The Blues Continuum: New York Calls – Naples Responds
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SSStttooonnnyyy BBBrrrooooookkk UUUnnniiivvveeerrrsssiiitttyyy The official electronic file of this thesis or dissertation is maintained by the University Libraries on behalf of The Graduate School at Stony Brook University. ©©© AAAllllll RRRiiiggghhhtttsss RRReeessseeerrrvvveeeddd bbbyyy AAAuuuttthhhooorrr... The Blues Continuum: New York Calls – Naples Responds A Dissertation Presented by Alessandro Buffa to The Graduate School in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History Stony Brook University May 2014 Stony Brook University The Graduate School Alessandro Buffa We, the dissertation committee for the above candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy degree, hereby recommend acceptance of this dissertation. Shirley Jennifer Lim – Dissertation Advisor Associate Professor, Department of History Herman Lebovics - Chairperson of Defense Distinguished Professor, Department of History April F. Masten – Reader Associate Professor, Department of History Iain Chambers – Reader Professor, Center for Postcolonial and Gender Studies University of Naples “L’Orientale” This dissertation is accepted by the Graduate School Charles Taber Dean of the Graduate School ii Abstract of the Dissertation The Blues Continuum: New York Calls – Naples Responds by Alessandro Buffa Doctor of Philosophy in History Stony Brook University 2014 My dissertation traces a form of call and response between New York City and Naples in the 1970s and 1980s. It foregrounds the importance of the ‘blues’ in the traffic of sound, images and oppositional ideas between these two cities located on the same geographical parallel. The blues here is understood as a musical style and feeling, as well as an affect of trauma, loss, memory and an intimate relationship that artists and activists established with their city spaces in the age of the so called “urban crisis.” It proposes a “blutopia,” based on utopian/dystopian tensions that promote alternative forms of knowledge, or a bluesology. While I focus on the 1970s and 1980s, and on New York and Naples, I move across time and space tracing multiple histories that connect past and present, local and global. My dissertation argues that cultural expressions and activism in the 1970s and 1980s in New York and Naples were part of a “blues continuum” that began with the early slave rebellions, the Maroon communities in the Americas, the multiethnic revolt of Masaniello in Naples and continued with Pan-Africanism, black liberation movements, postcolonial thinking, and urban struggles in both cities. Like a deejay working at the turntables I mix sounds, poetry and filmic images with stories of resistance and urban survival. Like “a botanist of the asphalt” I imagine walking on the streets of New York City and Naples listening to the “small voice of history.” Sustained by the saxophone sound of James Senese, the electro funk of Afrika Bambaataa, the rappin’ style of Sandra María Esteves, the activism of Evelina López Antonetty, Lillian López and Richie Pérez, the urban struggles of the mothers against heroin, the murals of Felice Pignataro, the echo of dub from Jamaica to New York and to Naples, the blue maps of Bobby Womack and Mario Merola, and the futuristic impulse in Blues metropolitano and The Brother from Another Planet, this is a story of unexpected and critical connections between the black Atlantic, “Nuestra América” and a fervently creolized Mediterranean. iii In loving memory of my mother, Olimpia Citarella (1930-2013) iv Table of Contents Introduction p.1 Escape From New York and Naples The Blues Continuum From The Screen to the Street PART I: TEACHERS OF THE FUNK p.23 Sound waves The Long Civil Rights and Black Power: A Global View Making Connections with and through Sound: Afrika Bambaataa, Sandra Maria Esteves, James Senese Chapter 1. “Street Happiness”: Music, Poetry and Social Movements in the South Bronx p.33 The South Bronx: Histories of Overlapping Diasporas “True Blues”: The New Plantation System of the South Bronx Afrika Bambaataa: The South Bronx Strikes Back! The Zulu Nation: Musical Mission Renegades of Funk: Looking Backward to Look Forward Afrika Bambataa and the Sonic Domain of the South Bronx Agency Through Records Nuyorican Poets and the Changing Same from Africa to the Bronx Chapter 2. James Saxophone: Sounds and Histories of Urban Resistance in Naples and the South Bronx p.83 James Senese: Sounds Between Naples and the Black Atlantic Napoli Centrale as Blues Matrix “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen”: Globalization from Below “We Don’t Feel All Right”: Sounding Out the Periphery v The Narrative of the Urban Crisis of Naples The Counter Geography of Sound “Historical Knowledge” “The Corner of the Corner of the Street”: Sound and Art as Urban Struggle in Naples and the Bronx PART II: “ALL YOU SEE IS CRIME IN THE CITY” p.121 Listening to Lillian López and Raiss Chapter 3. “They Call It Fort Apache, We Call It Home”: The South Bronx From Below p.128 “Imperial Eyes:” Fort Apache – The Bronx Fort Apache - The Bronx and the Television Discourse Silencing The Travel Stories of Black and Puerto Rican Migrations The Committee Against Fort Apache: Grass-Roots Theorizing Stereotypes and Beyond Fort Apache and the Social Sciences The Young Lords and The Committee Against Fort Apache “I am Not Government, I am Community”: Evelina López Antonetty and the United Bronx Parents Association The streets belong to the People! Social Movements, Hip Hop, and New Racial Formations Chapter 4. “Chi È 'O Bbuono e Chi È 'O Malamente?”: The Voice of the Silenced Majority p.190 Naples Like New York The Cinema of the Urban Crisis of Naples From the “Other America” to the “Black Mediterranean”: The Echo of Dub as Sound of Solidarity PART III: INNER CITY BLUES p.229 Bluesology vi Chapter 5. “Harlem is the Capital of Every Ghetto Town”: Blaxploitation and Sceneggiata as Historiography p.236 Subterranean Encounters Blue drums: The Wretched of the City Transnational Dialogue From Below Cinema and Alternative Histories Blaxploitation and Sceneggiata as Third Cinema Minoritarian Cities Chapter 6. “I Went to the Crossroad”: Metropolitan Blues p.278 Earthquake Blues Harlem Meets Naples Minor Bronx Blues Metropolitano Brothers from Another Planet Bibliography Discography Filmography vii List of Figures/Tables/Illustrations Figure 1 Afrika Bambaataa at The Bronx River Center Figure 2 “She’s Sha-rock an’ she can’t be stopped. At the Valley, June 1980.” Figure 3 “It is here that Naples truly appears as sequel to Blade Runner” Figure 4 “Circumvesuviana” and the new City of Naples Figure 5 Urban struggles for better housing at the “vele” in Scampia Figure 6 Felice Pignataro, mural in Ponticelli Figure 7 James Senese in “Sax solo” Figure 8 Variety Figure 9 “Don’t Buy Hollywood Racism!” Figure 10 “Stop The Movie ‘Fort Apache’ Arts Festival, April 21-22-23, 1980.” Figure 11 Pam Grier Figure 12 Evelina López Antonetty Figure 13 The Polly Roger’s Dance Group, South Bronx Project Figure 14 Latin Jazz workshops, South Bronx Project Figure 15 Black Theater Workshops, South Bronx Project Figure 16 The reading skills center, South Bronx Project Figure 17 The Fantastic 5 Figure 18 Post-earthquake Naples Figure 19 The mothers against heroin Figure 20 “Le vele” Figure 21 Cigarette vendors in Naples Figure 22 Mario Merola Figure 23 C’mon/Napoli/Napoli Figure 24 Around “Mappatella” beach Figure 25 “Mergellina.” viii Acknowledgments This has been a long journey, and I wish to thank many people for their support, help and hospitality. I wish to thank first of all my advisor, Shirley Jennifer Lim for her constructive feed- back, excellent advising, expertise, support and inspiring vision; April Masten for her close reading of my dissertation, feedback, historical method, and support; and Herman Lebovics who taught me how to combine social history, cultural studies and cultural history in the “Core Seminar.” I would also like to thank Iain Chambers whose book Popular Culture: The Metropolitan Experience really changed my life leading me to enroll in one his courses at the University of Naples, L’Orientale. Since then he has been one of my principal sources of inspiration. Since the first time I entered the History department at Stony Brook I realized that it was more than just a department. Here, I attended seminars, conferences, talks, parties, and met extraordinary people. I wish to thank all my class mates and other graduate students I met, in particular Chanhaeng Lee, Melixa Abad, Dewen Zhang, Dan Woulfin, Luke Feder, Alika Khan, Annie Linda Khan, Laura Sialiano, Annette Ricciardi, Lynn Rubin, Katrina Thompson, Tong Xu, Amanda Bruce, Stephen Patnode, Hernan Pruden, Jenise De Pinto, Martin Monsalve, Ivan Millones, Billy Warthon, Ana Julia Ramírez, Enrique Garguín, Yvie Fabella, Sarah Marchesano, Annessa Babic, Ron Van Cleeff, Mwangi Njagi, Eric Cimino, James Nichols, Kelly Condit, Gabriel Hernandez, Greg Jackson, Jeff Hall, and Juan Pablo Artinian. I also wish to thank all faculty members who during these years helped and supported me, and above all shared their knowledge with me: Wolf Schäfer, Donna Rilling, Chris Sellers, Ned Landsman, Gary Marker, Themis Chronopoulos, Alix Cooper, Nancy Tomes, Young-Sun Hong, Iona Man-Cheong, Brooke Larson, Michael Barnhart, Joel Rosenthal, and Paul Zimansky. The Assistant to the Chair, Susan Grumet is a point of reference in the department and she deserves a special thank. Graduate Coordinator Roxanne Fernandez has been fundamental for the completion of my dissertation. I would also like to thank very much the International Adviser Jasmina Gradistanac for her support, help, and advising. During my years at Stony Brook I have been a Teaching Assistant for two academic years and I taught a course for the Summer Session II in 2005, in the Africana Studies Department. That has been a wonderful experience and gave me the chance to meet Floris Cash and Tracey Walters. I would like to thank them for their support, help and for sharing with me their knowledge and social activism.