Book excerpt: This collection of essays focuses on the notion of the ‘mark’, through its manifold dimensions, including heritage, race, genes, stereotypes, traumas and scars, in order to tackle contemporary phenomena and issues such as identity, queerness, emancipation and heritage. It does so by channelling reflections through a variety of art forms, including visual art, performance, cinema, distillery, and literature. Hybrid in its approaches, this collection gathers together self-portraits, analytical essays, and ethnographies to discuss self-determination at a crossroads between intimacy and geopolitics throughout postcolonial France and the French Caribbean.