International literature and music festival

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Leyla McCalla

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Friday November 3, 2023

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21.00 - 21.45

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EVENING PROGRAMME

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Korzo - Heartbeat Hotel

Image for Leyla McCalla

Photographer:
Laura Partain

Artist

Leyla McCalla

New Orleans-based Leyla McCalla first rose to fame with the Grammy-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops, before launching her solo career to widespread acclaim in 2014.

Born to Haitian emigrants and activists, her music is fuelled by rich, sophisticated melodic work and intoxicating Afro-Caribbean rhythms, which shine a light on the enduring spirit of the Haitian people.


Her remarkable new album Breaking the Thermometer offers animmersive sonic journey through 50 years of racial, social, and political unrest as it explores the legacy of Radio Haiti — the first radio station to report in Haitian Kreyòl, the voice of the people — and the journalists who risked their lives to broadcast it.


Combining original compositions and traditional Haitian tunes with historical broadcasts and contemporary interviews, McCalla writes with great insight and introspection, grappling with memory, family, and her own Haitian-American identity as she searches for a clearer vision of herself as a woman and an artist.

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