After the Dance, the Drums Are Heavy: Carnival, Politics, and Musical Engagement in Haiti

by Rebecca Dirksen

Overview

Richly ethnographic and a compelling read, After the Dance, the Drums Are Heavy is a study of carnival, politics, and the musical engagement of ordinary citizens and celebrity musicians in contemporary Haiti. The book explores how the self-declared president of konpa Sweet Micky (Michel Martelly) rose to the nation's highest office while methodically crafting a political product inherently entangled with his musical product. It offers deep historical perspective on the characteristics of carnivalesque verbal play-and the performative skillset of the artist (Sweet Micky) who dominated carnival for more than a decade-including vulgarities and polemics. Yet there has been profound resistance to this brand of politics led by many other high-profile artists, including Matyas and Jòj, Brothers Posse, Boukman Eksperyans, and RAM. These groups have each released popular carnival songs that have contributed to the public's discussions on what civic participation and citizenship in Haiti can and should be. Drawing on more than a decade and a half of ethnographic research, Rebecca Dirksen presents an in-depth consideration of politically and socially engaged music and what these expressions mean for the Haitian population in the face of challenging political and economic circumstances. After the Dance, the Drums Are Heavy centers the voices of Haitian musicians and regular citizens by extensively sharing interviews and detailed analyses of musical performance in the context of contemporary events well beyond the musical realm.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190928087
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	12/31/2019
Series:	Currents in Latin American and Iberian Music
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	26 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Rebecca Dirksen is an ethnomusicologist working across the spectrum of musical genres in Haiti and its diaspora. Her research concerns cultural approaches to development, crisis, and disaster; sustainability, diverse environmentalisms, and ecomusicology; and applied/engaged/activist scholarship. She is a professor in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University Bloomington and a founding member of the Diverse Environmentalisms Research Team (DERT).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Geography and History Language and Listening About the Companion Website Prologue 1. Sounding Carnival 2. Mixed Modes and Performance Codes of Political Demonstrations and Carnival 3. Wyclef's Score: Popular Motion, Emotion, and Commotion 4. Sweet Micky's Allure: Vagabonds, Vulgarities, and Street Politics 5. The Konpa President's Government on Parade 6. Ti Lili and Nèg Bannann nan (the Banana Man) 7. The Population's Bacchanalia 8. Response from the Roots: Still Not Afraid 9. Re-Sounding Mizik Angaje Epilogue 1 Epilogue 2 List of Interviews Bibliography Index

Editorial Reviews

"Haiti's unfinished revolution is not for the frail, and any student or teacher of the Caribbean who yearns to understand that will do well to explore this book." — Lois Wilcken, New West Indian Guide

"The comprehensive breadth of After the Dance makes it an important contribution to the discourse on Caribbean carnival and the politics of music. Educators looking to incorporate this work into their classroom readings will find plenty of worthy material to select from, as this book's ambitiousness gives it the feeling of an edited volume more than a monograph...Dirksen's work will successfully engage a wide range of readers through its well-crafted ethnographic narrative, which brings together a chorus of Haitian voices sounding their own stories, along with her voice to provide the historical and cultural context so that we can truly listen." — Jessica C. Hajek, American Music

From the Publisher