Jackson Purchase News

Grammy Award-winning Leyla McCalla to play Clemens Fine Arts Center February 18

Leyla McCalla is a Haitian-American singer, songwriter, arranger, cellist, and multi-instrumentalist who will perform on stage at the Clemens Fine Arts Center (CFAC) February 18 as part of West Kentucky Community and Technical College's Black History Month events.

Born in New York City to a pair of Haitian emigrants and activists, McCalla developed an early fascination with Haiti and its culture, in part because of the time she spent visiting her grandmother there as a child. After moving to Ghana for two years and later graduating from New York University (NYU), she eventually moved to New Orleans, where she planned to make a living playing cello on the streets of the French Quarter.

"At the time, I didn't realize how deep the Haitian roots of New Orleans ran," McCalla explained, "but I very quickly found myself diving into all the cultural and historical connections."

By 2013, McCalla had already gained fame as a member of the Grammy Award-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops, a group she'd spent two years touring and recording with before leaving to pursue her own career. Her dedication to illuminating the Black roots of American culture was only growing stronger. From 2014 to 2019, McCalla's releases garnered considerable accolades, with The New York Times saying of her solo debut, Vari-Colored Songs: A Tribute to Langston Hughes, "her voice is disarmingly natural, and her settings are elegantly succinct." During these releases and international tour dates, Duke University first contacted McCalla about researching the Radio Haiti archives.

"At the time, I honestly didn't know all that much about Radio Haiti," she recalled. "I knew that the owner, Jean Dominique, had been assassinated and that his widow, Michele Montas, had kept the station going after his death."

McCalla began making research trips to Duke University, delving through many hours of broadcasts with the help of archivists and experts. In her bio, she said she discovered the remarkable story of a radio station that had stood up to oppressive government regimes and political censorship to broadcast news, commentary and investigative journalism at a time when doing so came with deadly consequences.

With Montas' blessing, McCalla began work on the theater piece, which incorporated live musical performances alongside dance, video and archival recordings - a personal, revealing and touching story from her new album Breaking The Thermometer that the CFAC audience will see unfold at McCalla's February 18 concert.

"As an educator and producer, I am committed to continually learning. Leyla's love of discovering stories that need to be told, and then sharing those stories through her musical craft is what creating is all about," said Todd Birdsong, CFAC director. "She is an inspiration to all those who hope, dream and imagine a better world, and I hope that her music resonates with our community."

Continuing in her bio, McCalla said Breaking The Thermometer asks many questions such as: What does democracy look like? Who does it work for? How long can it last? McCalla said the record explores the legacy of Radio Haiti - the country's first radio station to report the news in Haitian Kreyol, the voice of the people - as well as the journalists who risked and lost their lives to broadcast it for nearly 50 years.

McCalla said she found herself forced to grapple with her own experiences as a Haitian-American woman, unraveling layers of marginalization and generations of repression and resolve as she searched for a clearer vision of herself and her purpose, adding she didn't write Breaking The Thermometer to answer our questions; she wrote it to question our answers.

Original source can be found here.