The culture and artistic expression of Africa’s diaspora remains permeated with the history and memories of Africa, invoking a simultaneous feeling of exile and home. In slavery times, the diaspora’s women wove the fibers of their past into songs, dances, and stories. And in doing so, they allowed their traditions to survive through an oral culture, despite forced relocation and against nearly impossible odds. Today, these traditions have given rise to an extraordinarily diverse range of artistic expression, of which music has remained central.

The music of Kera M. Washington reconnects these diasporic roots, retracing the routes of forced exile and cultural resistance through rhythm and song. In her powerful new song, "The River," Washington fuses Haitian, Brazilian, and West African percussion with traditional folksongs and her own style of vocal percussion.

"The River" tells the story of sisters Erzulie and Oshun, transported from Africa to Haiti and Brazil, respectively. We are introduced to Oshun first, who is reunited with her sister as they both bathe in the waters of Ginen (Africa). Elated, they sing for each other until their admirers, Shango and Ogun, arrive, attracted by the sounds of playful converstion, but too noisy to surprise the modest pair, who retreat together into the wood.

In "The River," Washington incorporates a wide array of percussion, including Caribbean and West African instruments. Washington's voice, which shows remarkable range, follows the rhythm of the percussions’ rise and fall. In this self-produced, solo creation, Washington invokes the polyphonic ambience of the diaspora.

Re/connections. This is the energy that Kera Washington brings to another of her projects: zili roots. This all-female collective, which consists of six musicians, has recorded two of her original compositions, "Mama" and "erzulie." zili roots is more bass heavy than Washington's solo work, but it retains the force of her voice. On "Mama," she evokes the guardian of the crossroads, Legba, the most powerful deity of the Fon of Dahomey, a figure prominent in contemporary vodoun practice. "erzulie," which also incorporates a traditional Haitian folksong, is a spoken-word piece about the variety of injustices visited upon people of African descent throughout the diaspora. "erzulie" also features Washington's characteristic vocal percussion.

It is clear from "The River," a striking solo debut, as well as the music of zili roots that Kera M. Washington possesses an unusually moving and powerful voice, allowing her to move easily from melodic singing to vocal percussion to chants and spoken word. She also demonstrates a thorough mastery and knowledge of the many percussive instruments of the African diaspora, from the US to the Caribbean to West Africa. Please listen carefully to the enclosed material, I think you will find the sound of an emerging artist of considerable talent.

Kera M. Washington has been performing and teaching music using Boston as her base for ten years. Her first love is percussion, which was found while studying ethnomusicology at Wellesley College and Wesleyan University. She has studied with master drummers from Ghana, Haiti and Brazil, and has traveled to Haiti and to Brazil to advance her studies. She currently is on faculty at Wellesley College, MIT, and Northeastern University, teaches music at St. Peter School, and presents music residencies in the Boston Public Schools. Her work is featured on an upcoming CD produced by McDougal/Littel, America's Music: Songs From American History, and she is producing her first CD, african roots, due to be released December 2000. She performs and has toured internationally with Tjovi Ginen, featuring Haitian mizik rasin (roots music); with In The House, 60s-90s Motown, R&B, & Funk; and with zili roots, her own all-female band performing original music of the African diaspora.