Brenda F. Berrian
Professor, University of Pittsburgh
Biographical Statement | Reviews | Music Samples from Awakening Spaces | Excerpt from Awakening Spaces |
Partial Listing of Other Publications | Previous Articles | Recent Interview | Purchase Awakening Spaces | University of Pittsburgh Homepage
Brenda F. Berrian is Professor of Africana Studies, English, and Women's Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. From July 1, 1991 until December 31, 1996, she was the Chair of the Department of Africana Studies. Berrian received the B.S. and M.A. in French from Hampton Institute, Hampton, Virginia (1967 and 1968) and the doctorat de 3e cycle in North American Studies from the Université de Paris III-Nouvelle Sorbonne in Paris, France (1976).
Berrian's research interest is on contemporary African American, African, and Caribbean women writers. She has compiled and edited two major bibliographies: Bibliography of Women Writers from the Caribbean (Three Continents, 1989) and Bibliography of Aftican Women Writers and Journalists (Three Continents, 1985) and a special issue on Caribbean writers for The Shooting Star Review (Spring 1993). She has also published articles in and compiled bibliographies for various scholarly journals (national and international) on African American, African and Caribbean writers and is book review editor for MaComère, journal for the Association of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars. Berrian's recent book Awakening Spaces: French Caribbean Popular Songs, Music, and Culture, was published by the University of Chicago Press in June 2000. Her current book project, That's the Way It Is: African American Women in the New South Africa, is a collection of thirty-five oral narratives about African American women's cross-cultural experiences.
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"Berrian's book provides a strong historical snapshot, showing a time of promise and hope in a trouble tropical paradise." - Kris Mamula, "Say You Want a Revolution," Pitt Magazine, March 2001
"This is a welcome and thoroughly interesting book, brimming with little known information and offering a pertinent reading of popular texts in their social context." -Michel Fabre, "Review of Awakening Spaces," Macomère, 2000
"With a perspective of equal parts sociologist, music lover and ethnomusicologist, Berrian supplies analyses of song lyrics from many seminal zouk recordings as reflections of Caribbean society, such as evolving gender relations or the two islands' ambiguous relationship with and dependence on France." -Brian Dring, The Beat, 2000
"Berrian's book is a treasure trove of personal interviews with musicians and original transcriptions of song lyrics in French Creole and English. Awakening Spaces effectively bridges the past and present in Francophone Caribbean music for all lovers of music-be they exuberant fans of zouk or musicologists." -Jacqueline Brice-Finch, "Awakening Spaces", Editor, MaComère |
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"Well, when I first received this book in the mail for my review, I looked at the front and then the back cover and the first thing that came to mind is the phrase 'This I've got to see'. Why? Because this book discusses and analyzes in English, music from French West Indies sung primarily in Creole. Those of you who know Creole also know that [it] is a very metaphoric, symbolic language that is sometimes difficult to decipher when you are not from a Creole background. To take the lyrics and deduct valid conclusions about the francophone culture would be no easy task. Well a couple of pages into the book, my qualms were put away, and I discovered a pleasant, vibrant book that covers such a broad range of topics: lyrics, politics, perception, tradition and culture all based on French Caribbean popular songs and music. The author Brenda F. Berrian, has taken the time to go deep into the scene of Martinique's and Guadeloupe's artistry with candid interviews, and lyrical analysis, all wrapped up neatly with her well thought out and researched interpretations and conclusions. The read was an enjoyable flirt with wonderful Creole songs, and to someone who is familiar with the music that is being showcased in the book, the book will be a ten-fold more enjoyable [read]. Brenda's often-comical anecdotes at the beginning of each chapter are also a very nice touch. Over all, I'd recommend this book to those who have been to the French West Indies and have wondered what was being said and why. If you are a fan of Zouk music, Biguine, Ka, French Reggae; you'll especially want to pick this book up! Bravo Brenda on a job well done! I will write a more detailed review for the readers of www.zoukarchive.com. In the meantime definitely pick up this book!" -Patrick Joseph Pauline, "Awakening Spaces," Amazon.com
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Music Samples from Awakening Spaces
(RealPlayer needed for playback, click here to get it)
Chapter
1: The Safe Space: Malavoi's Nostalgic Songs of Childhood and Exile
Music: Malavoi - La Case a Lucie
Chapter
2: Creole, Zouk, and Identity in Kassav's Optimistic Songs
Chapter
3: More Than a Doudou: Women's Subversive Songs
Music: Kassav' (Jocelyne Béroard) - Pa bisouin palé
Chapter
4: Cultural Politics and Black Resistance as Sites of Struggle
Chapter
5: Public Performance, Marketing Devices, and Audience Reception
Music: Patrick Saint-Éloi - Ki jan ké fè
Chapter
6: The Recontextualization of Urban Music
Music: Taxikréol - Ebony Roots
Chapter
7: A Deferential Space for the Drum: The Ambivalence of a Cultural Voice
Music: Eugène Mona - Tambou séryé
Copyright notice: Reprinted from AWAKENING SPACES published by the University of Chicago Press, copyright Ó 2000 by the University of Chicago. All rights reserved. This text may be used and shared in accordance with the fair-use provisions of U.S. and international copyright law and agreement, and it may be archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that this entire notice, including copyright information, is carried and provided that the University of Chicago Press is notified and no fee is charged for access. Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of both the author and the University of Chicago Press.
Click here for a spoken excerpt read by Brenda F. Berrian
When I think about Malavoi, four houses come to mind. During earlier visits to Martinique I had noticed a house that was in a dilapidated state, located on a convenient corner in Schoelcher at the juncture of the Collège Vincent Placoly and a street bordering on the canal. In 1994, while sightseeing with my fourteen-year old nephew on a public bus, the driver stopped to pick-up some passengers. I gazed out of the bus window and noticed the house had undergone a transformation. Its walls had been painted a winter white; the old wooden shutters, a bright robin blue. Sun rays touched the house, and the blue on the shutters gleamed like the color of a vivid Caribbean sky. Who lived in it? What did it look like inside? What was its history? Why had it been abandoned for so long? A light sea breeze tickled my shoulders, and the sensation awakened a wish to knock on the front door.
The urge to see this house and to meet its owners was unexplainable. Fate intervened one sunny afternoon when I was interviewing Suzy Trébeau, a member of Kwak, who had formerly sung backup for Malavoi. I told Trébeau that I had a later interview with Jean-Paul Soime, one of Malavoi's violinists. Trébeau offered to take me since she knew where Soime lived. When Trébeau parked her car in front of "my house," I could not believe it! Chattering like an excited magpie, I extended my hand to Soime, who had seen us and opened the front gate. Upon hearing my story, an amused Soime gave me a tour of "his" home. Built on a slope, the two-storeyed house was furnished with colonial period furniture and accentuated with Japanese bonsai trees in the back garden. A lower floor, where Soime stored his instruments and albums, occasionally functioned as the rehearsal space for Malavoi. "I like old things," said Soime. "That is why my wife and I purchased this abandoned house." For me, his house was representative of the traditional music and family values that he had written about in "Kolédés" (Inseparables) for Malavoi's An Maniman (1994).
A month later, Shawna Moore-Madlangbayan drove me to the town of Robert to meet Emmanuel "Mano" Césaire, the former violinist and founder of Malavoi. Mano Césaire met us in the town square, and we followed him along a country, dirt road to his home on the outskirts of Robert. The three of us walked through the kitchen to enter the living room where we found Césaire's son Claude, the pianist and founder of Palaviré. Pleased that I would be able to converse with both father and son since the older Césaire was now affiliated with Palaviré, I turned my head and saw a baby grand piano that was so highly polished that I could see a clear reflection of myself. The atmosphere in the Césaire home was comfortable; the Césaires were so welcoming that it was difficult to leave at the end of the interview. We have conversed like old friends who rediscovered each other after a lengthy absence. When I recited lines from "Albé" (Albert) and "En lè mon la" (On the hill), two songs that Mano had composed in his youth for Malavoi, the Césaires expressed their genuine surprise that I, a foreigner, had cared enough to do that kind of research in preparation for an interview.
In May, Shawna and I drove south to Diamant to meet the television journalist Marijosé Alie who had sung the popular "Caressé moins" (Caress me) for Malavoi's Zouël (1983). This time we rang the bell at the gate that partially hid the ochre-colored house from the eyes of passers-by. The elegant house with sliding glass doors and windows that overlooked the sea had been constructed by Alie's grandfather and renovated by her ex-husband. In contrast to her tall, laid back, tousled hair appearance, Alie fervently expressed a deep love for the house where she had been raised. We sat on the terrace where we were serenaded by the crashing waves of the sea and the happy squeals of Alie's third and youngest daughter. Warm, loving memories of this house and its close proximity to the sea and its breezes were contained in the lyrics of "Caressé moins."
House number four was where I met José Privat. The wooden house, located in the Didier section of Fort-de-France, is a rarity because most of the wooden homes have been replaced with concrete ones in fear of fire. The house, in question, restored bit-by-bit, actually belonged to Privat's brother and sister-in-law. Outside on the veranda were a dining room table as well as a detached kitchen with flowers spilling forth from pots and off the roof. A talented pianist and organist, Privat, who guards his privacy, spoke haltingly about his career and the sadness and bittersweet pleasure that engulfed him when he began to replace the very ill Paulo Rosine for Malavoi's concerts. Citing Malavoi's stringent and high standards, he was more than grateful when he was invited to be Rosine's permanent replacement. Surrounded by his brother, sister-in-law, nieces, and nephew, Privat ended the interview by posing at the piano in the living room.
Most of the Malavoi musicians have known each other since high school; four of them studied the violin with Madame Colette Franz. To me, both the name "Malavoi," which refers to a type of sugarcane, and the qualities of the band members' homes, symbolize the rootedness of the members of this Martinican string band and their commitment to the preservation of traditional music. Never the winner of a gold record, Malavoi, the longest running band in Martinique, is nevertheless highly respected in the French Caribbean, France, and other parts of the world.
Partial Listing of Other Publications
Bibliography of Women Writers from the Caribbean. Washington D.C.: Three Continents Press, 1989. 346pp.
Bibliography of African Women Writers and Journalists. Washington D.C.: Three Continents Press, 1985. 296pp.
"Snapshots of Childhood Life in Jamaica Kincaid's Fiction," Arms Akimbo: Africana Women in Contemporary Literature. Eds. Janice Liddell and Yakini Kemp. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1999. 143-61.
"Sé cho (It's Hot): French Antillean Musicians and Audience Reception," A Gathering of Poets and Playwrights / Un convite de poetas y teatreros. Eds. Lowell Fiet and Janette Becetta. Rio Piedras: University of Puerto Rico Press, 1999. 117-26.
"Eugène Mona: The Martinican Performer of Angagé Songs," Hablar, nombrar, pertenecer: el juego entre el idioma y la identidad en la(s) cultura(s) caribena(s). Eds. Lowell Fiet and Janett Becerra. Rio Piedras: University of Puerto Rico Press, 1998. 59-73.
"An-Ba-Chen 'n La (Chained Together): The Landscape of Kassav's Zouk," Language, Rhythm and Sound: Black Popular Culture into the 21st Century. Eds. Joseph Adjaye and Adrianne Andrews. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. 1997. 346-75.
"Her Ancestor's Voice: The Ibéji Transcendance of Duality in Buchi Emecheta's Kehinde," Critical Perspectives on Buchi Emecheta. Ed. Marie Umeh. Lawrenceville: Africa World Press, 1996. 169-84.
"Zouk Diva: Interview with Jocelyne Béroard," MaComère 2 (1999): 1-11.
Biographical Statement | Reviews | Music Samples from Awakening Spaces | Excerpt from Awakening Spaces |
Partial Listing of Other Publications | Previous Articles | Recent Interview | Purchase Awakening Spaces | University of Pittsburgh Homepage
To contact Brenda Berrian, email bberrian@brendaberrian.com
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