Listening to the Echoes of the South Atlantic Listening to the Echoes of the South Atlantic | Page 32

Dawit L. Petros worked closely with local musicians and artists over an extended
period of time to create a work that is perfectly situated between Cuba and the
African continent. Musicians from the Ashé Olorun group performed for both
versions of the work (live performance and video), while an interview with the
legendary Matancero sculptor Agustín Drake Aldama complements the strong cross-
cultural undercurrent of the video. The live performance took place along the San
Juan River, under a bridge, which ultimately connected musical traditions, histories,
and cultures. The lead drummer Hiran Polledo Diaz, who was seated along the wall
of the riverbank, played with and in response to the drummers Osmays Rodriguez
Diaz and Reinaldo Adazabal and the singer Mayline Carballo Bidez, who performed
on a small fishing boat that circled around the river and out into the bay of Matanzas.
Dawit L. Petros
The Sea in its Thirst is Trembling, live performance with members of the Ashé Oloron group for
Intermittent Rivers, an official part of the 13th Havanna Biennial, 2019.
As I stood there listening carefully to all the sounds around me: the call of the street
sellers, the sounds of reggaeton blasting from an outdoor bar situated right behind
us, and the constant rumbling of cars over the bridge, I could also hear the endless
cry of poetry and could feel the musicality of everything around me. I was struck in a
deep Glissantian sense by the interconnectivity between all things, and of course, the
title of the work references none other than Édouard Glissant’s concept of trembling
thinking, and the importance of cultural multiplicity and exchange.
As we listen to the echoes of the South Atlantic, we are repeatedly reminded of the
inequities caused by the atrocities of colonial rule and its continued aftermath. If
the harmony is consistently disrupted by the unsettling implications of the featured
works, each of the works also conveys the full potential of using music as a tool for
societal awareness and change. It is my hope that the exhibition will resonate both
within and beyond the South Atlantic by conveying the urgency of really listening
to these overlapping and entangled histories. Each of the works speaks powerfully
about the wisdom to be gained from narratives of inclusivity. When indigenous
histories and belief systems are understood in relation to one another, and also when
set in dialogue with the social activism of, for instance, contemporary street music,
the sociopolitical implications of these works extend far beyond the South Atlantic.