THE PROJECT/description
This semester (Fall 2018), Maris and Daniel took MUSC 650: Field Methods in Ethnomusicology with Dr. Timothy Rommen. The course was organized around the book A Different Kind of Ethnography (Elliot and Culhane, 2017) and a semester-long, multi-modal experimental ethnography project. Each assignment aligned with a method proposed in the chapters of the book: Imagining, Writing, Sensing, Recording and Editing, Walking, and Performing. Given our shared interest in Black Puerto Ricans—on the island and in the diaspora—we utilized the project to get to know the Philadelphia Puerto Rican community, including the issues and questions being asked within the community (so as not to project our own agenda onto it). We challenged ourselves to consider aspects of music and community-building within the diaspora, particularly in light of the significant displacement of many Puerto Ricans by Hurricane Maria in 2017.
Through our project, we visited Centro de Oro, a majority Puerto Rican neighborhood in North Philadelphia five times between September and November 2018. Our field visits included the annual Feria del Barrio, a neighborhood walking tour with Taller Puertorriqueño, and three other visits to take pictures and film interviews. We also interviewed Johnny Irizarry, former Executive Director of Taller Puertorriqueño and current Director of La Casa Latina at the University of Pennsylvania. Our visits to Centro de Oro started with a broad and populous public event and became increasingly focused throughout the semester as we learned about the organizations and leaders within the community. In each of our visits, we patronized local businesses—particularly Taller Puertorriqueño, El Bohio Restaurant, and Centro Musical.
The four projects presented in this website are the products of our work this semester. They are the beginning of an ongoing, and in no way exhaustive, process of getting to know the Puerto Rican community in North Philadelphia. Our work spans and interrogates several of the methodological approaches and representational forms explored through the course, in conversation with our professor, peers, and interlocutors in the community.
THE COURSE/description
MUSC650: Field Methods in Ethnomusicology explores various methodological challenges and theoretical concerns that confront us during the course of ethnomusicological fieldwork. How can we approach writing about our ethnographic work without silencing the voices of those who should be heard? In what ways might transcription and notation complicate power structures and reinforce our own musical values? What special challenges need to be negotiated in the process of documenting ethnographies on film? How do ethical and economic dilemmas inform our approach to making sound recordings? What institutional structures / strictures do we face in designing our ethnographic projects? What possibilities, moreover, do recent developments in sensory and experimental ethnography open for us? A series of readings in ethnomusicology and anthropology will suggest some answers to these questions—answers that will, in turn, be tested through practice. Throughout the semester, each student will engage with a community of her or his choice (ideally in or close to Philadelphia), moving through several small-scale projects including a field notes exercise, a recording of a musical event, a photo essay, an interview, and a short film; these will culminate in a final project that melds theory and practice.