In some small towns in northeast Spain, organizers for the Carnival holiday have told participants that they’ll risk losing public subsidies if they play songs with lyrics that denigrate women. Most people like the idea in theory, but in practice, the measure is proving tough to apply. Because with pop music, finding the line between sexist and sexy can be vexing.
In Portobelo, Panama, a local spin on the Carnival holiday celebrates Africans who escaped from Spanish slavery. But while it features “Diablos” with whips and kids wearing blackface, an American academic who works with locals says it’s a powerful, celebratory metaphor.
For this exclusive Afropop Worldwide Hip Deep report, producer Ned Sublette travels to Port-au-Prince, where he checks in with bandleader Richard Morse of RAM, and with Lolo and Manzé Beaubrun of Boukman Eksperyans, both of whom produced hotly controversial carnival songs … Read more »
For this exclusive Afropop Worldwide Hip Deep report, producer Ned Sublette travels to Port-au-Prince, where he checks in with bandleader Richard Morse of RAM, and with Lolo and Manzé Beaubrun of Boukman Eksperyans, both of whom produced hotly controversial carnival songs … Read more »
It’s Carnival right now in Trinidad, Haiti, Brazil, New Orleans…and NYC, with Afropop Worldwide! In the words of Bootsy Collins, this week’s show, Winter 2014 Dance Party, ”Ain’t nothin’ but a party y’all.” So get down, get funky and shake a … Read more »
Chance are, you’re either at work, hung over, sporting some ash on your forehead, or some combination of the three right now. Carnival is over, today is an Ash Wednesday, and to some, it seems that the music has stopped. … Read more »