Alexandrine Boudreault-Fournier, "Afro-Cuban Female Rappers and the Reggaetón Craze", TUBMAN SEMINAR SERIES

Photo Credit: umontreal.academia.edu

The Tubman Seminar Series invites interested students and scholars to attend a seminar by Dr. Alexandrine Boudreault-Fournier of Laval University which examines the intersection of music and history within the Afro-cuban community, and is entitled "Afro-Cuban Female Rappers and the Reggaetón Craze".

Over the course of her doctoral research in anthropology, Alexandrine Boudreault-Fournier had the opportunity to live in Santiago de Cuba for two years. During this period, she became immersed in the “made in Cuba” hip hop movement, getting to know producers, rappers, reggaetoneros (from reggaetón music), and promoters living in Cuba. Her objective was to explore the structures of the various production networks for so-called urban music created by young people. After completing her doctoral studies in visual anthropology at the Granada Centre of the University of Manchester, Alexandrine undertook two post-doctoral studies at the Université de Montréal and then Université Laval and York University. She produced in 2010 the film “Golden Scars” (www.goldenscars.com) in part funded by the NFB of Canada. The film is an attempt to go beyond political and revolutionary dimensions; in a very personal way, profound, and touching way, it illustrates the realities of two charismatic young rappers who identify with reggaetón and rap.

Abstract

There are few female rappers in Cuba. In adopting the rapera identity publicly, female rappers meet up with a multitude of prejudices concerning women’s role within Cuban society. Three dominant forms of expressing “the Cuban woman” are of particular interest to the argument developed in this presentation: the Cuban mother, the revolutionary woman and the sexualized woman. Instead of arguing that raperas transform the perception of womanhood within Cuban society, this paper develops the different forms of representations raperas articulate while positioning themselves in dialogue (rather than in resistance) to these three main forms of representations.

This paper further argues that raperas do not offer a form of Afro-Cuban femininity that drastically departs from the teachings of the Revolution. However, they present alternative images of Afro-Cuban femininity in relation to what is promoted by the contemporary Cuban music scene categorized as commercial. Raperas are then involved in the articulation of femininities, which offer alternatives to what is proposed by the timba and reggaetón industry, two music genres that have an extremely high degree of fame among the young population.

In order to illustrate this argument, the group Las Positivas from Santiago de Cuba will serve as a case in point. The five members of Las Positivas are Afro-Cubans and describe themselves as “defending the point of view of the woman (la mujer), as well as women (las mujeres)”. Las Positivas offer alternative ways of expressing their womanhood and their afro-cubanity through music.

To see our full programme of speakers, check the Tubman Seminar Series page.