Mixed Modes and Performance Codes of Political Demonstrations and Carnival

Popular singer Sweet Micky (Michel Martelly) became Haiti’s president in 2011 after a controversial election cycle. Port-au-Prince in late 2010 was overwhelmed with political demonstrations ostensibly in support of Martelly. Alongside other evidence, musical cues suggested that the voting process was less than democratic. Five years later, the 2015–16 presidential elections were again highly contested and ultimately failed to produce an elected government in time for a smooth transition between administrations. The political farce was decried by musicians as an eleksyon madigra (Mardi Gras election), articulating views held by many citizens and observers. This chapter explores how the seemingly unrelated and seldom associated phenomena of carnival and political demonstrations are in fact intricately intertwined, while reassessing the use of the Kreyòl terms anraje (a state of physical and emotional exuberance or enragement) and angaje (an expression of political engagement) that are often applied to describe musical (and civic) behavior in both contexts.

Determining the Date of Robert Hunter's Androboros

The year 1714 has long been acknowledged as the publication date of America's earliest extant play, Androboros, a short and bawdy political farce by Col. Robert Hunter, governor of the New York colony from 1710 to 1719. Some scholars even go so far as to cite August 1, 1714 as the exact date, and not without good reason. The title page of the only known copy, now in the Huntington Library, clearly states: “Printed at Monoropolis since 1st August, 1714.” Such evidence would appear to be conclusive were it not for two references within the playscript itself that prove Androboros was written and printed no earlier than 1715.