Fela: From West Africa to West Broadway.Edited by Trevor Schoonmaker Palgrave, July 2003 $19.95, ISBN ISBN abbr. International Standard Book Number ISBN International Standard Book Number ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m 1-403-96210-3 This compilation of essays peers at the protest artist and funky instrumentalist Fela Kuti with thoughtful inspection, canonizing the cult hero as a deity of the groove and icon of the oppressed op·press tr.v. op·pressed, op·press·ing, op·press·es 1. To keep down by severe and unjust use of force or authority: a people who were oppressed by tyranny. 2. . Kuti's life and work, which was to birth the festive, funky sound called Afrobeat and use it as a platform for his criticisms against the government of his native Nigeria, is examined by 12 capable and smart writers. His trademark middle-finger rebelliousness is also explored; it's the personality that led him to perform in his drawers, marry his 27 dancers, smoke weed openly and claim Iris home as a compound independent of government rule. Though Kuti was a modern, iconoclastic i·con·o·clast n. 1. One who attacks and seeks to overthrow traditional or popular ideas or institutions. 2. One who destroys sacred religious images. African rock star with myriad influences, he wasn't exempt from Africa's struggle with AIDS; he succumbed to the virus in 1997. Trevor Schoonmaker, a New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of curator, edits the volume, and he presents this work as a preview to Black President, a traveling Fela-inspired exhibition he has assembled. Although facts about Fela's life drills on home, the book's diversity of perspectives is part of what makes it click. You get the hipster musings of a young American intellectual who visited Fela's domicile; thoughts from his son, Feral; a political cartoonist who weighs reporting on Fela's social commentary-as-performance art antics against very real government censorship and bullying; and so on. At times, it's a fascinating text; its only faults being a risk of intellectual immersion that can be hard to swallow, particularly since this is not a biography and readers might miss his life presented in a chronological manner. Luckily, additional sub-discourses appear. Also, Fela's otherworldly, fireball performances and esteemed musical catalogue exude ex·ude v. To ooze or pass gradually out of a body structure or tissue. mystery, which only strengthens his appeal. But the scientific breakdowns of his mojo steal hits of the magic. This hurts here when we learn that some of Fela's shtick shtick also schtick or shtik n. Slang 1. A characteristic attribute, talent, or trait that is helpful in securing recognition or attention: was indeed visionary and prophetic, but some of it Dadaist nonsense. --Malcolm Venable is a writer in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. |
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