Lecture by Jerome Camal, Visiting Assistant Professor of Musicology, UCLA

"The Art of Imbalance: Music, Dance, and Nationalism in Guadeloupe"

Abstract: When separatist activists on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe forged a nationalist cultural platform in the early 1970s, they canonized gwoka, an African-derived tradition, as the only genuine national music. In Guadeloupe, both gwoka and anti-colonialist politics offer gendered fields for the performance and construction of identity. Thus, while focusing on gwoka as a musical practice offers much insight into the process of modernist reformism theorized by Thomas Turino, it effectively silences women’s participation in Guadeloupean artistic and ideological processes. In this presentation, I spotlight the work of choreographer Lena Blou, whose modern dance technique illustrates how women contribute to the theorization and performance of the “nation” in contemporary Guadeloupe. Moreover, taking dance into account allows us to draw parallels between the aesthetic of conflict described by dance scholar Brenda Dixon Gottschild and the inherent instability of conflicts against colonial dominance. Although this instability can be heard, dance renders it clearly visible.

Jerome Camal’s research focuses on music of the African diaspora, principally music of the Francophone Caribbean and jazz. His dissertation, entitled “From Gwoka Modènn to Jazz Ka: Music, Nationalism, and Creolization in Guadeloupe,” aims to conceptualize creolization as a post-nationalist strategy in Caribbean societies. Prof. Camal received his Ph.D. in musicology with a specialization in ethnomusicology and a certificate in American Studies from Washington University in St. Louis in 2011. He is currently Visiting Assistant Professor of Musicology at UCLA, where he teaches courses on jazz and rock history as well as a class exploring the connections between Jamaican dancehall, North American rap, and reggaetón.

Open to the public and free of charge
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Information: (310) 825-5947

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The Nazir Ali Jairazbhoy Colloquium Series presents a variety of lectures focusing on research and other issues important in the field of ethnomusicology.