Dance is central to being African. In this riveting conversation, Trinbagonian Brazilianist, Sean Samad engages Brandon Hampton, a dancer of Latin American genres of music who recently launched the podcast, Ritmos Negros in which he explores the African origins and Black contributions to music and dance of the African diaspora with a focus on Latin America and the Caribbean engages and Dr. Adonis Diaz-Fernandez, Afro-Cuban, an Instructor at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine, who will also be a critical part of the conversation. His formation includes a B.Ed. in Artistic Education (Musicology), Instituto Superior Pedagógico Enrique José Varona (Cuba) and his research interests include Afro-Cuban Culture and Literature, Oral Tradition, Yoruba and Orishas Patakies and Cultural Understanding in the Teaching of Foreign Languages.

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Konpa is the music of Haiti. Short for compas direct, made popular by Nemours Jean-Baptiste, on a recording released in 1955. The name derives from compás, the Spanish word meaning rhythm or tones. It involves mostly medium-to-fast tempo beats with an emphasis on electric guitars, synthesizers, and either a solo alto saxophone, a horn section or the synthesizer equivalent. In Creole, it is spelt as konpa dirèk or simply konpa. It is commonly spelt as it is pronounced as kom-pah.

Compas (Haitian Creole: Konpa Dirèk), is dance music and modern Méringue of Haiti. This méringue style is influential in parts of Africa, the Caribbean, Portugal, France, part of Canada, South and North America. One of the most distinctive characteristics of konpa is the consistent pulsating beat tanbou, a trait common to many styles of Caribbean music. 

Workshop Facilitators – Maestro Ricky, Power Surge and Fabrice Rouzier - will dive deep into the origins of the konpa genre, show us how it evolved throughout the years and dive into the fundamental elements of this dancing and groovy rhythm.

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What happens when Afro-Caribbean people turn up in stories that are globally relevant? When our historic and modern personalities are central to the scope of a storyline, and when our actors and actresses bring their best selves to fill roles that are global in their scope – how are we as a people impacted?

 We discuss the social and cultural impact of performers from Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Jamaica, and other Caribbean nations and their influence in Television and Film Productions.

We explore the effects of seeing the likes of Geoffrey Holder, Harry Belafonte, Madge Sinclair, Sidney Poitier Oliver Samuels, Letitia Wright, Rudolph Walker, Heather Headley and Winston Duke grace large and small screens – and how this impacts our sense of self in the performing world.

And we discuss what is the power in creating platforms for sharing our experiences and perspectives? How can filmmakers and talent from this chain of islands tell their collective histories in singular endeavours? What is the magic of Caribbean stories?

How do we actively ensure we continue to influence the global space?

Join with Caribbean storytellers Rudolph Walker, Storm Saulter, Paul Pryce, Christopher ‘Johnny’ Daley and film consultant Nneka Luke as they explore what happens when Afro-Caribbean talent activates on the global stage!

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Em 2011, durante as escavações realizadas no âmbito das obras de revitalização da zona portuária do Rio de Janeiro para as próximas Olimpíadas, foram descobertos dois cais - Cais do Valongo e Imperatriz -, um em cima do outro, e, junto com eles. , um grande número de amuletos e objetos de culto do Congo, Angola e Moçambique. Foi o local de desembarque e comércio de 500.000 a um milhão de africanos a serem escravizados em território brasileiro de 1811 a 1831. Até 2011 tinha sido abandonado, escondido, encoberto. O cais foi oficialmente declarado Patrimônio Mundial em 2017.

Brasileiros Letícia Caetano, carioca, professora de história, mãe, ativista e guia turística do bairro da Pequena África, no Rio de Janeiro, e Anderson H. Gonçalves, carioca de Cachoeira, Bahia, que pesquisa quilombos (Comunidades quilombolas brasileiras), terror racial e o Atlântico Negro, discutem este tópico com Heather Mac Intosh de Trinidad e Tobago.

versão em portugues

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In 2011, during the excavations carried out as part of the revitalization works in the Rio de Janeiro port area for upcoming Olympics, two wharves - the Cais do Valongo and Imperatriz - were discovered, one on top of the other, and, along with them, a large number of amulets and objects of worship from Congo, Angola and Mozambique. It was the site of the landing and trading 500,000 to one million Africans to be enslaved in Brazilian territory from 1811 to 1831. Until 2011 it had been neglected, hidden, covered up. The wharf was officially designated a World Heritage Site in 2017.

Brazilians Leticia Caetano, a native of Rio de Janeiro, history teacher, mother, activist and tour guide of the Pequena Africa (Little Africa) neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro, and Anderson H. Gonçalves, a native of Cachoeira, Bahia whose research is on quilombos (Brazilian Maroon communities), racial terror and the Black Atlantic, discuss this topic with Heather Mac Intosh of Trinidad & Tobago.

The conversation was originally conducted in Brazilian Portuguese. This version is with interpretation voice-overs in English.

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Thousands of people are dancing now, rubbing together, faces bright with sweat and excitement. Thousands of voices are singing together in creole: “Zouk la sé sel medikamen nou ni — so kon sa. Si sé sa mem’an nou zouké.” Zouk is the only medicine we have — that’s how it is. So let’s go and zouk.(©Kassav: Doctor Zouk | Caribbean Beat Magazine)

Kassav' (the legendary French Caribbean Zouk band formed in 1979) mixed a spicy cocktail of calypso, reggae, beguine, gwo’ka, Haitian cadence, bolero and rock, the result electronically stylised through funk. As the name Kassav' (crushed cassava mixed with coconut and sugar to make a biscuit) suggests, the mixture has to; otherwise, it becomes poisonous.

Karla Gonzales who recorded and toured with Kassav' for four years chats with legendary Jocelyne Béroard, the band's female lead, about her life, her experiences, Kassav's music and legacy. 

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Being black and a part of an LGBTQIA+ community has been a site of much tension and debate. Join Xoë Sazzle (the author of "Love is Love", the song that inspired the conversation title) who will lead a discussion on how the issues of pride, diversity and inclusion affect members of these communities and their associates. Joining Xoë will be Amir Hall, artist and MFA student (T&T), Reverend Jide Macaulay of the House of Rainbow (UK) and Dr JonPaul, write, speaker, storyteller (USA).

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Actress/producer/choreographer/dancer Abeo Jackson engages with Jamie Philbert of Bois Academy and Quan David of Volta Miúda Capoeira in Trinidad and Tobago. Come hear how the body and understanding of it allow for art and skill to connect to blackness, identity and resistance.

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The development of Calypso and Soca will be demonstrated and discussed by two stalwarts of sound who have cradled our music industry for decades - Martin 'Mice' Raymond and Robin Foster. We will look at the historical background of traditional and contemporary styles related to the beats around the indigenous music of Trinidad and Tobago. Foster and Raymond will show that traditional Calypso is just as much a theatrical art form as it is a musical art form.

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Dr. Marsha Pearce, a cultural theorist from Trinidad and Tobago who works at the intersection of visual culture, communication studies, and audience/reception studies with a focus on Caribbean identities and the poetics and politics of representation, chats with visual artists Ken Crichlow of Trinidad and Tobago and Awodiya Toluwani Samson of Nigeria on their work and identities.

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