My book: Rude Citizenship: Jamaican Popular Music, Copyright and the Reverberations of Colonial Power, is finally out in the world! It’s the product of many many years research, and musicking, and thinking, and listening, and learning. You may have gleaned some of my interests already if you’ve read other things, but here’s the main points:
This book places popular music, law, communication, public policy and cultural studies in dialogue with each other, grounded in ethnographic engagement, to illuminate the interactions of race, technology, law and culture.
In this deep dive into the Jamaican music world filled with the voices of Djs, producers, dancers, fans, promoters, vendors and community members I use my skills as a DJ, media law expert, and ethnographer to identify how Jamaican creative practices resist and transcend colonial power, and I illuminate how copyright law fails Jamaican musicians because it is embedded in colonial assumptions.
I’m so pleased to see it reaching people - I’ve been getting tagged in bookselfies all weekend (note: PLEASE DO THIS)! I made a collage of the first 16 which you can enjoy below :)
It is available for sale here: https://tinyurl.com/rudecitizenship, please share it and info about it with everyone you know!
Also, I will be heading out into the world this summer (AT LAST, and pandemic permitting, of course), and doing some book talks and DJ gigs.
Currently looking at Vienna, Paris, Berlin, Dresden, London, and Lisbon - please do get in touch if you want me to come talk about the book and/or DJ there, anywhere nearby (or reachable from there) or anywhere, really - I’m up for it all, at this point! I will post links to events where they are confirmed, in the EVENTS page.