Práticas musicais contemporâneas na Paraíba: a identidade negra em performance

Abstract

This research aims to identify how the Black identity of artists from Paraíba manifests in their artistic-musical practices and how these musical praxes relate to the strengthening of Black identity in the region. To this end, we adopt as a reference the trajectories and a performance by two Black artists active in the state: Elon and Laíz de Oyá. From this perspective, the study presents a brief contextualization of the history of Blackness in Brazil and the Americas, highlighting the paths, struggles, and achievements of the African diaspora throughout the construction of postmodern social identities and structures. Subsequently, we explore how musical practices operate as technologies for the cultural transmission of Blackness, describing and analyzing the artistic journeys and musical works of the selected artists through an Afro-centered theoretical lens. Finally, we proposed to discuss certain individualities and transversalities observed in the musical practices of the artists, based on a self-agency perspective grounded in Afro-referenced frameworks. This approach aims to elucidate the role of Afro-diasporic protagonism in artistic expression and in the counter-hegemonic occupation of spaces of scientific production.