O Musicar Local
Suzel Ana Reily
Flávia Camargo Toni
Rose Satiko Gitirana Hikiji
Local Musicking: Pathways for Musical Studies is the result of a broad thematic project involving dozens of researchers from USP, Unicamp, and other universities, based in São Paulo at the Laboratory of Image and Sound in Anthropology (LISA-USP). The book explores the potential of the concept “local musicking,” inspired by the neologism coined by Christopher Small, musicking, a term intended to encompass any form of engagement with music. To situate “local musicking” as a local phenomenon, the volume turns to investigating the relationship between instances of musicking and the localities in which they occur, asking both how these instances of musicking affect the localities and how the localities impact them. The chapters address different theoretical and methodological issues that emerged from ethnographic research, outlining a range of research areas that local musicking offers.
The book is edited by Suzel Ana Reily, full professor of ethnomusicology at the Institute of Arts of the State University of Campinas (Unicamp) and coordinator of the Fapesp Thematic Project “Local Music: New Paths for Ethnomusicology,” Flávia Camargo Toni, musicologist and full professor at the Institute of Brazilian Studies at the University of São Paulo (USP), and Rose Satiko Gitirana Hikiji, associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at USP and coordinator of Lisa – Laboratory of Image and Sound in Anthropology – and PAM – Research in Musical Anthropology.
The Routledge International Handbook of Ethnographic Film and Video
Rose Satiko Gitirana Hikiji e Jasper Chalcraft
This chapter examines the ethics, aesthetics, and techniques of collaborative post-production, in this new edition of the book. In ethnographic filmmaking, collaborative post-production is a multi-faceted process, and here we focus on on only one aspect, one generally associated with the final phases of editing: the soundtrack, be it with music, sound recordings, or with the human voice. We discuss the central role that collaboration takes in some ethnographic filmmaking, calling attention for its place not only in the production process, but also in the period of “post”-production, when the film is already partially or completely edited, and the soundtracks are finally introduced.
African soundtracks in Brazil:
race, music and migration
Rose Satiko Gitirana Hikiji e Jasper Chalcraft
In Chapter 4, Rose Satiko Gitirana Hikiji and Jasper Chalcraft
undertake an ethnographic analysis of complex forms of racial, cultural
and political violence negotiated by African and Afro-diasporic artists
in urban São Paulo, who have adopted music as an articulative medium
of resistance to foster a space for solidarity. In tune with the collection’s focus on marginalised communities’ mediation of multiple forms
of violence, this chapter utilises its local case study to reveal past and
present hidden and manifested histories of anti-colonial, anti-slavery
and Afropolitan struggles, exploring the marginalised migrant musician
community’s counter-narrative of resistance to racialised institutional
and systemic violence in their articulation of African identity in contemporary Brazil.
Rose Satiko Gitirana Hikiji
This work presents audiovisual tracks for a shared musical anthropology. They are journeys through musical universes that the author have found since my doctorate in Social
Anthropology to the present. Paths travelled almost always in the company of partners in anthropology, cinema, music, and life. With cameras in hand, we approach musical performances in the city of São Paulo, led by young people participating in a social project of music education, by artists from the hip-hop and funk scene in Cidade Tiradentes, by African musicians who have recently arrived in this megalopolis. Filming music implies transforming research into composition, which we do through collaborative processes. In practise, in good company, the Rouchian dream of sharing anthropology.
Gringo, nomad and black – on the politics of African musicking in São Paulo
Rose Satiko Gitirana Hikiji
Jasper Chalcraft
Accompanying African musicians who have arrived in Brazil in recent years, we observe how their musicking in São Paulo creates a world of imagination and political potential, a space for solidarity, inhabited by African and Afro-diasporic entities from past and present history, from anti-colonial, anti-slavery or Afropolitan struggles and from artistic manifestations (Mbembe, 2017). How do these musicians deal with the racial and cultural politics in Brazil? How do racism and Afro-Brazilian movements challen-ge them? What transcultural capitals (Glick-Schiller and Meinhof, 2011) or forms of “social action” (Blacking, 1995) do they mobilize to navigate the Brazilian art scene? How do they deal with cultural institutions and social movements? Being African in Brazil – whether on stage, in the recording studio, in artivist or solidarity events – is always an act of resistance. Whether “gringos” or “nomads,” these artists constitute a “musical community” (Shelemay, 2011) with whom we dialogue in a shared and filmic ethnographic making.
The visa/visible
and the invisible
Rose Satiko Gitirana Hikiji
Jasper Chalcraft
This essay is the result of a collaboration between the artist Shambuyi Wetu, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and us anthropologists. In his chimeras Shambuyi materialises alternative identities for the African migrant and refugee in Brazil. Through his critical utopia, he promotes a narrative that decolonises scarcity, war and suffering.
Afro-Sampas
Rose Satiko Gitirana Hikiji
Jasper Chalcraft
Afro-Sampas is a documentary film about musical encounters. Such encounters are also that of diverse world communities in Africa and Brazil. The documentary film illustrates the orality of music, emerging from collaborations, improvisations and non-written music. In so doing, it illustrates the uniqueness of film to disseminate music, through a combination of intimate performances and interviews about the place of Africa in São Paulo, Brazil and more broadly, in the world. The project shared audiovisually gathers musicians from Senegal, Togo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Angola and Brazil in order to reflect about Being/Becoming African in Brazil. Afro-Sampas is an insightful piece that invites us to think about “cultural hospitality” and the strong link between music, identity and migration.
Collaborative post-production
Rose Satiko Gitirana Hikiji
Jasper Chalcraft
This chapter examines the ethics, aesthetics, and techniques of collaborative post-production. In ethnographic filmmaking, collaborative post-production is a multi-faceted process, and here we focus on on only one aspect, one generally associated with the final phases of editing: the soundtrack, be it with music, sound recordings, or with the human voice. We discuss the central role that collaboration takes in some ethnographic filmmaking, calling attention for its place not only in the production process, but also in the period of “post”-production, when the film is already partially or completely edited, and the soundtracks are finally introduced.
The Routledge International Handbook of Ethnographic Film and Video (LINK)
Opening Eyes through Ears
Migrant Africans Musicking in São Paulo
Rose Satiko Gitirana Hikiji
Jasper Chalcraft
This chapter explores translocal musicking by African musicians in Brazil, understanding this as a way of producing both localities and identities. What kinds of localities are being produced in a city that is hosting a new kind of African migration, and what happens to the musics that come with it? Drawing on three case studies, it details how African musicians negotiate their identities in Brazil. It also looks at how politics becomes integral to this process and how a shared transnational sensibility is sung into visibility.
The Routledge Companion to the Study of Local Musicking (LINK)
Unpacking: Congolese artists on the migrant experience in São Paulo
Rose Satiko Gitirana Hikiji
Jasper Chalcraft
Josep Juan Segarra
Two Congolese artists in São Paulo, Yannick Delass e Shambuyi Wetu encounter each other in performances that we record and recreate. Here, music and art are moments of empowerment, subtle shifts in the visible and auditory spaces of immigration policies.
Gesto, Imagem e Som (LINK)
Imagens que atravessam. Diáspora africana em performance.
Rose Satiko Gitirana Hikiji
Jasper Chalcraft
This article analyzes how artists from the African diaspora living in Brazil engage with the institutional spaces of collective memory and with the world of the arts in their new home; we consider what this implies for the politics of memory in Brazil and beyond. We describe the partnership behind the production of images and performances between Shambuyi Wetu, a Congolese artist living in São Paulo, and us, a Brazilian and a British anthropologist. We discuss some questions catalysed by our work with artists from the diaspora: How can difficult histories be represented, and what are the implications of different representations? What is simplified – and what is made more complex – in the transnational questioning of national racist stories? What does it mean for an African artist to talk about the suffering of blacks in Brazil?
Artelogie (LINK)
“Dialogue over Time: Reception, Improvisation, and Mediation in Collaborative Ethnographic Filmmaking”
Rose Satiko Gitirana Hikiji
Jasper Chalcraft
Discussion in Trajectoria – Anthropology, Museums and Art (LINK) (LINK)
Tabuluja (Wake Up!)
Rose Satiko Gitirana Hikiji
Jasper Chalcraft
Shambuyi Wetu
In his performances, Shambuyi Wetu, an artist from the Democratic Republic of Congo and a refugee in São Paulo, constructs narratives about the diaspora experience and the context of l’homme noir in the world. Part of the Afro-Sampas collection, the film Tabuluja is a collaboration between the artist and anthropologists Rose Satiko Gitirana Hikiji and Jasper Chalcraft. The research and film explore the experiences of African musicians, dancers, and artists currently residing in São Paulo, and are part of the project ‘Being/Becoming African in Brazil: migrating music and heritages’.
Trajectoria: Anthropology, Museums & Art (LINK)