Jammin’ “Under One Groove”: An Autoethnographic Steelband Love Story

• In Event: Reflexivity in Arts-Based Research Through Performative Autoethnography

Abstract

Presenter 1 explores autoethnography’s potential to enhance interpretations and understandings of steelpan music, investigated through her own experiences as a practitioner playing in steelband competitions in Trinidad and Tobago, and participating in events and rehearsals hosted in Phase II Pan Groove and other panyards. Growing up in Aruba under the Dutch colonial system, and prompted by an episode in which she learned to play a spiritual on steelpan during her time at school, Granger became interested in studying steelpan music as a means of understanding music and resistance in the context of the postcolonial Caribbean, and thereby challenging the legacy of colonialism and slavery as well as her own privilege. Autoethnography presents itself as a valuable and liberating methodology that enabled her to move beyond passively voiced narratives of resistance and present an animated story of her embodied experiences, articulating those feelings through prose while simultaneously considering the limitations of steelband. Of particular interest is the “Year for Love” of the 2018 National Panorama competition, in which bands performed songs about love and decorated their instruments accordingly, promoting love as an alternative to the country’s escalating crime and leading Granger to contemplate both her own love for steelband music and that of others.

Author

• Charissa Granger, University of the West Indies - St. Augustine