(dramatic instrumental music)
- Welcome to the International Day
of People of African Descent.
My name is Derrick León Washington,
as your host, I'm happy to be part of this experience.
This experience that shows how art,
and cultural expression can share
the obstacles, resilience, and defiant joy of peoples.
But first, I acknowledge I'm in Brooklyn, New York,
traditional homeland and territory of the Canarsie.
The Canarsie are Munsee-speaking,
Lenape band or Delaware people.
So I give respect to the Canarsie,
all Lenape past, present, and future.
For the International Day
of the World's Indigenous Peoples,
we were at United Nations Headquarters,
and we focused on the art and cultural expressions there.
(uplifting music)
But today, we're going to travel around New York City
to look at these cultural expressions,
and how they show defiant joy.
We'll see different peoples, like The Soap Box Presents,
where they create spaces,
where people can rejuvenate and resist.
We'll look at samba.
How samba is a declaration of joy and life.
We'll look at bomba.
Bomba as ritual, bomba as community,
bomba as a "grito",
or a "shout" of life.
Also, I have a UN colleague, we've never danced before,
but showing how dance be a universal language,
how we can share our stories, we can be cool,
we can be intense, we can improvise,
and even though we're coming from different spaces,
we can connect.
So in conclusion,
we'll talk about what the United Nations is doing
to fight for the human rights of people of African descent,
but also what can you do locally.
Put your comments and ideas in the in the chat section,
in the comment section,
but let's get started on this adventure!
(drum music)
(funky jazz music)
- Repeat after me:
♪ I love myself. ♪
♪ I love my skin. ♪
♪ I love my self. ♪
♪ The skin I'm in. ♪
♪ Everything about me, everything about me. ♪
♪ I love it all. I love it all. ♪
(trumpet music)
♪ Nothing it don't matter, nothing it don't matter. ♪
(jazzy music)
(crowd chattering)
(jazzy music)
♪ I am enough ♪
♪ Say, I am enough. ♪
♪ I am good, I am good. ♪
♪ I am good. I am good. ♪
♪ I am good, I am good ♪
♪ You singing, hey, what you doing tonight ♪
♪ I'll probably be with my peeps, if its cool with you, ♪
♪ Maybe we'll swing by if you, you can - ♪
- We get accountability.
And then we get more bodies the day after.
We protest,
we march, we vote.
All of those things are, are a form of resistance,
but this too is a form of resistance.
These drums, we resist by playing them.
We sing, we resist by singing.
We resist by speaking these words,
we resist by hitting these keys.
We resist by dancing.
We resist by laughing. We resist by loving.
We resist by feeding our families.
We resist by having that sensual time with your mate,
We resist in all sorts of ways.
We resist by being joyful,
because joy is a revolutionary act.
(crowd cheers)
One more time, joy is a revolutionary act.
(crowd cheers)
(drum music)
Caribbean racial diversity is notably greater
than in other regions of the world
we are a passage region
a zone that has borders between great powers.
About Dominican culture, three sources
of cultural identity coincide:
Aboriginal/Indigenous peoples
the Hispanic identity
and African or Afro-Antillean identities.
Among anthropologists and historians there is the conviction
that the African influence is another richness
of our culture and is very present and alive
in current Dominican society.
Its [Afro-Diasporic] influence on music is manifested
in our popular folklore,
mixing religious and cultural expressions,
the most prominent being the
Afro-Dominican music and dances
and the axe songs.
The instruments used by them are drums,
etc.
This musical tradition, most notable
notable in the Villa Mella area (a section near the capital)
uses mostly percussion instruments in its religious rites
and secular celebrations.
Among them stands out a varied number of drums.
Our drums is a key instrument in the rhythmic structure
of the national dance, the merengue.
The word bachata designates the spree
the "jolgorio" (revelry) and the "parranda"/party,
in itself is a word borrowed from the languages of
West-Central Africa that comes from the African voice
cumbancha
from which cumbachata was born
and from this, bachata by apheresis
Cumbancha, cumbanchero, cumbachear
still in common use in the country
from which must be the origins of the word Cumandé,
used as the chorus in a colorful popular dance...
according to Fernando Ortíz Fernández...
I did not know
(cumandé)
That you danced
(cumandé)
That's why I
(cumandé)
Was not inviting you.
(cumandé)
The enslaved Africans called their great parties bachatas
in the Dominican Republic, between the years 1950 to 1960
the bachata was only heard and danced
by the most humble people and in the most socially
disadvantaged places
but by the 1980s the bachata takes an important leap
and begins to be heard on radio stations and other media
The number of singers and bachateros groups increases
reaching the public of all social classes.
In 1990 Juan Luis Guerra recorded "Bachata Rosa"
giving a different and international dimension
to this musical style, forever marking
tropical and Dominican music.
Rodríguez Demorizi narrates that the magistrate,
Dr. García Gautier asked a farmer what was bachata?
And he [the farmer] replied: "Adio'", rum, drum,
and leather!
Some of the carnival traditions
that we have inherited and that we can cite:
characters such as Califé
Roba la Gallina or Diablos Cojuelos,
which are interspersed with traditions from other countries.
Also important are the Guloyas or Buloyas
of San Pedro de Macorís,
which are part of the culture and history of our country,
also declared cultural heritage of humanity (UNESCO).
Dominican gastronomy. In this area they give us eating
customs, flavors and aromas that add value
and the way to prepare, these foods, such as pickles,
stir-fries, yams, bananas, chacá, buns, chenchen,
food with coconut, conete, the dumpling.
Our kitchen was also enriched with dishes such as mofongo,
banana leaf cakes, rice with pigeon peas,
blood sausages, pork sausages and pork crackling,
are well embedded into the Creole gastronomy.
(drum music)
♪Bomba ♪
♪ hola hola hola ♪
(drum music)
- Well, you know, born and raised in New York,
one thing I can tell you,
I never learned about my own history.
And it was through bomba that I really got to learn
about my history.
Bomba is not Spanish, it's not English,
it's not French, right?
It's a language.
It's a humanity language.
Bomba is an Afro-Puerto Rican art form.
Being Puerto Rican, is so confusing today.
But what gives me more clarity is the Afro-Puerto Rican.
The Afro-ness, the Afro-ism of being Puerto Rican.
It's what, you know, what bomba gives me
and that's just keeping it real.
(drum music)
♪ Bomba ♪
(singing in foreign language)
(drum music)
(singing in foreign language)
(drum music)
(singing in foreign language)
(upbeat drum music)
- What types of communities did samba start?
- Well, the samba in Rio de Janeiro,
started in the hills, in a shanty house,
which you would call favela.
And people that were marginalized,
would gather together in the end of the religion ceremonies,
just to celebrate, and to dance and to play music,
to be together.
(bright Brazilian samba music)
- [Danielle] The music, the dance, it is joyful,
there's no way that you can hear the drums
and, and hold yourself!
Just to hear the drums and the energy,
even you see the players playing the music,
there's just no way that they can stay still.
So, there is joy on that.
(bright Brazilian samba music)
- [Danielle] Release of all your stress,
of all your sorrows,
and you ready for the next,
be awake and be -
and acknowledge your worth.
Acknowledge your own power.
(bright Brazilian samba music)
- [Danielle] Samba is a gift,
from our ancestors,
to the world,
because
they, they with the music,
with a way of keeping the traditions,
and their art alive,
they used to find a ways to invite everyone to join in
and contribute.
And I think that's what makes samba so powerful.
Also, is that enclosure,
and that
mixture
with the
with the roots,
you know, African descent.
(bright Brazilian samba music)
- At United Nations Headquarters,
art of Africa and the African Diaspora,
can show abundance and fertility,
like the Nimba Mask of the Baga people, of Northeast Guinea.
It can show gender and express gender,
like the Guro sculptures.
It can create beautiful sounds,
like the steel pan drums of Trinidad and Tobago.
The Ark of Return invites audiences to remember the legacies
of the slave trade, and how we all can fight against racism
and prejudice today.
(soft music)
Dance is also an art and cultural expression.
It can connect people from different nationalities,
and ethnic backgrounds.
Dance can be
a universal language.
(bright drum music)
(soft music)
Art and cultural expression shares joys,
beliefs and values of a people.
So what is the United Nations doing?
There is the recent creation
of the Working Group of People of African Descent.
There's the Committee
on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination - CERD.
(soft music)
Recently, as of August 2021,
the 193 member body unanimously adopted
a resolution, establishing the United Nations
Permanent Forum on People of African Descent.
(soft music)
In June 2021, United Nations Human Rights released
the High Commissioner's report
on racial justice and equality.
And a four step agenda,
says this:
Step up, stop denying, and start dismantling.
Pursue justice, end impunity
and build trust.
Listen up.
People of African descent must be heard.
And lastly, redress, confront past legacies,
take special measures and deliver reparatory justice.
But what can you do locally?
First, support your local artists,
support people who are sharing art, who are creating art.
Support people who support our local food systems,
who pick our food.
And in the comments below, ask questions, make comments.
How are you working in your local communities
to fight for justice
and allowing for people of African descent
to show defiant joy.
Thank you.
(bright music)