Wayne Modest in conversation with 2026 Research Fellow Raoni/Muzho Saleh

Through facilitating mourning socialities and solo performances, he explored the transformative power of witnessing each other’s cries of pain and injustice. However, what happens when we rush towards the closing of the wound that grief makes? During the livestreamed genocide of Palestinians, Raoni has seen a growing interest in the theme of collective grief in artistic and cultural institutions and spaces. He questions the depoliticization and institutionalization of grief in these spaces and asks what happens when we instead honor and sit in the ugliness of the wounds of injustice?  

In this conversation with Wayne, Raoni shares his research questions around the ethics and poetics of grief, wounds and wounding, particularly of and by marginalized people. Please enjoy the interview below.