Rhythms Of Rebellion

The culture of insurgents in early modern Europe was primarily an oral one; memories of social conflicts in the communities affected were passed on through oral forms such as songs and legends. This popular history continued to influence political choices and actions through and after the early modern period. The chapters in this book examine numerous examples from across Europe of how memories of revolt were perpetuated in oral cultures, and they analyse how traditions were used. From the German Peasants’ War of 1525 to the counter-revolutionary guerrillas of the 1790s, oral traditions can offer radically different interpretations of familiar events. This is a ‘history from below’, and a history from song, which challenges existing historiographies of early modern revolts.

A thorough examination of the history of the controversial island country looks at little-known aspects of its past, from its pre-Columbian origins to the fate of its native peoples, complete with up-to-date information on Cuba's place in a post-Soviet world.

Guerrilla Music: Musicking as Resistance, Defiance, and Subversion explores human initiations and responses to music as a process and product intrinsically part of our culture, history, place, time and ecological musical worlds. The contributors challenge scholarly approaches wherein music is detached from the social relationships in which it is produced, transmitted, used and judged. ‘Guerrilla’ is a trope long applied to socio-political machinations, human conflict and confrontation. Guerrilla Music provocatively explores research involving music practices, stories, communities and musickers worldwide that resist, defy and subvert by silence and non-compliance, reluctant subordination, subversive depowering, resistive counterpoint, or destructive, violent dismantling. Contexts spanning the subcultural local, glocal and universal highlight the potency, passions, actions and life worlds of music, musicians and those that become engulfed in musical maelstroms that incite change. Guerrilla Music both invigorates and advances scholarly debates about social power, colonisation and difference by exploring the social semiotics of music making and communities, identifying powerful new ways of understanding human communication, and what musicking means in the twenty-first century.

On December 14, 1957, after winning the Nobel Prize for literature, Albert Camus challenged artists attending a lecture at the University of Uppsala in Sweden to create dangerously. Even though Camus never defined what he meant by his charge, throughout history, artists involved in movements of protest, resistance, and liberation have answered Camus' call. Quite often, the consequences were costly, resulting in imprisonment, censorship, torture, and death. This dissertation examines the question of what it means to create dangerously by using Camus' challenge to artists as a starting point. The study then turns its attention to two artists, Augusto Boal and Ngugi wa Thiong'o, who were detained, tortured, and imprisoned because they boldly defied the dominant power structure. Lastly, the research focuses on a group of front-line artists, the Mississippi Caravan of Music, involved in the contemporary struggle for civil rights in the United States. The individual artists and the artist group represented in the dissertation are from different parts of the globe and were involved in acts of rebellion, resistance, revolt, or revolution at varying points in history. Portraiture, a form of narrative inquiry, is the research method employed in the dissertation. The qualitative approach pioneered by Harvard scholar Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot "combines systematic, empirical description with aesthetic expression, blending art and science, humanistic sensibilities and scientific rigor" (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Davis, 1997, p. 3). The dissertation extrapolates concepts from the traditional literature and expands the boundaries to make room for a more integrated understanding of social change, art, and transformational leadership from the bottom up. Artists and artist groups who create dangerously is an area often overlooked in the field.

Combining rhythmic music and movement with cognitive reflection and mindfulness, this comprehensive handbook shows how drumming and other rhythm-based exercises can have a powerful effect in individual, group and family settings. Incorporating the latest research on how rhythmic music impacts the brain, this book features over 100 different exercises spanning five key developmental areas: social and emotional learning; identity and culture; strengths and virtues; health and wellbeing; and families, teams and communities. It offers a safe entry to cognitive reflection through fun, experiential rhythmic exercises and is useful for working in settings such as school, child and adolescent counselling settings, mental health and drug and alcohol interventions, trauma counselling and relational counselling. Important sections on the use of metaphor and analogy show how to reinforce experiential outcomes. The book also contains helpful sections on working with specific populations, key facilitation skills and managing challenging behaviours. Downloadable resources such as evaluation forms, certificates and 52 session cards optimise the process of implementing this approach in practice.

An analysis of the aesthetic, cultural and political aspects of alternative poetic movements and individual poets in three periods: the Constitutional Revolution (1900–1920), the post-constitutional era (1920–1940), and the ascendency of modernism (1940–1960). Farshad Sonboldel shines new light on the history of modern Persian poetry by re-imagining the roles that the aesthetic experimentations of alternative poets played in different phases of the literary revolution in modern Persian poetry. Dominant narratives portray modern Persian poetry as a gradual, rational, and moderate change in the classical regime of aesthetics as well as a response to – and reflection of – cultural and socio-political changes within Iranian society. They also disregard the significance of radical experiments by alternative poets and undervalue the part they played in the initiation and progress of the so-called "literary revolution." These mainstream narratives minimize the socio-political engagement of literary works with the direct reflection of the social reality, and thus neglect the way many alternative poems struggle with socio-political issues through deconstructing the old and constructing new aesthetic systems. Each chapter of The Rebellion of Forms in Modern Persian Poetry is centred around poems chosen for their potential to showcase notable experiments of pioneer movements and individuals in each given period. Examining the formal and thematic aspects of these poems, this book reformulates the story of modern Persian poetry and unravels the relationship between radical aesthetic changes in the practice of poetry and resistance against political and cultural domination in society.

This book is among the first works to engage with postcolonialism through the lens of the domestic in its totality, encompassing multifarious aspects such as domestic space, objects, family and servitude among others. The study foregrounds the inadequacy of Western theories on the domestic in explaining the postcolonial situation, and proposes alternate methods of analysing the ‘inner’ realm of colonial experience. Structured within the framework of comparative literary studies, the work serves to contribute to the tri-continental model of comparative literature, establishing mutually illuminating connections between the continents. The study provides scope for a widening of the epistemological base of critical inquiry, especially in the domains of postcolonialism, area studies and comparative literature. It explores new avenues in cross-cultural studies, contributing to the transnational diffusion of cultures and literatures, by focusing on what has been termed ‘minor’—the domestic and its rhythms in postcolonial cultures.

Rhythms of Rebellion: A Beginner's Guide to Reggae Music offers a comprehensive exploration of the vibrant world of reggae, from its roots in Jamaica to its global influence on music, culture, and social change. Through ten chapters filled with historical insights, musical analysis, artist profiles, and cultural commentary, readers will embark on a journey through the rhythmic landscape of reggae music, discovering its origins, legends, subgenres, and impact on society. Whether you're a newcomer to reggae or a seasoned enthusiast, this book provides a valuable resource for understanding and appreciating one of the most influential musical genres of our time.