The Brooklyn Rail

R.I.P. Germain: Jesus Died for Us, We Will Die for Dudus!

R.I.P. Germain’s exhibition ‘Jesus Died for Us, We Will Die for Dudus!’ confronts power dynamics with multi-layered tact, transporting visitors through subjectively loaded underground and publicly visible spaces. ‘Dudus’ is Christopher Coke, the now imprisoned leader of the Jamaican drug gang “the Shower Posse.” Coke lived the precarity of hustle culture and gang violence while also using proceeds from the production of drugs to set up community programs and support locals in his home neighbourhood of Tivoli Gardens, West Kingston. Coke’s impact on the neighbourhood was such that police could not enter without community consent.