On March 8-9, I’ll be participating in a Caribbean Music Seminar at Royal Holloway College (University of London). On the evening of the 8th, I’ll contribute to an open forum on Jamaican music. On the morning of the 9th, I’ll be delivering a paper about Jamaican culture, versioning, and the notion (and uses) of the “foreign.” Here are the details for the seminar on the 9th —

Music, Text and Politics in the Caribbean and its Diaspora
Institute for the Study of the Americas
35 Tavistock Square, Seminar Room 12

Friday 9 March, 10:30 – 17:30
Venue: Seminar Room 12, ISA

11 – 11.30 am: Opening remarks (Philip Bohlman, Sharon Meredith, Tina K. Ramnarine, Geoff Baker)

11.30 am – 1 pm: Session 1: Music and Text (Chair: Peter Patrick)

Elaine Richardson, Hiphop and Dancehall Intertextualities
Wayne Marshall, To Turn the Text Upside-Down: Versioning the Foreign in Jamaica
Timothy Rommen, “I Ain’t Askin’ Fa Much”: Rake-n-Scrape as Social Text in the Bahamas

1 – 2 pm: Lunch

2 – 3.30 pm: Session 2: Performance and Liberatory Politics (Chair: Tina K. Ramnarine)

Conrad James, Music, Poetry and Black Liberatory Politics in Cuba
Lez Henry, What The Deejay Said: A Critique from the Street!
Sheldon Blackman, On Soca/Sokah: Ras Shorty I and his Legacy

3.30 – 4 pm: Tea/Coffee

4 – 5.15 pm: Session 3: Recording Projects and Ethnographic Film (Chair: Bill Schwarz)

John Cowley, Chants, Carnival Bands and Conflict: Territorial Topicality in Recordings of Creole Masquerade Music
Carlo Cubero, Filming Musical Places: The Making of MANGROVE MUSIC

5.30 – 6.15 pm: Concluding responses and discussion (Chair: Mikael Riley)