Vibes Up: Reggae and Afro-Caribbean Migration from Costa Rica to Brooklyn

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Synopsis
Examines reggae culture as an expression of cultural, racial, and gender empowerment in the West Indian DiasporaIn popular media Caribbean culture has either been reduced to stereotypes of laziness, marijuana, and reggae music, or conversely, to an identity centered around a refutation of colonialism. Both are oversimplifications, and do not explain the enduring Caribbean identity and empowerment throughout the diaspora. Vibes Up offers an exploration of Caribbean culture as it is felt, understood, and expressed, centered on research conducted in Brooklyn and Costa Rica.Sabia McCoy-Torres demonstrates how reggae culture—which encompasses the music and performance modes of both “roots” and “dancehall”—helps to shed light on dynamics relating to migration, diaspora, queerness, Blackness, and Caribbean cultural subjectivity. Through an examination of elements of the Black outdoors, including nightlife venues, sidewalks, and streets in front of homes, the book shows the important role that reggae plays in articulating the frustrations of migration, establishing community and belonging, and forming transnational relationships.Although reggae’s creators and producers are often perceived as homophobic, Vibes Up also offers a more nuanced examination of the transforming relationships between hetero and LGBTQ+ people in reggae spaces and the accommodation of an array of queer intimacies. The framing of Caribbean Blackness as an expression of perseverance, agency, joy, and the erotic, as opposed to a reaction to colonization, oppression, and enslavement, is a distinctly important and timely view.
Copyright:
2024

Book Details

Book Quality:
Publisher Quality
ISBN-13:
9781479827190
Related ISBNs:
9781479827176
Publisher:
NYU Press
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
New York University
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
Nonfiction, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender, Social Studies, Music
Submitted By:
Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.

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