Sounding a Queer Rebellion. LGBTI Musical Resistances in Lima, Perú
Lecture by Fiorella Montero-Diaz
Senior Lecturer in Ethnomusicology
Keele University, UK
This talk introduces Fiorella Montero-Diaz's most recent interdisciplinary project on Latin American LGBTI artivism and shares insights from her latest article on music, dissidence and protest. Montero-Diaz, Senior Lecturer in Ethnomusicology at Keele University (UK), discusses how Peruvian studies on music and gender fit into the broader academic map.
"I will focus on the relationship between sex/gender diversity and Peruvian popular music, specifically in emerging LGBTI scenes. There you find examples of impactful artivism that open spaces for new masculinities and femininities that transgress the traditional gender imaginary. Through direct testimonies from LGBTI artists and a section of their followers, I will discuss subversion, innovation, visibility, resistance and artivism in the contemporary LGBTI scene, documenting the meaning and impact of music especially within Lima’s transgender community. These views, together with the testimony of vernacular singer Wendy Sulca, reveal intersectional dynamics and the convergence of pro-LGBTI rights, feminist and anti-racist agendas, which coalesce around the organization of musical events and urban interventions. I hope that this contribution will support the visibilisation of diverse LGBTI musical resistances as political life, as well as a tool to secure equal rights in Peru. It is also my hope that it may encourage more researchers to notice and document the role played by dissident voices in the social organization of a country like Peru."
Fiorella Montero-Diaz is a Senior Lecturer in Ethnomusicology at Keele University, UK. She completed her MA in Ethnomusicology at Goldsmiths, University of London and her PhD in Music at Royal Holloway University, UK. She specializes in urban hybrid music, and the use of music as a social nexus in post-conflict contexts, with an emphasis on youth identity, upper classes and whiteness. She has published ethnomusicological articles in specialised magazines and books such as Ethnomusicology Forum, Musiké, Popular Music and Anthropologica, among others. Currently, thanks to a Global Challenges Research Fund grant awarded by the British Academy of Medical Sciences, she leads the project ‘Sounding a Queer Rebellion: LGBTI Musical Resistances in Latin America’ together with musicologist Luis Gabriel Mesa Martínez. She is Head of the Department of Music and Music Technology at Keele University and member of the Executive Board of the British Forum for Ethnomusicology (BFE).
Part of the Nazir Ali Jairazbhoy Colloquium Series, this event is sponsored by The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music Department of Ethnomusicology, with support from the Dean of the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.