Repeating Islands

Puerto Rican sociologist Ángel Quintero launched his new book, Cuerpo y cultura: Las músicas “mulatas” y la subversión del baile (Madrid/Frankfurt: Iberoamericana/Vervuert, 2009) in Colombia. His visit included a book tour and series of presentations in Cartagena de Indias, Medellín, Cali, and Bogotá. The first book launch took place on March 24^th, at the Institute of Caribbean Studies at the University of Colombia. Well-known Dominican cultural analyst, Silvio Torres Saillant introduced the book in Medellín. The book will be presented again in Madrid on April 23 as part of the celebrations for Book Day, where Quintero will be a special guest. In Puerto Rico, the book will be inaugurated on May 6 at 7:00pm at the Conservatory of Music in Miramar with the participation of Brazilian ethnomusicologist José Jorge de Carvalho and Puerto Rican writer Mayra Santos Febres.

Cuerpo y cultura: Las músicas “mulatas” y la subversión del baile [Body and Culture: "Mulatto" Music and the Subversion of Dance] examines the central role and cultural significance of music and dance in the formation of social identities and the configuration of the civil sphere in Caribbean countries. It offers a detailed analysis of how African-American (in the broad sense of the word) music facilitates a reconnection between song and dance, which European modernity’s split between mind and body had distanced. It presents a history of “mulatto” dance music, from the XIXth century contradanzas and habaneras to the reggaetón of the XXIst.

For full article (in Spanish), see http://www.universia.pr/portada/noticia_actualidad.jsp?noticia=40334