Explores the neighborhood-based samba practices of working class Afro-Brazilians during the festas juninas (June festivals) in Bahia, Brazil. In contrast to Bahia's famous Carnival, a recognized site for activism, the festas juninas appear apolitical, seeming to lack overt resistance to color-based inequities that persist in Brazil despite national discourses of mestiçagem (mixing) and racial democracy. In recent years, however, June samba has (re-)emerged as a means for marginalized people to assert belonging in June events and festival narratives from which they have been excluded. Their activism draws on tactics used by Bahia's Afrocentric activist carnival organizations, but with important differences. Most notably, rather than placing Africa at the center of their interventions, June samba participants express new notions of Black Bahian subjectivity through the critically informed embrace of local Afro-diasporic traditions—especially a recently recognized UNESCO masterpiece known as samba de roda—and more cosmopolitan musical sensibilities.
Kuumba [Koo-oom-bah] is the Swahili word for creativity. It's also Harbourfront Centre's Black History Month celebration that educates, enlivens and entertains with local and international artists from the African and Caribbean diaspora. Festival highlights include the Voices from Days of Slavery exhibit featuring the audio testimonials of former slaves, the thought-provoking play Man2Man exploring black male sexuality, a hilarious Ebony & Ivory Comedy Bash ($15) pitting white and black comedians against each other, and a high energy Beat the Street Dance Showdown ($10) featuring Toronto's hottest street dance teams. The grand re-opening of Miss Lou's Room will also be a highlight for kids and their families, little ones can gather and listen to some of Toronto's best storytellers weave tall tales of adventure, mystery and intrigue with fabled Anancy stories (Caribbean folk tales).
Tambrin music on the Caribbean island of Tobago is traditionally performed to entertain people at weddings and other family celebrations. The genre is also connected with healing ceremonies and the belief in ancestral spirits. It can cause trance and possession. Nevertheless, today’s musicians hardly ever play in these traditional contexts. Opportunities to perform arise from political events, folklore festivals, and concerts for tourists. In consideration of theoretical views concerning cultural contacts, preservation, and staged respectively participatory performances, the article deals with different forms of musical interaction and different ways of playing depending on repertory, individual performers, and performance conditions, based on fieldwork conducted between 1995 and 2009, thus comprising the music of two generations of musicians.
Guided by the theme 'Jamaican Women Shaping Our Culture' the occasion was marked by a display of colourful and lively performances from guest performers and the 13 parish queens. The contestants, all queens in their own right, made the first of three appearances in long dresses, depicting aspects of their individual parishes. Before they made their entrance, a moat door was lowered unto the recreated courtyard of one of Jamaica's premier historical sites, Fort Charles.' and through the door they emerged, to tumultuous applause from a partisan audience.
The essay uses ethnographic studies to provide insights into the history and historiography of the African-Atlantic winter celebration known alternately as Jankunu, John Canoe, Jonkonnu, Junkanoo, or John Kuner, celebrated in English-speaking areas of the Caribbean and Central America. Some of the subjects include the festival's religious and/or secular nature, 19th century accounts of the festivals originally held by slaves, and similar West African festivals.
Flags flailed - both by the breeze and by the hands of proud people - to the live onstage musical performances. The stage was set large enough to support a full band and back-up singers, and to support the energy of every performer. The program included several international, big time and small time, artists. Some on the bill were reggae star Tony Rebel, (reggae, Jamaica); Bunji Garlin (Soca, Trinidad); Ken Boothe (Vintage Reggae, Jamaica); Slice International (Soca/Calypso band); Everton Blender (Cultural Reggae, Jamaica); Dadou Pasquet (Kompas, Haiti); Omar Reid (Jamaica's 2006 Festival Song winner) and Dias and the Charms (R&B).
On January 7, the Haitian Americans United, Inc. (H.A.U.) will hold its fifth Annual Haitian Independence Day Gala in Lombado's in Randolph starting at 7 p.m. The gala will honor Haiti's Founding Fathers, especially the General-Emperor Jean Jacques Dessalines, on the occasion, this year, of the 200th anniversary of his assassination in Port-au-Prince. The gala will also commemorate 202 years of the proclamation of Haiti's independence. In Providence, Rhode Island, the Haitian Independence Day was to be celebrated at the new Haitian Bicentennial Memorial Plaza in Roger Williams Park starting at 9 a.m. H.A.U., in collaboration with several other Haitian organizations, was to lay a memorial wreath at the foot of the second Haitian memorial in the United States.
Traditional drumming, choreography and songs by legendary singer/dancer, La Sosso and Trass' La" will give the night an Afro-Caribbean flan. Also appearing will be the upbeat and energetic "Jeff Joseph & Gramacks New Generation," who is a favorite at festivals in Dominica, Saint Lucia, Saint-Martin and Martinique with his mix of reggae, meringue, calypso and soca. Mayer Morisset and Decibel will bring their island spirit to the crowd as well as Christiane Valejo, the internationally known singer/songwriter and zouk sensation from Martinique.
Haitian konpa groups have developed a reputation as one of the liveliest facets of the West Indian celebrations. "Everybody agreed to bring costumes, which could mean that they will be all in uniformity and coordinated with the leader of the group of whichever band it is," said Jean Alexander, spokeswoman for the Carnival Association. "They are going to be visited by some of the members, to see what it is they are portraying." Haitian konpa groups have developed a reputation as one of the liveliest facets of the West Indian celebrations. "Everybody agreed to bring costumes, which could mean that they will be all in uniformity and coordinated with the leader of the group of whichever band it is," said Jean Alexander, spokeswoman for the Carnival Association. "They are going to be visited by some of the members, to see what it is they are portraying."
"We select one or two villages to host cultural activities which conclude at the end of October with the grand celebration of the International Creole Day," said George Alphonse, poet, historian, F.R.C. board member, and the chairperson of St. Lucia Creole Heritage Month Committee. "This year, the committee had chosen four villages to hold those activities for the month: Anse-La-Ray, Dennery, Laborie, and Monchy. This is to contribute to the social-economic development of these villages."
