Ashanté Mallet-Charles

In my series, “Repeating Islands,” I document the Haitian and Jamaican communities of East Flatbush, New York, exploring ways to preserve my neighborhood from gentrification and my neighbors from displacement. Through portraiture and reportage, my images archive the community’s stories, its faces and family-owned businesses, articulating the challenges of transnational migration and celebrating the cultural roots of its residents. In this way, I commune with the  vitality of this place, a neighborhood at the crossroads of cultural change in a rapidly transforming  city. “Repeating Islands” serves as a bridge, closing the gap between me and my homeland. 

Ashanté Charles is a Haitian Jamaican, Brooklyn-based photographer and writer.