This Women's Month of March, a most unusual theatrical performance took place in central Port-au-Prince at the cultural center FOKAL (Fondation Connaissance et Liberte). An all-women Rara band named Rara F, members of the women's feminist theatre group Atelier Toto B, gave a very experimental and daring performance to a packed auditorium. The all-women's band played traditional Haitian drums with the flared, single-pitched klewon--also known as kone, long home-made trumpets, mixing theatre, Rara music and the experience of the public's reactions to the first ever all-women's Rara band. Previously, Rara F performed, as is the tradition, in the streets; on March 9 they performed on the FOKAL stage capturing the imagination of those in attendance. Rara F proposes forms that can renew the Rara experience at large by injecting more theatre into it. They play with rhythms, onomatopoeia, dances, and songs, trying them on in a different register. Creating a new, modern language they use Vodou rhythms and traditional instruments while incorporating women's voices, their body language and their sensibilities. Atelier Toto B initiated this experiment first for its own members, the women in the theatre group, hoping to help them master the Rara form and experiment with it to find new energy and break psychological barriers that would have people believe women cannot do certain things reserved for men. Atelier Toto B is under the artistic and administrative direction of Dieuvela Etienne and Manoucheca Ketan. Rara, in general, is first of all a big collective spectacle where folk imagination and creativity can express itself in great exuberance. Traditionally male executed; men play instruments with women adding their voices. Rara F experiments with this spectacle from a women's point of view freeing women's expression while honoring and giving value to traditional folk forms. Full article plus photos at http://tinyurl.com/2gfzqn
