zir/they/them) is a multimodal artist, researcher and facilitator from Yamaye. Ze is fond of rabbits, forests and being near the sea. Through an experimental practice, they acknowledge the queer body as a site of self and collective liberation. Decoloniality is at the root of zir concerns. Identifying recollection as a process of reclamation, Amaryllis pulls from foundations in visual storytelling, media production, somatic modalities, and critical theories of power, gender and queerness. They archive black queer perspectives through qualitative, arts-based methods fueled by memory and curiosity. Ara’s work is a union of research, critical fabulation, and emotional alchemy.  Spirit is in everything they do. They challenge the oppressor within by learning more about zir own histories; unpacking the ways that we have been taught to learn, heal, play and be in relation. By applying the things learned from their lineages, this practice is the bridge where timelines come to merge. Vesta Cay and GATHERING Zine are two of Amaryllis’ most popular works.