Expert bata drummer Ezequiel Torres discusses perscussion during a workshop this past Thursday, part of a two-day conference on "Lucumi Music: Singing, Dancing, and Drumming Black Divinity," organized by Duke's Center for African & African-American Research, directed by Professor Randy Matory, to engage the historical and cultural aspects of the sacred music of Lucumi.
The conference also featured discussion by David Font-Navarrete, a lecturing fellow in the Thompson Writing Program, who is also a Lucumi priest and expert drummer. It included scholarly panels and roundtable discussions, music and dance workshops and multimedia events.
Lucumi music encompasses a rich and diverse complex of musical traditions from the Afro-Cuban religion known variously as Lucumi, Regla de Ocha, Orisha or Santeria.
The conference coincided with the forthcoming publication of a monograph on the subject by Font-Navarrete and Kenneth Schweitzer, a music professor at Washington College.
Photos by Jared Lazarus/Duke University Photography
