Pass The Mic: Bomba Y Plena 101 From Megan Curet

All over the internet today, and largely since Bad Bunny's residency there are arguments online over Bomba Y Plena's roots. Meet Megan Curet an Afro Boricua PHD Candidate on Decolonial movement, an expert on the topic.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Sons Ghana and this is past the mic. I'm super
excited because, as you guys see, there's a huge debate
right now on Bombay Plena, where it came from and
where it didn't, who's doing it and who's not. So
I'm excited to be passing the mic to Megan Carret
de la Mia, persona who's a PhD candidate at Plymouth University.

(00:21):
She's a dancer, she's a doula, she is an Afro,
and she is ona who's about to give it to
you straight. With that said, I'm a pastor mic Meghan, Hi.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Everyone, thanks for having me. So yes, I am a
dance artist, academic and educator. So this is not only
like my my world, but it's really the center of
my PhD thesis, which is on decoloniality. My thesis is
literally decolonizing traditional North American dance spaces through a cultural

(00:55):
syncretism of bomba and contemporary dance. And what I do
is I look at the element to bomba as like
a training tool in order to kind of reframe the
way our bodies engage with movement, decentering Eurocentric forms like ballet,
American modern dance. And so this has really been like
not only the center of my world as a boutiqua,

(01:16):
but like the center of my research world, and like
dance practice for minimum at least the last decade, and
to see everyone coming out of the woodwork, literally like
I feel like I'm in a haunted house. In every
other corner is a person who doesn't practice BOMBA jumping
out right, let me know a thing or two about BOMBA.

(01:37):
I'm like, what is it that you think you know?
It's crazy the year and honestly, like, I try not
to take it personally because I know that like the
resurgence of Bomba overlapping a bit with like the Bad
Bunny Tour a bit. I say that mildly because the
resurgence has been happening. I get that there's an excitement

(01:58):
at a rush, a rush to want to know, want
to pass on what we think is the right information.
And so I try not to come at this from
a judgment place. And I know that some people mean
well in some of their messaging, but the reality is
none of us know what elders and practitioners know. It
doesn't matter how much we want to know unless we're

(02:19):
sitting with books and literature and text and reading. If
we cannot practice or going to a baday or going
to a circle or like sit reaching out, reaching out
to drummers and puttingmo drummers and dancers and asking them, hey,
how can I get some of your time to learn more?
None of us are going to come close. I love, love,
love what social media has done for amplifying our culture

(02:44):
and our lineage to a certain degree. But at the
end of the day, this platform will never resolve or
preserve our culture. It has to be us.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
And so a direct question is what is it that
you know for those who are tuning in? What is
it that people are getting wrong you know? And what
is actual bomba?

Speaker 2 (03:06):
Like can you.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Define it for those who are learning for the first time.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
So I'm gonna first define it and then I'm gonna
get into what is happening. So it is a song,
dance and music form, meaning you cannot have bomba without
the three elements. That means the dancing, the singing, the percussion,
and sometimes you will in a bata in a real

(03:32):
turn up, you will have huiros being played maraccas. But
bombay itself are those three elements, and of course it's
Puerto Rico. There's a huge overlap and cultural syncretism with
literal Taino influence and culture and heritage, which is where

(03:53):
some of the discourse that we are hearing now is happening.
And so it is an African form. The boma is
a drum that was brought over by the Ashanti people
in former West Africa. And I say former because the
region where the Ashantis came from isn't technically on the
map as we know it now, so we're looking at
the Ghana region for example, that West African section. And

(04:17):
so people right now are in uproar because some people,
while well meaning, are jumping into the conversation to talk
about the very important whitewashing that has happened and continues
to be perpetuated. But by saying that, you know, it
is not indigenous. It is an African indigenous practice. So

(04:42):
we can't negate that. But it is an African form.
It is a black form, and so one people not
of African descents want to come in to whitewash and
repackage it, they're adding fuel to the fire and that
has to be noted.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
Thank you so much, Maga for sharing your wisdom. Mihantella,
show her some love and tell her that I sent you.
This is past the mic of Proxima