“Yanvalou Is My Home”: Creating Community Through Music and Dance
At the beginning of her undergraduate journey at Wellesley,Kera Washington ’93, director of the College’s Yanvalou Drum and Dance Ensemble, thought she was going to study to be a research biologist. But after taking classes on the folk and ritualized music of the Caribbean and West Africa with then professor of music Gerdés Fleurant—classes taught not in the music department but the Black studies department (now Africana studies)—Washington found that those subjects interested her more.
When Fleurant became the first professor of ethnomusicology in the music department, Washington, who double majored in anthropology and music, was his first student. “He was the first drum teacher I ever had,” she says. “I had never touched a drum before, but he said, ‘If you really want to understand this music, we can’t just talk about it. We have to play it.’” But Fleurant and Washington couldn’t just play the music on their own. “It had five different parts, so we had to have five different people,” says Washington. “In the spring of 1990 I got three of my friends, and Yanvalou started.”
现在华盛顿借助编织者Peniel Guerrier和Isaura Oliveira的帮助，监督这些合奏，这些乐队在整个非洲侨民中都存在于今天的非洲民俗和非洲的舞蹈。“yanvalou，”一个打开仪式和仪式的海地运动和节奏，是第一个鼓节奏和歌曲新合奏成员学习。伴随着所有穿着白色的舞者，鼓手和舞者互相回应歌词，“papa Loko/Ou se van/Pouse n ale/Nou se papiyon na pote nouvel bay Agwe.” (父亲洛科/你是风/推我们的风/我们是蝴蝶，将新闻带到Agwe.) The ensemble performs “Yanvalou” as a greeting; the song welcomes drummers, dancers, listeners, and the ancestors into the space of performance.
I love everything Yanvalou represents. Freedom, harmony, expression, resistance, love, and more.
Ann-Marsha Alexis'22
The numerous instruments taught and played in Yanvalou have come to Wellelsey from every part of the African and African diasporic world: drums from Ghana, the handheldmbira, or thumb piano, from Zimbabwe, and Ugandan harps calledAdungu.. At the heart of Yanvalou is the Haitian family of drums:manman, the largest drum, sometimes called the Mama drum;segon, a medium-sized drum sometimes referred to as the Papa; and thepiti,boula, orkata, all names for the smallest, baby drum. Themanman鼓是Yanvalou最爆炸性的亮点，“Kongo.” During performances, playing themanmandrum gives students a chance to demonstrate their growth and skill in drumming and their ability to lead the ensemble.
“This semester, I learned how to play themanman第一次鼓，“Nafisa Rashid'23说。“到目前为止，这是我最喜欢的！”
Other Yanvalou songs and rhythms include “埃Zariyen,” a Haitian folkloric piece about the Spider, or Gede, at the crossroads between this life and the lives of those who have passed and those who have yet to come, “(山湾)La Reine Congo，“ 和 ”Papa Loko.”
After a year and a half of Zoom drumming sessions, Yanvalou had its first fall show,Rekonekte.（自12月大流行以来，“重新连接”一词的比赛。这是大多数集合的第一个展示，他们与yanvalou的第一学期的高潮。对于这两个学生领导者，Rashid和Ann-Marsha Alexis'22，Rekonekte真的是重新连接的活动。“自从我在Wellelsey的校园里，这是一年的一年。当我回来的时候，我必须与我在这么长时间没见过的人重新联系，即使是我第一年以来我还没见过！“拉希德，一个认知和语言科学专业。“在yanvalou，我遇到了在Wellesley的时间内在我的时间里支持我的人，谁是一个快乐的时间与之共鸣。”
“yanvalou是我在校园的家，我觉得我的意思是在这里，”亚历克西斯是一年以来的yanvalou一直在这里。“这是Wellesley最聪明，最温暖的，最温暖的，最活跃的部分。我无法想象在这个校园里，没有这个空间一次又一次地返回。“多彩多姿的鼓中的亮度是成员用于实践和手绘Cha-Chas或打击者举办的摇篮，他们用来保持速度。当节奏的每个部分都填充了与侨民的遗产一起填补了空间时，观众感觉到礼堂的温暖。
For Washington, the purpose of Yanvalou isn’t solely to enrich the Wellesley College community with African diasporic history, dance, and music. It is also about watching the students find a home and a connection with Yanvalou and the diaspora, and watching them work together to shape the ensemble into what they want it to be.
“I love everything Yanvalou represents,” says Alexis, “freedom, harmony, expression, resistance, love, and more. Playing and dancing in Yanvalou to me means joy and excitement, reconnecting with ancestral memory, healing, finding what was lost.”
Interested students are welcome to joinYanvalou. Look for the ensemble’s spring show in April.
