Fulbright-mtvU Fellows

Afro-Peruvian Beats: El Ritmo Sigue

Having already captured some awesome images during the Festival Internacional del Cajón in May, I was once again welcomed into the home of Rafael Santa Cruz, one of Peru’s renowned cajón players. I had met Rafael in December, only three months after arriving in Peru, and it was great to be able to interview him one more time.
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Connection: Northern Ireland and the United States

The giant TV in the city center was broadcasting images from New York’s September 11 Memorial Service and it seemed to open a portal of understanding directly between Northern Ireland and the Unite States. As the images and messages passed from New York to Belfast, I couldn’t help but feel closer to my homeland and to its steadfast spirit. Throughout the Belfast September 11th Commemorative Event I was simultaneously in both of the countries that I loved, and the pain from the past reaching to the present united us all first in anguish and then in the powerful desire to look forward. This is where the people of the United States and the people of Northern Ireland are joined; they share a spirit of determined resilience despite the devastation of past events.

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Tags: 9/11

11.11.11

I have so much to share with you and so few spaces left to write… at least in this particular format, but I will do my best. I am extremely excited as usual because I am in Sydney and I am finding so many venues that allow hip-hop artist who have a social conscious message to speak… yet at the same time, a bit of a paradox exist, because while people are interested in their message, they have a hard time getting main stream attention.

One place I have visited several times during my stay in Sydney is Krosswerdz. Krosswerds is a Christian based hip-hop church based in Sydney, which has been in existence for 5 years. It meets once per month on the last Saturday of each month (except December). Krosswerdz enacts the four main elements of hip-hop (emceeing, DJing, graffiti and breaking), into their monthly church services. I found out about Krosswerdz from several sources. I believe MC Trey was the first person to suggest I attend a service. The first session I was able to attend was held in October, 2010. I was immediately impressed with several components of the church.
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Three Things

There is no doubt that Sydney has a dynamically growing hip-hop culture with several facets. It was great to see how hip-hop in Sydney represented itself when it was incorporated into three high profile events with a global appeal.

Musicians Making A Difference (MMAD) All Access Conference

MMAD united aspiring performers, with Australia’s most popular musicians and industry representatives in one location for a two day event. Participants were allowed to choose from a range of session focused on topics in both the business and creative side of the music including music, including songwriting, marketing, and performing. This conference had several components that related to my research. For example, there was one strand of sessions that allowed participants to see the global relationship that exist between music and social justice. Additionally artist who had developed relationships with the New South Wales school system explained the process for conducting workshops as well as concerts in tandem with school events, (in both non-profit and for-profit endeavors). Artist such as Morganics and The Street Warriors talked about their work in the Aboriginal community. Bliss from Bliss N Eso explained how they had to develop social media and digital technology skills in order to promote themselves and hone their craft. Morganics, Mistery, Miracle, MC Trey, and Mind Over Matter, spoke on a panel about the history of hip-hop in Australia, as well as the positive impact of many of the collaborations they have taken part in throughout their career. Each of these artists has worked with numerous youth based programs and has helped several current artist launch their career.
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Lagu Identitas

One of the main focal points of my research here in Yogyakarta is to explore the identity of Javanese children. I am analyzing if and how music reflects their identity already, and if Indonesian and Javanese culture allows for children to express their identity creatively. With the children in Kelompok Kecil and Kelompok Besar at SDKE Mangunan, I held workshops over the span of a few weeks discussing the concept of identity, writing lyrics based on the children’s ideas of their own identities, making new songs in small groups, and finally recording these songs for an informal album.

The concept of identity is a common topic of discourse in anthropology and ethnomusicology. However, the purpose of my presenting this theme to the children was not entirely to fuel further discourse, but also to inspire the children to consider their own. This research project lends itself to uncover the most important information when the children are creatively empowered and are the creators of their own lyrics and music. What do they say? How do they say it? What are similarities and differences between boys and girls and the different age groups? These questions were all addressed during this unit and resulted in some very exciting song recordings that illustrate each child’s social and individual identity.
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