Caribbean and African artists like Olatunji, Machel Montano, and Timaya are reaching across the Atlantic to create a global Carnival sound.
On a Friday night last February, a singer in a gold lamé suit and matching kufi stepped off a throne to pounding drums and a loud chanting of his name. As Olatunji performed his single “Ola,” dancers in feathered headdresses and face paint interpreted its rhythms with movements like the etighi, a step popularized by Nigerian artist Iyanya’s 2012 hit, “Kukere.” Despite the West African signifiers, the performance took place in Port of Spain, Trinidad, where Olatunji is based, during one of the most climactic moments of 2015’sInternational Soca Monarch competition.
The Monarch competition is a key event in the run-up to Trinidad and Tobago’s annual carnival, and one of the most prestigious music showcases in the Caribbean. Olatunji’s triumphant performance of “Ola,” already one of the most popular songs of the 2015 carnival season, earned him the title of Groovy Soca Monarch, one of two prizes awarded at the competition. Perhaps more significantly, it also confirmed the arrival of a new subgenre that’s come to be termed “Afrosoca”—a blend of Caribbean and African rhythms that reflects both the outward expansion of Trinidad’s signature sound and the growing influence of afrobeats on the island, and worldwide. It was Shakira Marshall, a New York-based choreographer of Guyanese descent, who coined the term afrosoca as a name for her Brooklyn-based dance class in 2012.
The emerging hybrid is the latest volley in a transatlantic conversation that began, like so many other cultural transfers, with the enslavement of millions of West Africans and their forced relocation to Caribbean colonies centuries ago. Trinidadians proved to be remarkably resilient and creative in preserving African traditions over the years, refashioning the spoken word commentary of the griot into calypso, defying colonial bans on drums by creating new percussion instruments from bamboo and turning discarded oil drums into the steelpan. Similar developments occurred across the Caribbean—notably in Jamaica, where the mento style of folk developed in parallel to calypso in the early 20th century, and where African drums later reasserted themselves in the form of Nyabinghi drumming, the rhythmic foundation of reggae.
Flint Police Chief Fired After Lying To People About Bringing Water Filters Then Arresting Them
Police in Flint Michigan have been preying on people’s hopes for clean water, by showing up with filters, then arresting people who have outstanding warrants. Now, the Chief of Police has been fired, without warning, and many believe it is because of the controversy that ensued when the original report went viral.
Local WJRT 12 News confirmed that Flint Police Chief James Tolbert has in fact just had his employment terminated. But police officials would offer us no explanation as to why they fired him. But Chief Tolbert told WJRT that he met with Mayor Karen Weaver and was told “your services will no longer be needed.”
Here’s how it works: the police officer shows up with bottled water or filters. They tell the resident that they are there to give the bottles and/or filter to them… “but first, we have to cross you off of our list. What’s your full name?”
After the resident has positively identified themselves, the police cuff and arrest them.
Source
They come up with any methods and motives to ruin our lives. They are trying to arrest us for nothing, in the moments of common difficulties, even when we are suffering from a shortage of water! Our grief is a joy for them, I have long understood this simple truth. They get excited when we become weaker.
I don’t want the cops were involved in social life, because I do not feel safe!
・・・ Tourmaline crystals. 🌈 This tremendous collection was part of a recent @bonhamsjewels auction, and included examples of rubellite, bi-color tourmaline, dravite, indicolite, and watermelon tourmaline. Some of these crystals have naturally etched surfaces, and all of the specimens appear to have their natural terminations (which are either flat or pyramidal). This entire lot is from Brazil, and weighed in at approximately 1,830 carats!
A former Black Panther activist who spent a record 43 years in solitary confinement was freed from a US prison Friday after decades of legal battles to prove his innocence. Albert Woodfox is the last of the "Angola Three" activists to taste freedom in a case which provoked outrage among rights groups.
Starbucks employee goes above and beyond for customer who’s hard of hearing
A gesture of goodwill from a Starbucks barista in Virginia has been getting tons of love on Facebook employee at a Leesberg location handed local resident Ibby Piracha, who is deaf, a note saying, “I’ve been learning [American Sign Language] just so you can have the same experience as everyone else.” Given Starbucks’ history, the coffee chain may have another reason to give the barista a raise.
My family’s Asian friend said he wanted to put me in my place when I was younger because I was acting like a spoiled brat. Sounds a like colonial fantasy to me.
The phrase “I want to put you in your place” is not a 'colonial fantasy’ (a phrase I literally have never heard before) it is like @zeusdethroned said and about taking an immature brat down a peg. Like replace “white” with anything else like “asian” “black” “guy” “woman” or whatever and the meaning doesn’t change. So please calm down, not everything is racist or sexist.
Honestly who gives the fuck what you say when you have no idea of the context of how any of this happened you fucking dipshit, I’m not calming down for no one, y'all so fucking stupid I swear, how you gonna come onto my post and tell me what was said to me held no other meaning when you weren’t fucking there, choke and die honestly
Why is people igoring the historical context behind it? When y'all gonna realize we don’t deal with the same stuff or walk the same paths for multiple reasons. Why are y'all so invasive and quick to dismissive someone’s point just because you can’t connect to the dehumanization behind it?!?!
Seriously, like they weren’t a part of the exchange at all, they have no idea of ANY of the context, so for real you not gonna tell me what shit means that was directed at me white people fucking love gaslighting black peoples experiences
these are the same trash hoes rooting for that girl who made that “white people are beautiful post” and jumping on my ass when I called it out like why does everything always to be about yall? you seriously think just because YOU HAVE NO IDEA what she’s talking about it can’t possibly be real?? Tumblr is the one place that doesn’t accept white supremacy and yall get so angry for that like shut the entire fuck up i’m so sick of yall, this is why we hate you
you should’ve heard one of them talking to me like “poc always make everything about them! waah there’s no nominations for black people or latinos or other poc!! let us have one this post you aren’t white!” and I’m just like way to prove my fucking point????? As if winning awards for being mediocre isn’t enough they wanna pretend they don’t get handed shit they don’t deserve! And white peope are ugly af anyway, they wanna look like us so bad
honestly, for real, White folks: why do you feel the need to make anything potentially racist, not racist? What are you afraid of? Do you know how violent it feels to experience racist violence in so many aspects of our lives, in so many ways, and to be constantly told we’re mistaken, over reacting, crazy, etc...? Not only are we being assaulted, no one has to take responsibility for it when the constant response is, that’s not an assault stop being so sensitive. But we’re dying over here...
This is one dance party 106-year-old Virginia McLaurin will never forget. To celebrate Black History Month, watch her fulfill her dream of visiting the White House and meeting President Obama.
The data from the Human Rights Campaign paints a stark picture for trans people: of the more than 175 new anti-LGBT pieces of legislation nationwide, 44 target the transgender community.
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