¡El Tambor Llama! Tanbou a Rele! The Drum Calls! at Hostos Center 25 April 2009
Channel: The Frisner Augustin Memorial Archive
Date: 06/05/2019

On April 24, 2009, Makandal performed sacred Vodou drumming and dance at the program ¡El Tambo Llama! Tanbou a Rele! (The Drum Calls), Sacred Drumming Traditions of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Puerto Rico. City Lore, New York City’s center for urban folk culture, collaborated with the Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture to present the program at Hostos Community College CUNY in the South Bronx. The day opened with a gallery exhibit of work by Kesler Pierre and José Orbein: line drawings or ideograms used to channel power and meaning in the Vodou, Abakuá, and palos traditions. A wing adjacent to the gallery hosted a keynote address on the Kongo Atlantic visual traditions by Dr. Robert Farris Thompson, and two panel discussions, featuring various specialists, on ritual language and the diversity of Congo traditions. Makandal shared the evening concert program with Pa’lo Monte (Dominican Republic, palos) and Proytecto Enyenison Enkama (Cuba, Abakuá). Author Ned Sublette of Afropop Worldwide emceed the concert.

Makandal’s set opened with Vodou’s Rada rites from West Africa and the tracing on stage of a vèvè (ideogram) for Milokan (the assembly of spirits) by Kesler Pierre. The dancers and musicians performed yanvalou and zepòl, dances from the Guinea region. After a vocal/instrumental piece for Èzili Freda (the essence of the feminine in the Rada rite), the program moved on to dances that came to Haiti from the Congo region: kongo (at 16:35) and a quick transition to petwo/kita (at 18:43). The set segued into a closing jam on Haitian rara music (associated with rites of spring in both Haiti and the Dominican Republic) with Pa’lo Monte and Proytecto Enyenison Enkama (at 24.37).

Frisner Augustin, lead drum (manman)
Steve Deats, second drum (segon)
Morgan Zwerlein, third drum, (boula)
Marc Etienne, bass drum (bas)
Kesler Pierre, frame drum (tanbourin)
Michael Adams, iron beater (ogan)

Sheila Anozier and Smith Destin, dancers

Source identifier: MAK_LW_PER.097_0001mi_co_20090425
Creator: City Lore
Rights: http://bit.ly/Permission_CL
Date: 25 April 2009
Source format: DVD
Language: Haitian Creole