Let Spirit Speak! , livre ebook

Let Spirit Speak!
Cultural Journeys Through the African Diaspora
Edited by Vanessa K. Valdés

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2012 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Let spirit speak! : cultural journeys through the African diaspora / edited by Vanessa K. Valdés.
p. cm. (SUNY scholarly conferences)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 978-1-4384-4218-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN: 978-1-4384-4217-4 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. African diaspora. 2. Manners and customs. 3. Group identity. I. Valdés, Vanessa Kimberly.
DT16.5.L48 2012
909'.0496 dc23
2011025911
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For God, and all of my guardian spirits and angels
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the following faculty members of the City College of New York, without whose support this conference would not have been possible: Dr. Robert Paaswell, interim president, The City College of New York; Dr. J. Fred Reynolds, former dean of Division of Humanities and Arts; Dr. Geraldine Murphy, acting dean of Division of Humanities and Arts; Dr. Mary Ruth Strzeszewski, deputy dean; Dr. Juan Carlos Mercado, dean of Center for Worker Education; the faculty of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, especially Dr. Richard Calichman, chair; Dr. Laura Callahan, deputy chair; Dr. Silvia Burunat; Dr. Raquel Chang-Rodríguez; Dr. Dulce García; Dr. Elizabeth Starčević; Dr. Araceli Tinajero; Dr. Carlos Riobó; Dr. Angel Estévez; Dr. Bettina Lerner; Dr. Maxime Blanchard; Lyda Aponte de Zacklin; Dr. Venus Green; Mary Lou Edmondson, vice president for Communications and Marketing; Angela Gunder, director for Web-based Communications; Anthony Achille, Events and Facilities Use coordinator; Richard Metz, vice president for Finance and Administration; Oilda Martinez, director of Adult and Continuing Education Program; Ninive Gomez, assistant director of Adult and Continuing Education Program; Guesnerth Josué Perea, founder of AfroColombia NY; Nadine Charles; Jerome Pichard; CCNY Duplicating Services; Natalia Botero, artist.
The following entities were conference sponsors: The City University of New York, through the Diversity Projects Development Fund; The City College of New York-CUNY; the Division of Humanities and the Arts; the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures; the Department of Music; the Media and Communication Arts Program; the Adult and Continuing Education Program; the Simon Rif-kind Center of the Humanities; James Dodd; John J. Wiley & Sons; the Consulate General of Colombia, who sponsored the arrival of Natalia Botero.
To all the conference participants, thank you for making this a lively and engaging gathering of like-minded souls, all of us believing in the celebration of the African Diaspora.
To my family, especially Gina Bonilla, without whose constant encouragement and unwavering support this truly would not have taken place, thank you for always broadening my vision.
Finally, I would like to thank the following publications where several of Lauren Alleyne's poems first appeared: “Sky from the Ground,” Cimarron Review 170 (2010); “Landlocked,” Melusine or Woman in the 21st Century 1.2 (2009) http://www.melusine21cent.com/mag/node/99 ; “Origin,” TEMBA TUPU! (WALKING NAKED) Africana Women's Poetic Self-Portrait , ed. Nagueyalti Warren. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2008; and “Origin,” Kennesaw Review, May 2007 (defunct online journal).
Introduction
Within African Diaspora Studies, we see repeated tropes and motifs across languages, literatures, film, dance, music, and philosophy. Paying homage to one's ancestors, for example, is integral to traditional African culture; this idea is found in the works of African American playwright August Wilson, in the installations of Cuban artist María Magdalena Campos-Pons, in the poetry of Brazilian writer Miriam Alves, certainly in African American choreographer Alvin Ailey's Revelations . And yet many times, scholars will present their research only in their specific fields, without crossing national or linguistic boundaries. Let Spirit Speak! Cultural Journeys Through the African Diaspora was designed so that specialists in seemingly disparate areas could share their research, could compare notes, so to speak, thereby providing an opportunity for further collaboration. Each day featured a performance of some kind (musical performance, spoken word) as well as an ongoing art exposition, thereby putting scholars of the ivory tower in touch with the vibrancy of New York City's cultural scene. Conference participants will therefore be inundated with the sights and sounds of the African Diaspora. 1 Traditional thinking dictates that a conference be narrow in scope so as to maintain focus: this conference goes against that train of thought, revealing that breadth does not necessarily mean lack of specificity. On the contrary, it creates new ways of thinking.
The mission of The City College of New York is to provide both accessibility and excellence in education; Let Spirit Speak! reveals both of these qualities. In keeping with the mission of CCNY, we established registration rates that encourage attendance in this conference rather than discourage possible participation. The general registration fee for three days was $50; for the faculty and staff of The City University of New York system, it was $25; for graduate students, it was $10; and for high school and undergraduate students, the conference was free. We were strongly compelled to provide a conference of the highest order, one in which participants could enjoy amenities often experienced at conferences that charge much greater entrance fees. Access to knowledge should not be impeded at any cost, certainly not because of financial difficulties; we worked hard to provide a quality conference that was stimulating to our participants.
We received more than seventy abstracts for this three-day conference for paper presentations, roundtables, and performances, and more than 20 percent of them have come from abroad, with scholars from Norway, India, China, Brazil, Nigeria, Israel, and Sierra Leone responding to the call for papers and online registration. Over the course of three days, from April 22 to 24, 2010, there were more than thirty presentations, three spoken-word performances, two film screenings, and a musical concert. In addition, select conference presentations will be published in a collection of essays: in this way, scholars and cultural workers will not only present their work but also have the opportunity to advance their scholarship through publication. The goal of this conference was to create a space whereby scholars, students, and cultural workers, those of us who work in the field of African Diaspora Studies, could meet and exchange ideas, giving way to new ways of thinking, new approaches to this expansive field.
1. We define the African Diaspora as those persons who have migrated from Africa to the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia, or whose ancestors migrated to these places, whether forced or voluntarily.
Because When God Is Too Busy: Haiti, me, & THE WORLD
(excerpts from a performance by)
Gina Athena Ulysse

Tranblé te a tranblé
Trembled the earth trembled
Tranblé nou sot tranblé
Trembled we just trembled
Ezili, si ou wem tranblé anko, pran nou
Ezili, if we tremble again, save us
Oh Metrés, si ou wem tranblé anko, pran non
Mistress, if we tremble again, save us
Sové pitit lakay yo, tranblé nou sot tranblé
Save the lives of your children, trembled they just trembled******************************************************************
The Passion in Auto-Ethnography:
Homage to Those Who Hollered Before Me
Silence chose me
I didn't choose silence
silence immobilized me
I could not breathe in my own skin
without breaking the silence
I could not live in the castle of my skin
as I came of age colonized
knowing I wasn't meant to survive I screamed
knowing the power of the erotics I screamed
using the erotics as power I screamed
out of my passion I screamed out
loud words that resonated the sound of
a hammer slamming on a nail going through flesh
screeches
shrieks
hollers
screams
another woman hollering
hollers screams
another woman of color hollering
hollers shrieks
just another black woman hollering creeks
like aurora, caroline, catherine, ellen, ella
hollering shrieks
like zora, audre, cherrie, gloria, rosario, sandra
hollering creeks that crack
hollering creeks to crack
to shatter the screens bordering the walls of the tower
that safeguards the gatekeepers mirrored crick-crack
crick crack
no!
krik! krak!
krik! krak!
cricks can crack the mirror
kee