"Battle for Paradise: Puerto Rico, restrictions apply*" Exhibit

SPL Event Calendar

About this event

Location Link: Central Library Room Location: Level 8 - Gallery Registration Required: Registration is not required. Detailed Description: Battle for Paradise is a photo essay by Jo Cosme that examines the tension between Puerto Rico as a marketed paradise and Puerto Rico as a lived reality. Part of the ongoing project Welcome to Paradise: ¡Viva Puerto Rico Libre!, the work focuses on how tourism, settler colonialism, and disaster-driven policies reshape who can remain on the archipelago and under what conditions.

Through photography, Cosme highlights the contrast between images designed to attract and the realities often kept out of frame—restricted access to land and beaches to the native population, rising costs of living, and the displacement of local communities. The phrase “restrictions apply” points to the fine print behind the promise of paradise, where access is uneven and shaped by power. Rather than presenting Puerto Rico as a distant place, the work asks viewers to consider their proximity to these systems and what it means to move through them, whether as tourists, settlers, investors, or witnesses.

Description from The Seattle Public Library.

Registration, tickets, accessibility and last-minute changes are handled by the organizer. Confirm details before you go.