Angela Boatwright: Cuba
Posted: August 2nd, 2009 | Author: kamau | Filed under: globalization, hip hop, photography | Comments Off
Screenshot of “Cuba” series on Angela Boatwright’s site. © A. Boatwright
Angela Boatwright: Cuba. Image series of the hip hop scene in Cuba as highlighted on her newly re-designed site. I am a big fan of Angela Boatwright’s emotionally honest, raw music photography, Cuba’s hip hop scene with its outsider (politically aware) status is a natural fit for her style.
See also: New York Times: Cuba’s Rap Vanguard Reaches Beyond the Party Line
The situation among Afro-Cubans, about 60 percent of the population, is especially acute. They are considerably poorer than whites, according to studies. Among the reasons are that white Cubans are more likely to have relatives sending remittances from the United States, and whites hold the bulk of the jobs in the profitable tourism industry.
Afro-Cubans complain that they have inferior housing and are more likely than whites to be hassled on the streets by the police.
The rappers speak of these and other problems, often bluntly.
“What we sing, people can’t say,” said Mr. Rodríguez Baquero, who wore a blue bandanna to pull back his braided hair as he rapped on the sidewalk outside an overflowing club. “They think we are crazy. We say what they only whisper.”
