African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
Jamaican deejay Yellowman is best known for 'slackness': lyrics centered on masculine heterosexual potency, sexist objectification of women, and graphic sexual narratives. Yet a deeper look at Yellowman's life and recorded output suggests that when his slackness is read in the context of Afro-Jamaican culture, reggae history, and his Rastafarian faith, a more complex interpretation of his slackness is needed. The study draws on Carolyn Cooper's (2001) theory that slackness is a 'metaphorical revolt against law and order, an undermining of consensual standards of decency' (p. 141). Whereas the term 'culture' is used in reggae to depict music that is Afrocentric, Rasta-inspired, and socially conscious, and is normally seen as the antithesis of slackness, it is suggested that for Yellowman, the slack/culture dichotomy is eroded when slackness becomes part of the religious repertoire of resistance against mainstream Jamaican society. The dissertation presents: a) an overview of theory and methodology b) an ethnographic case study based on Yellowman's life and career, and c) four analytical chapters that offer itineraries to theorize slackness in Yellowman's music. First, it is argued that through slackness Yellowman subverted embedded Jamaican cultural notions of sexuality, gender, race, nationality, and beauty by promoting the dundus (black albino) as sexually appealing, hyper-masculine, and part of the imagined black nation. Second, it is demonstrated how Yellowman's sexual lyrics are an example of Obika Gray's (2004) thesis that slackness was a conscious political project employed by the Jamaican poor to contest the normative values of dominant society. The pitting of Yellowman and slackness in reggae journalism against Bob Marley and culture is contested. Third, it is refuted that Yellowman employs slackness for the purpose of moral regulation based on conservative Afro-Jamaican sexual mores and his understanding of Rastafarian morality. Finally, Yellowman's perforating of Christian dualistic ideas of carnal/spiritual is situated in the Rastafarian Babylon/Zion binary, demonstrating how Afro-Caribbean religion has redefined Christian dualism using an Afrocentric body-positive ideology.
TWO-TIME Olympic relay gold medallist, Michael Frater, will be looking to keep Jamaica sprinting atop the podium in the 60 metre dash at the New York Road Runners Millrose Games on February 15, 2014. But the 31-year-old's task won't be easy as three young Americans - US Olympian Isiah Young, and 2013 NCAA champions D'Angelo Cherry, and Ameer Webb - will be in on the chase. 'The Armory is one of my most favourite places to race," said Cherry, who won 60m titles at the US and NCAA Championships last winter. "I'm in good shape and looking forward to running a great race at the Millrose Games."
Focuses on the role of young women in the development of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Mentions the pregnancy in LAC is caused by the low socioeconomic situation of young women. States that the lack of information on sexuality education and an inclusive system for health and social protection will increase the chance of poverty.
Demonstrate how the priority of education in Cuban social policy, from its outset after the 1959 revolution, has privileged women. Statistics chart the rapid increase in educational level and attainment over the decades and the high degree of feminization of higher education and thus the skilled labor force; and today Cuba ranks among the countries with the highest indicators in the United Nations' Millennium Goals with respect to education and gender equity.
289 p., This qualitative study examines five young Afro-Franco Caribbean males in the Diaspora and their experiences with systems of technology as a tool of oppression and liberation. The study utilized interpretive biography and participatory video research to examine the issues of identity, power/control, surveillance technology, love and freedom. The study made use of a number of data collection methods including interviews, round table discussions, and personal narratives.
In terms of economic dependence on the metropolitan countries and "a deeply-rooted cultural and psychological colonization." Problems in the areas of employment, tourism, education, health, housing, the family, and the status of young women.
"Colin Powell, Cicely Tyson, Malcolm X, Sir Sidney Poitier, David Patterson, Alexander Hamilton and Jean Baptiste DuSable are all part of a great history that spans generations of men and women whose roots can be found in the Caribbean," he said. "Many of our students share that same heritage. And we are connected to them as well, from the curry in their food to the courage in their souls."
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
1 videodisc (50 min.), An untold history of the indigenous Caribs on St. Vincent: their near extermination and exile by the British 200 years ago; and return of some in the Diaspora to reconnect with those left behind. A postcolonial story of re-identification. The Black Caribs, on the island of St. Vincent in the Caribbean, is a little known indigenous group of people. Yurumein (Homeland) is a 50-minute documentary that recounts the painful past of these Carib people – their near extermination at the hands of the British, the decimation of their culture on the island, and the exile of survivors to Central America over 200 years ago. The film also captures the powerful moment of homecoming when Caribs from the Diaspora (also known as “Garifuna” in their indigenous language) visit the island for the first time.
Paul,Ron C. (Author) and Editorial Bukante (Editor)
Format:
Video/DVD
Publication Date:
2006
Published:
Port-au-Prince, Haïti: Bukante
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Journal Title Details:
DVD, 1 videodisc (48 min.)
Notes:
Virtual exhibition on the painters of northern Haiti. Highlights works by Junior Abraham, Patrick Alexis, Alfred Altidor among others. In Creole with optional French, Spanish or English subtitles.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
245 p, Contents: The politics of postcolonial nationalist literature / The nation as problem and possibility / Caribbean space: Lamming, Naipaul, and federation / The novel after the nation: Nigeria after Biafra / The persistence of the nation: literature and criticism in Canada / National culture and globalization
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
371 p, Reconstructs the events, relationships, and achievements that marked the life of the black novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist, assessing her important works and commitment to the black folk tradition. Includes chapter "Voodoo gods and biblical men."
Glassman,Steve (Editor) and Seidel,Kathryn Lee (Editor)
Format:
Book, Edited
Publication Date:
1991
Published:
Orlando, FL: University of Central Florida Press
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
197 p, Zora in Florida focuses on the place that nurtured and inspired her work, the frontier wilderness of central Florida and the all-black town of Eatonville. Two chapters are devoted to her first novel, Jonah's Gourd Vine, set almost entirely in Florida. Includes Barbara Speisman's "Voodoo as symbol in Jonah's gourd vine." Also treats Hurston's lesser-known works such as Tell My Horse, her first-person account of fieldwork in Haiti.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
279 p, With its irresistible dance beat, strong bass line, and straightforward harmonies and lyrics, zouk has become wildly popular in the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe; Discography: p. 229-231
"In our Cold War fight with Castro, (we were) willing to subsidize Cubans to leave to come here and at the same time lock Haitians out. That is not fair, and we deserve a different policy," [Jesse L. Jackson Sr.] said. He said the U.S. pays to bring Cubans here, subsidizes them, but pays to send Haitians back to Haiti. "That's not fair," he stated. "Haiti fought for our freedom." "The Cubans are political refugees looking for political freedom, and they're given money to come, but, the Haitians are economic refugees so they must go back. There are more Haitians who've died... than Cubans," Jackson said calling for an end to the double standard of refugees between Cuba and Haitians seeking to come to America.
-, Interviews social psychologist and feminist Norma Guillard. She discusses her political, socio-cultural activism and academic research on Black lesbians in Cuba. Guillard cites feminists Margaret Randall, Alice Walker and Angela Davis as women who influenced her. Describes an important Cuban movement involving Afro-Cuban militants.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
144 p, A historical and artistic examination of Haitian Voodoo, with numerous samples of colorful naive works. Features the following commentaries: "Art and religion in Haiti", "Do Haiti and Finland have anything in common?" and "The social history of Haitian Vodou". Includes notes. Texts printed in Finnish and English.
"This essay examines four of the most influential examples of this prose genre written during the supposed Golden Age of Cuban music before the upheaval of the 1959 Revolution. Though Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes, Emilio Grenet, Alejo Carpentier, and Fernando Ortiz were all responding to Cuba's peculiar cultural climate and historical situation, they participated in a long-standing, pan-American intellectual movement to write histories interpreting the connection between racial inheritance, environment, music, and national identity.";
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
Originally issued as a motion picture in 2001., 1 videodisc (60 min.), Filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris travels to Africa and Brazil in search of his spiritual ancestors.
Discusses the stories of six girls to illuminate three broad types of gender performances that were observed: ‘beauties’, ‘geeks’ and ‘men-john’. Using Francis' concepts of gender ‘monoglossia’ and ‘heteroglossia’, the extent to which these girls were able to resist the normative gender–sexual order and the consequences of conformity/non-conformity are examined.
The incidence of prostate cancer among African-Caribbean men in the UK is three times that among men from the majority population. This qualitative study is the first such investigation, situating men’s accounts within the context of their personal history and social environment. 16 first generation African-Caribbean men living in Central England were recruited.
British-African-Caribbean cricket players are well represented in the English game but participation appears mediated by ethnic group membership. This contemporary pattern can only be understood when contextualized within the historical development of cricket in the Caribbean and, in particular, the struggles between whites and blacks and between the white elites.
This article, based on the 2003 Raphael Samuel Memorial Lecture, begins with the issue of memory, but also asks: what are the limitations of studying memory? I suggest that smuggled in to current memory studies are a range of issues which are, in fact, analytically distinct from the problem of memory itself: historical temporality, consciousness of time, and consciousness of history. Underlying all these distinct problems is the overarching question of how we can conceive of ‘the past’ existing in ‘the present’. I explore this in relation to two Caribbean thinkers. I look first at C. L. R. James’s monumental and wonderful history book, The Black Jacobins, which works closely within the Hegelian idea of ‘world-history’. An alternative conceptualization can be found in George Lamming’s more phenomenological approach, manifest most in his novel, In The Castle of My Skin. These two polarities – history on the world-stage, and history in subjective mode – continue to underwrite our understanding of the-past-in-the-present. I close by turning to the work of Raphael Samuel, and suggest that his celebrated volumes, Theatres of Memory, are more concerned with the-past-in-the-present than they are with memory itself. (Author)
Examines the play The Case of Miss Iris Armstrong and documentary film Sweet Sugar Rage. Looks at the way the sexual division of labor on Jamaica's sugar plantations was based on the following gendered myths: women's labor capacity is lower than their male counterparts; and men are the breadwinners for their families.
Presents the views of a lesbian mother regarding the laws in the U.S. She highlights her several experiences related to political, children, family and sexuality including the anti-Klan protest, abortion rights rallies, and her arrest for demanding an end to apartheid. She explores the Cuban National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX) Sexual Diversity Project.
Analyzes how identity construction and ethnic representation processes take place in a folkloric festival framed by the multicultural policies of the Colombian state. Accounts for how institutions and base Afrocolombian communities use bullerengue—a local musical tradition that is now strong in the Uraba zone—as a tool in this construction process.
Explores the representation of older women in Afro-Caribbean Canadian literature, with a particular focus on depictions of mothering. Details on lesbian identity in Afro-Caribbean Canadian women's writings are also presented.
Between 1873 and 1917, the numbers of Barbadian women committed to penal custody on an annual basis surpassed those of men. Available figures for Jamaica and Trinidad over sections of the period hover around an 18–20 percent female proportion rate, while in Barbados the rate usually exceeded 50 percent.
Examines how Connecticut-born reggaetón artist Notch incorporates oratorical, visual, and musical cues in his music video, Qué te pica (What's itching you?), to establish connections between Latino and Caribbean communities in the U.S. These communities have typically been disavowed by hegemonic racial categories that distinguish between them. While Notch’s music disrupts these particular racial hierarchies, he also maintains hetero-normative patriarchal relations in his video. An analytic, Afro-Latino space is proposed to account for the ways that reggaetón as a musical genre, and Notch more specifically, unsettle certain distinctions between blackness and Latinidad, while simultaneously relying on stereotypes of black hypermasculinity.
