Playing Miami : Afrocuban performance artists negotiating cubanidad

Authors

Kameelah Nicole Benjamin-Fuller, Florida International University

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

Master of Arts (MA)

Major/Program

African and African Diaspora Studies

First Advisor's Name

Carole Boyce Davies

First Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Chair

Second Advisor's Name

Robin Moore

Third Advisor's Name

James Sweet

Date of Defense

4-3-2003

Abstract

The social scripts that are deeply involved in cultural production by AfroCuban identified artists in Miami, during the late nineties to the present, participate in a climate that is informed by and feeds from the so-called Latin Explosion of this time period. More specifically, varying historical, socioeconomic, and geopolitical trajectories have placed Africa and African-based religion and cultural production (via music and theatre) at the center of Cuban national identity. The purpose of this study is to facilitate a discussion of the experiences of AfroCuban performance artists and the climate for production, given the aforementioned dynamics, in mass media. These experiences are directed by a study of transnational structures for cultural production (including the more recent memory-shadow of hip-hop culture in Cuba) and discourse that engages theories of modernity, authenticity, and resistance. Through the interventions of artists, producers, and distributors via their art and business, the text identifies and resists the pervasive oppression of stereotype, dehumanization (Othering), and essentialism.

Identifier

FI14051101

Recommended Citation

Benjamin-Fuller, Kameelah Nicole, "Playing Miami : Afrocuban performance artists negotiating cubanidad" (2003). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1605.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/1605