“JUST ASK MI ’BOUT BROOKLYN:” WEST INDIAN IDENTITIES, TRANSGEOGRAPHIES, AND LIVING REGGAE CULTURE A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Sabia McCoy-Torres August 2015 © 2015 Sabia McCoy-Torres “JUST ASK MI ’BOUT BROOKLYN:” WEST INDIAN IDENTITIES, TRANSGEOGRAPHIES, AND LIVING REGGAE CULTURE Sabia McCoy-Torres, Ph.D. Cornell University 2015 This ethnography explores the symbiotic relationship between the West Indian Diaspora and performance based, Jamaican originated, reggae culture. The field site was Brooklyn, New York. I analyze the intersections of reggae with racial and cultural identity construction, expressions of gender and sexuality, transnationalism, and place making practices. The formation of a local, West Indian led, reggae related economy is also a subject of focus. In order to theorize the impact West Indians have on Brooklyn and their subjectivities, I develop the concepts transgeographies and figurative citizenship. I argue that the West Indian Diaspora creates transgeographic cultural places that specific sociocultural practices and performance help to form. I offer that performance, action, and material alteration coalesce to physically transform space and imbue it with affect and sensory elements that together constitute links to the various nations of the Caribbean. The West Indian geographies of Brooklyn are thereby brought inside the Caribbean space expanding how geography is conceived of as an analytic. Emergent diasporic subjectivities are formed within these transgeographic cultural places, one of them being what I term figurative citizenship. This work also includes analyses of the relationship of West Indians to U.S. representations of Blackness and the locations of Japanese nationals, who temporarily settle in Brooklyn to be a part of reggae, within the culture at large. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Sabia McCoy-Torres, Ph.D. is sociocultural anthropologist whose investments in scholarship are in expanding the body of knowledge on communities of color in the United States and internationally. Her hope is that greater exposure to the lived experiences and the social and cultural contributions of marginalized people might lead to greater cross-racial and cross- cultural collaborative justice, and participation. Furthermore, amplifying the self- recognition and pride of communities of color in their historical and contemporary social, and cultural contributions to the societies in which they live are scholarly and pedagogical objectives of hers. Dr. McCoy-Torres’ research interests span the African Diaspora, urban forms of popular culture, performance, gender/sexuality, race/ethnicity, place/space, and transnationalism. This list of inquiries is composed of elements she feels are integral to conceptualizing the myriad and multi-layered experiences of not only members of the African Diaspora but also communities of color more broadly. She, in turn, dedicates her work to theoretically and ethnographically immersing herself in them. Growing up in the 1980s South Bronx as an avid dancer and lover of the music that surrounded her, juxtaposed with the contrasting sociocultural and socioeconomic experience of being Black and Latina in a prestigious New York City private school, are experiences that have come to inform Dr. McCoy-Torres’ research passions, analytical eye, and pedagogical commitments. Her diasporic iii subjectivities as a member of both the African and Puerto Rican diasporas are also significant. She makes her scholarly work accessible to broad audiences by contributing to online outlets and diversifying her writing style, and language. She looks forward to producing publications from this ethnographic research and beginning her next research project. iv For my mother and father – Brenda Helen McCoy And Gabriel Torres Rivera – Thank you for passing on to me the best half of yourselves (If I do say so myself) v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are many people who made this work possible directly and indirectly and I am grateful for them all. I acknowledge and give thanks to a few of those people here in no specific order of gratitude, as everyone’s role was invaluable. Thank you to my friends, family, and partner who showed pride and dynamic forms of support, crucial elements that pushed me through the difficult moments of this process. To my girls, thank you also for talking over my data with me with all of your Oberlin alumni smarts. Thank you Lila Anton for your Japanese to English translations. Pop, your words “from a grandmother who was illiterate to a Ph.D.” made attaining this goal and gathering and sharing knowledge on communities of color ever more important, and significant to me. Mom, would I have become an anthropologist if you had not instilled in me a love for, and access to, travel and adventure? Mama Michelle Hay, thank you for having the bright idea one summer of sending three young Bronx girls to stay with your family in the hills of Kingston, Jamaica. That experience changed my whole kinesthetic and sonic world, and view of culture. Falling asleep to the rumbling bass lines of outdoor sound systems began a love for reggae that continues today. Who knows if I would have come to this ethnography without that experience and indulging in your family thereafter. On that note, thank you also for taking me in as a third daughter. Thank you Terrence Grannum for sharing your wealth of reggae knowledge, providing emergency computer assistance, and continuously streaming reggae music directly to my listening systems over the past decade and a half so that I never vi missed a beat (literally). Dr. Melissa Rosario, I’m truly appreciative of you serving as my informal advisor directly to my hand held device from before I started the Ph.D. program and continuing thereafter. Your advice, comments, and collegial support have been very helpful and your friendship has been a true adventure. Thank you Noni Session for holding my hand in the beginning and for the time you spent looking over fellowship applications. The extent of my appreciation for my committee could never truly be expressed in words. I would be remiss if I did not share that I have often boasted having “the best committee in the world.” I am very lucky to have felt this way. Dr. Viranjini Munasinghe, I deeply feel that not only do I owe the successful completion of this ethnography to your dedicated guidance and feedback but also more generally my anthropological training. Sitting before you and making efforts to absorb all of your knowledge and insight through osmosis were high points, and inspiring moments throughout the graduate process. I am forever grateful for all of our meetings from the beginning until the end. Dr. Vilma Santiago-Irizarry, thank you for sharing your candor, intellect, and “real world” smarts with me. You have been an ally, a friend, and were never afraid to give me “real talk” and for that I am appreciative. Meeting with you was always a fresh escape and thought provoking journey. Dr. Travis Lars Gosa, I am truly grateful for the countless times you responded to my emails entitled “HELP!” “REAL QUICK PLEASE!” or “ADVICE!” Not only was it countless times, but also every time. That level of thoughtfulness, attention, and sharing of time is rare. To have it offered during times of panic was vii invaluable and, unfortunately, the expression of my gratitude could never match what it meant to me. Thank you also for your advice on publishing and professionalization. Please keep sharing with your students. Dr. Oneka LaBennett, thank you infinitely for signing on to my committee in the end and for showing support of a junior scholar in the public sphere. Your expertise has been fundamentally important. The occasions that we met during the writing process and you told me my work was important and valuable, unbeknownst to you, were right on time and gave me the determination and excitement I needed to push through the roughest patches. Much gratitude and respect to all of the people who shared their time, memories, and ideas with me whose words appear in this text as a testament to their experiences as members of the West Indian Diaspora and, for many, to their integral place not only within the local New York City (Brooklyn) world of reggae, but, their deep footprints in reggae globally. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH……………………………………………………………………………………..iii DEDICATION………………………………………………………………………………………………………..v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS…………………………………………………………………………………………vi INTRODUCTION: West Indian Brooklyn.………………..…………………………………………...1 Why Music?: Central arguments and a Review of Literature………….…………………….....12 Confusing the Paradigm: Conceptualizing Ethnicity and Nationality.……………………...39 Methodology.……………………………………………………………………………………………………...43 In Between the Insider/Outsider Binary: The Ethnographer’s Positionality...……….…..52 Overview of Chapters.…………………………..…………………………………….………………………..58 A Brief Note on Reggae Terminology..……….………….……………………..………………………..59 CHAPTER ONE: Reading Popular Culture and the Transnationalization of Reggae……………………………………………………………………………...………………………………61 Why Read Popular Culture….……………………………………………………………………………….61 What is Reggae? …...................................................................................................................................69 Roots (and Culture)…………………………………………………………………………………69 Dancehall….…………………………………………………………………………………………….76 Two Sides of the Same