Field
of Study: Yanvalou Drumming & Dance
Ensemble, African Diasporic Drumming
Education:
B.A., Wellesley College, Music and Anthropology; M.A.,
Wesleyan University, World Music; Ph.D. Brown University,
Ethnomusicology (expected May 2006)
Prizes:
Irene Diamond Fellowship, Brown University
(2002); Horton-Hallowell Fellowship, Wellesley College (2001);
Fellowship, Massachusetts Cultural Council (1996); Traveling Fellowship
B2P (2006); Semifinalist, Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz
International Hand Drumming Competition (2000)
Professional
Experience: Research interests include applied ethnomusicology
and bi-musicality in
Caribbean and African Diasporic arts; Haiti; identity and tourism;
urban education; bridging the gap between the resources of the academy
and the “inner city.” In addition to
directing
Yanvalou Drum and Dance Ensemble and teaching “Music of Africa
and the
Caribbean” at Wellesley this semester, also part time music
teacher
at the Emerson Elementary School in Roxbury. Developed courses
at Northeastern University, MIT, Pine Manor, and Brown University.
Actively leads and arranges music for her ensemble, zili misik.
Kera’s dissertation is entitled “Music and the Haitian
Soul: Haitian Identity
and Folklore in the Music of Emerante des Pradines Morse.” She
has been featured on Boston’s “Chronicle” (Channel
5, 2005) and “Urban
Update” (Channel
7, 1997), and
Providence’s “Caribbean Review” (Channel 13, 2003)
Recordings: “zili roots” (independent release,
2003); “Songs in
American History” (Houghton Mifflin, 2000); “Greatest American
Short Stories” (Houghton Mifflin, 2001); and on Patrice Williamson’s “Free
To
Dream” (2002); fall release zili misik
Websites: www.wellesley.edu/Activities/homepage/yanvalou
www.sonicbids.com/zili
Photo by LaWanda Finley
