"Dame dame dame, que te voy a dar ... una guayabita de mi guayabal."

11.26.2010

Ballet on the Mirabal sisters/Ballet sobre las Mirabal

http://www.dr1.com/news.php#1
Mirabal Sisters - fifty years on

To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of Patria, Minerva and
Maria Teresa Mirabal
, a ballet called "Tres" (Three) will be staged at the
Mirabal Sisters Monument in Salcedo at 7pm this evening. With choreography
by Carlos Veitia and music by Philip Glass, the ballet was inspired by the
three national heroines and their struggle against the Trujillo
dictatorship, leading to their murder on 25 November 1960. The Ministry of
Culture is sponsoring the performance, which is open to the public free of
charge. Dancers include Cuban National Ballet's premier danseur Romel
Frometa, and premier danseur Maykel Acosta from the Dominican National
Ballet. The sisters will be portrayed by ballerinas Maria Valeria Melogno,
Stephanie Bauger, Alihayde Carreno and Lisbell Piedra.
* * *
http://www.hoy.com.do/alegria/2010/11/14/350106/Tres-poetica-de-danza-en-ballet-memorable

“Tres”, poética de danza en ballet memorable

El Ballet Nacional Dominicano, bajo la dirección de Marinella Sallent, se
une a la conmemoración del 50 aniversario del asesinato de las Hermanas
Mirabal, con la presentación del ballet “Tres”, del maestro Carlos Veitía.
Artísticamente, es a través de la danza como se evoca por primera vez este
hecho histórico. A propósito del estreno en 1980 del ballet “Las Hermanas
Mirabal”, escribimos en el “Listín Diario”: “Ha sido necesario que
transcurrieran veinte años de aquella tragedia que estremeció a todo un
pueblo, para que surgiera un artista con suficiente sensibilidad, capaz de
conmoverse e inspirarse en un acontecimiento histórico profundamente
dramático.

11.17.2010

Unesco: Marimba y cantos del Pacífico Sur colombiano patrimonio intangible/Southern Pacific music UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage

Today, Unesco announced the inclusion of the music of the southern Pacific on the list of intangible cultural heritage. Link (with media)

Hoy día, la UNESCO declaró la inclusión de la marimba y los cantos tradicionales del Pacífico Sur en su lista de patrimonio cultural intangible. Enlace

Felicidades a todo hijo e hija del Pacífico. Ahora surgen las preguntas: cómo afectará la vida de los cultores (muchos de los cuales viven en precarias condiciones económicas), las posibilidades de reinvindicaciones políticas (ya que están asesinando y amenazando los que levantan la voz para hacer reclamos a un ritmo muy acelerado en estos días) y la vida cotidiana de la población de la zona (que sigue aguantando una pésima falta de servicios y de educación, el desplazamiento, una intractable violencia, la pobreza y la presión de los grupos armados)? Ah, y otra: que piensan los chocoanos?

Será que la nueva denominación pueda prevenir que las tradicionales balsadas y procesiones de la Vírgen del Carmen en Guapi - capturadas en el video de la Unesco abajo - serán interrumpidas por el estallido de una granada como en el año antepasado? Podría ser un arma para la reinvindicación de los derechos culturales así garantizando el respecto al territorio? Dará impulso a que se valorice y se preserve las prácticas tradicionales, no como objeto de espectacularización en los festivales sino como una vivencia que enriquece la vida - social, cultral, económica y espiritual - de los hombres, mujeres y niños del Pacífico?

Ojalá sí.

Video (en inglés)

11.10.2010

Colombia: #1 in displaced refugees/en desplazados



According to the UN, Colombia has more displaced people than any other country in the world, including the Sudan Iraq, and Afghanistan: Link

Eso según la ONU y CODHES: enlace. El gobierno colombiano lo niega, pero aparentemente está maquillando las cifras. De todos modos, el asesinato de líderes desplazados sigue en marcha.

Exposición de fotografía de mujeres afrocolombianas en Brasil

11.09.2010

Ambience in the Humanities: Translating New Surroundings into New Poetics

Full disclosure: I will be reading a paper for this one (via Skype, which I've never done before...)

Ambience in the Humanities: Translating New Surroundings into New Poetics

November 19-20, 2010
20 Cooper Square, 5th Floor

The Humanities Initiative conference, organized by former Graduate Student Fellows Elena Bellinaand John Melillo

Sounds, voices, musics, images, written codes of all sorts – in today’s media-saturated environment, humans lend their ears and eyes to an abundant and seemingly free-floating worlds of social and sensory information. The intensity of this information calls for different models of poetics that figure the artist not as a lone fabricator constructing and reconstructing a singular tradition but rather as an antenna, receiving and rebroadcasting atmospheres of experience. The affects, concepts, and materials that create particular ambiences do not merely condition the work, as in the classic divide of text and context, but literally inform it, giving both material and shape to the poetic process. From everyday life to extreme conditions of constraint, from suburbia to the warzone, how does the sensing self record—consciously or unconsciously—the ambience of these zones and spaces?

In this conference, we propose to organize a series of roundtable discussions with writers, composers, performers, and critics that will consider not the influence of a particular tradition or canon but rather the influence of particular material surroundings. What does New York—as a crowded, built-up urban environment—mean for punk rock musicians in the early 1970s? How do the sounds of warfare affect soldiers and civilians in past and contemporary war zones? How do the symbols and images of pop culture get rearranged as signs of political allegiance? How do all the arts reflect the conditions of their production—not only in a political economic sense but also in the sense of sensing itself—the social materiality of exterior information?

For more information, including a conference program, please visit

ambienceconference.wordpress.com.

CFP: IASPM Canada: "Music and Environment: Place, Context, Conjuncture"

Musique et environnement: lieu, contexte et conjoncture
Conférence annuelle de la branche canadienne de l'IASPM
Schulich School of Music, Université McGill, Montréal
16 au 19 juin 2011

La musique tient lieu d'agent dans différents types de transformations environnementales, qu'elles soient
sociales, économiques ou technologiques, et à l'inverse, les changements environnementaux peuvent être
entendus dans les sons et les musiques d'aujourd'hui. On observe depuis peu dans le discours académique
un tournant vers l'écologie du son, ce qui peut impliquer un plaidoyer politique en faveur de la
préservation de la sonorité d'un environnement. Dans la même veine, l'environnement a été utilisé dans
plusieurs formes artistiques tel que des sculptures et des installations sonores. Ce tournant a
également pavé la voie à de nouveaux champs d'exploration en musique populaire marqués, notamment,
par un intérêt particulier pour la notion de lieu (place). Par exemple, nous pouvons penser aux manières
dont des lieux spécifiques ont un impact sur les significations culturelles de la musique. De plus, les
musiques populaires créent des étiquettes sonores telles que (le son de) « Liverpool » ou « Montréal »
qui fonctionnent à la manière des genres musicaux. Mais que signifie l'attribution de telles étiquettes?
Influencées par des facteurs comme la circulation des personnes, l'immigration et la proximité virtuelle
que procure depuis peu l'Internet, les musiques populaires sont marquées du sceau de l'hybridité
musicale et sociale par le biais de techniques telles que l'échantillonnage, la citation et l'imitation.
L'enchevêtrement des éléments musicaux, sociaux et technologiques est à son tour affecté par
l'environnement économique, façonné par les transformations des industries culturelles et de la crise
financière globale qui sévit actuellement. Nos conceptions de l'espace et de l'environnement ne sont ni
simples ni statiques et leurs relations à la musique sont riches et complexes.

Nous vous invitons à soumettre des propositions de présentations individuelles, de panels, d'ateliers ou
de performances concernant un vaste éventail de sujets reliés au thème de la conférence, incluant sans s'y
limiter :
* L'échantillonnage comme recyclage et recontextualisation;
* Musique et activisme environnemental;
* Le cycle de vie des technologies musicales;
* Le tournant vers les formes urbaines de composition musicale dans le domaine de l'acoustique
écologique et des études en environnements sonores (soundscapes studies);
* Les enregistrements ethnographiques comme sources matérielles musicales;
* Les « experts » des différents milieux musicaux (critiques, musiciens, journalistes, scientifiques,
industriels, politiciens, etc.), leurs rôles, leurs interventions, leurs apports;
* La création d'ambiances et d'atmosphères dans/par la musique;
* Mettre en musique son environnement, chanter/composer son milieu (sounding the scape;
* Les alliances, les affinités et les réseaux permettant la constitution et le développement de différents
milieux et environnements musicaux;
* Musique et paysage, architecture et design;
* Mouvement, mobilité et trajectoires d'acteurs, de produits, de groupes de catalogues, etc.;
* Musique, temps, durée et mémoire;
* Catastrophes naturelles et crises en chansons et musiques.

Les résumés pour les communications individuelles, les ateliers et les performances ne doivent pas
dépasser 300 mots. Les propositions de panels doivent inclure un résumé ne dépassant pas 300 mots pour
le panel en entier, ainsi que des résumés ne dépassant pas 300 mots pour chacune des présentations
individuelles du panel. Le comité de programmation se réserve le droit d'accepter un panel mais de
refuser une conférence proposée pour ce panel, ou encore d'accepter une présentation alors que le panel
est refusé.

Tous les résumés doivent inclure une courte biographie (100 mots) de chaque auteur, auteure incluant
l'affiliation institutionnelle et l'adresse de courriel. Chaque résumé doit également inclure cinq mots-clés
identifiant l'objet de la présentation.

Les propositions de communication doivent être soumises en français ou anglais par courriel avant le 21
octobre 2010 (pour être considérées pour le remboursement des frais de déplacement) ou le 15 novembre
2010 à l'adresse suivante : IASPMMontreal@gmail.com.

Toutes les propositions seront lues à l’aveugle et évaluées par le comité de programmation.
Les membres du comité de programmation sont :
▪ Dr. David Brackett, Professeur, Musicology, Université McGill
▪ Dr. Owen Chapman, Professeur adjoint, Communication Studies, Université Concordia
▪ Dr. Line Grenier, Professeure agrégée, Départment de communication, Université de Montréal
▪ Mimi Haddon, doctorante, Popular Music Studies/ Musicology, McGill University
▪ Hélène Laurin, doctorante, Études en communication, Université McGill
▪ Dr. Martin Lussier, chercheur postdoctoral, Faculty of Information and Media Studies, University of
Western Ontario
▪ Dr. Charity Marsh, CRC in Interactive Media and Performance, University of Montreal
▪ Dr. Will Straw, Professeur, Department of Art History and Communications Studies, McGill University
Les conférences seront limitées aux 20 minutes habituelles, suivies de 10 minutes de questions et
commentaires, alors que les autres présentations seront de 60 minutes.
Pour les questions au sujet du colloque, veuillez contacter le responsable du colloque, Will Straw, à
william.straw(at)mcgill.ca
Dates limites pour les soumissions :
21 octobre 2010 (pour être admissible à un remboursement de voyagement)
15 novembre 2010 (date limite ultime)
Tous les postulants seront avertis de la décision du comité de programmation au maximum le 15
décembre 2010.
______________________________________________________________________

Music and Environment: Place, Context, Conjuncture
IASPM-Canada Annual Conference
Schulich School of Music, McGill University, Montreal
June 16-19 2011

Music functions as an agent for different types of environmental transformations whether they be social,
economic or technological, with the reverse also being true: environmental changes can be heard in the
music and sounds of our day. In recent academic discourse we have observed a turn towards the ecology
of sound, which can imply political advocacy of the preservation of an environment's sonority. In a
parallel gesture, use has been made of the environment in many artistic forums, such as sound sculptures
and installations. This recent turn has opened up new areas of exploration for popular music as well,
with the notion of place being of particular interest. We may consider, for example, the way in which
specific places have an impact on the cultural meaning of music. Furthermore, popular music creates
labels such as the “Liverpool” or “Montreal” sound which function as genre-like distinctions. But what
does it mean to attribute such a label? Popular music also embraces musical and social hybridity via
techniques such as sampling, quotation or imitation, influenced by factors such as travel, immigration
and the recent virtual proximity of the Internet. The interrelationship of these musical, social, and
technological elements is in turn affected by the economic environment, shaped by both changes in the
cultural industries, such as the record industry meltdown, and the current global financial crisis. Our
understanding of space and environment is neither simple nor static, and the relationship of these to
music is extensive and complex.

We invite suggestions for individual presentations, panels, workshops or performances on a broad range
of topics related to the theme of the conference, including, but not limited to, the following:
* Sampling as recycling and recontextualisation;
* Music and environmental activism;
* The life-cycles of musical technologies
* The turn towards urban forms of musical composition within the domain of acoustic ecology and
soundscape studies;
* Ethnographic and "field" recordings as musical source material;
* "Expert" musical environments (critical, musical, journalistic, scientific, industrial, political, etc.), their
roles, their interventions, their provisions;
* The creation of moods and of atmospheres in/by the music;
* Putting music in its environment, singing/composing its environment (sounding the scape);
* The alliances, affinities and networks allowing the constitution and development of different musical
environments;
* Music and landscape, architecture and design;
* Movements, mobilities and trajectories of actors, of products, of groups, of catalogs, etc.;
* Music, time, duration, and memories;
* Natural catastrophes in songs and music

Abstracts for individual presentations, workshops, and performances must not surpass 300 words.
Abstracts for panels must include a summary of 300 words or less for the panel as a whole, as well as
abstracts not surpassing 300 words for each of the incorporated presentations. The programme
committee reserves the right to accept a panel while refusing one of the proposed presentations or, on the
other hand, to accept an individual presentation but to refuse the panel.

All abstracts must include a short biography (100 words or less) of the author(s), including institutional
affiliation, and e-mail address. Every submission must equally include five words keys identifying the
subject of the paper.

Please submit your abstract in French or English, depending on the language in which the paper will be
presented by October 21, 2010 (for consideration for travel reimbursement) or November 15, 2010 (final
deadline for all others) to IASPMMontreal@gmail.com

All proposals will be read blind and evaluated by the program committee.
The program committee consists of the following individuals:
▪ Dr. David Brackett, Professor, Musicology, McGill University
▪ Dr. Owen Chapman, Assistant Professor, Communication Studies, Concordia University
▪ Dr. Line Grenier, Associate Professor, Communication Studies, University of Montreal
▪ Mimi Haddon, Ph.D. Candidate, Popular Music Studies/ Musicology, McGill University
▪ Hélène Laurin, Ph.D. Candidate, Communication Studies, McGill University
▪ Dr. Martin Lussier, Postdoctoral Fellow, Faculty of Information and Media Studies, University of
Western Ontario
▪ Dr. Charity Marsh, Canada Research Chair in Interactive Media and Performance, University of
Montreal
▪ Dr. Will Straw, Professor, Department of Art History and Communications Studies, McGill University

Papers will be limited to a standard 20-minute length followed by 10 minutes of questions, whereas other presentations will be limited to 60 minutes. All participants must be members of IASPM-Canada. Membership information is available on the following website:www.iaspm.ca
For questions about the conference, contact conference chair Will Straw, at william.straw(at)mcgill.ca

Submission deadlines:
October 21, 2010 (for consideration for travel reimbursement)
November 15, 2010 (final deadline for all others)
Applicants will be notified of the program committee’s final decisions by December 15, 2010.

Pablo Mayor & Folklore Urbano Event(o)s

María Mulata with Pablo Mayor and members of Folklore Urbano
Friday and Saturday, November 12-13th

Pablo Mayor will be collaborating with special guest vocalist María Mulata from Bogotá, Colombia, at this charming art space dedicated to presenting and promoting Colombian culture in Queens. It feels like a cafe bar right out of Bogotá, Colombia.
La Terraza 7 Train Cafe
40-19 Gleane St. Elmhurst, Queens 11373
Tickets $10/$15, can be purchased in advance (advisable, since it is a small place and this is María Mulata's first show in NYC)
5th Annual LACW's closing event: Pablo Mayor and members of Folklore Urbano with María Mulata
Wednesday, November 17th 7-10pm (closing band of the night)

Pablo Mayor will be collaborating with special guest vocalist María Mulata from Bogotá, Colombia, with members of Folklore Urbano to close this year's Latin American Culture Week presented by PAMAR, also to feature David Gonzalez, Pedro Giraudo Sextet, and Dock Sud

Flamboyan Theater @ the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center
104 Suffolk St. NYC (between Delancey and Rivington Lower East Side Manhattan)
Tickets $15, with wine and coffee tasting sponsored by Wines of Argentina and Nescafe Clásico
Folklore Urbano Orchestra @ the Arts Exchange
"Arts at the X"
Friday, November 19th, 8pm
We've been invited back by ArtsWestchester, this time with the full band

The Arts Exchange
31 Mamaroneck Ave. White Plains, NY
Tickets or call 914.428.4220 x223

Sound Politics

Sound Politics – American Comparative Literature Association conference

American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA) conference
Vancouver, Canada
March 31-April 3

Deadline for paper proposals: November 12

Please note: ACLA seminars involve up to 12 participants and meet over the course of 3 days. Paper proposals must be submitted via the conference website. Go to http://www.acla.org/acla2011/, click on ‘Propose a Paper or Seminar,’ and follow instructions. Be sure to select Sound Politics from the list of seminars.


Sound Politics
This seminar aims to draw out several methodological and theoretical issues involving sound and its relation to the political realm. How might a focus on aural practices and the auditory sense lead us to rethink presuppositions about political agency and critique? How have ideas about sound and certain aural practices shaped particular political ideologies, or even the category of ideology itself? Is it possible to theorize acoustics as an arena of contestation? How do technological media become racialized and gendered? Is there such a thing as ‘hearing’ class? Our goal is to bring together scholars from a range of disciplines and theoretical perspectives and to explore (dis)junctures of sound and the political in a wide array of geographical contexts and historical periods.

Questions? Feel free to contact either or both of the seminar organizers:
Sarah J. Townsend sjtownsend@berkeley.edu
Tom McEnaney mcenaney@berkeley.edu

11.05.2010

Latino Folk Culture and Expressive Traditions: Nov. 20

For over 65 years, the New York Folklore Society (NYFS) has held an annual conference. This year, NYFS collaborates with NYU's Latino Studies and Latin American Studies Departments to encourage young scholars to continue their studies and become active contributors to the fields of folklore, ethnomusicology, anthropology and more.
Join us on November 20th at NYU's Cooper Square for papers, performance and conversation on the theme of Latino Folk Culture and Expressive Traditions.
SCHEDULE:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
9-10 a.m. Registration

10-11:45 a.m. Latino Music and the Negotiation of Identities
Guesnerth Josue Perea, AfroColombia NY
Currulao Neoyorquino: Unearthing Afro-Colombian Musical Traditions in New York City
Naomi Sturm, Columbia University
Lo Haces Un Poco Asi y Switch...
Jaime Bofill, University of Arizona
Entre Peruanos: An Ethnographic Film on the Peruvian Community of Tucson
12-1:30 p.m.


1p.m.
Lunch on your own
Annual Meeting of New York Folklore Society (to 12:30)

Film: Conflicto Rumba: The Persistence of Memory
with a discussion with the filmmaker Berta Jottar

1:45-3:15 p.m. Representations and Depictions
Eric Cesar Morales, Indiana University
Do We Need Sombreros to be Chicanos? The Representation of Chicanismo in Television Sitcom
Beatriz Albequerque, Columbia University
Pagan Reminiscence in Christian Commemoration and its Influences in Two Contemporary Performance Artists
Rachel Valentina Gonzalez, Indiana University
"You only turn fifteen once...": Imagining an American Quinceanera
3:15-4:30 p.m.
A Statewide Community Conversation on Latino Folk Culture with Latino community leaders and artists from throughout New York State

4:45-5:30 p.m.
Afro-Latino Perspectives on Folklore
Juan Flores, Director of Latino Studies, NYU

6 p.m. Performance & Discussion
by Raquel Z. Rivera & Ojos de Sofia
6:45 p.m. Reception
GETTING THERE:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New York University, 20 Cooper Square, 4th Floor, New York, NY
(4th Avenue at East 5th St)

R Train to 8th Street, walk east on 8th Street & turn right on 4th Ave, which feeds into Cooper Square
6 Train to Astor Place, walk south on 4th Ave to Cooper Square
REGISTRATION: Free for Students! $20 for Members, $25 for Non-Members
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Register Here
NY Folklore Society
CONTACT INFORMATION:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
phone: 518-346-7008
email: nyfs@nyfolklore.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

11.01.2010

Inés Granja Herrera de Timbiquí

Doña Inés Granja, compositora, cantadora hija de cantadora, ex-directora de la Casa de La Cultura de su municipio Timbiquí. Parece que recientemente visitó a Bogotá.


Aquí está con el Grupo Santa Bárbara de Timbiquí (donde también canta Doña Oliva Bonilla) en el Petronio Alvare del 2010: cancion inédita : "Queremos la paz" y cancion del album dejando huellas "A navegá"...Galardón a mejor interprete vocal Inés Granja y segundo lugar en modalidad marimba.