Out Of The Caribbean: Dancing the Revolution: From Dancehall to Reggáetón Exhibit Opens at MCA Chicago
MCA Chicago explores Dancehall and Reggaetón as politics, culture, and resistance. Dancing the Revolution: From Dancehall to Reggaetón, which opened on April 14, is being described as the first of its kind: a major museum presentation that displays Dancehall and Reggaetón not just as music genres, but as political and spiritual histories of Caribbean music. […]
Black News 
MCA Chicago explores Dancehall and Reggaetón as politics, culture, and resistance.
Dancing the Revolution: From Dancehall to Reggaetón, which opened on April 14, is being described as the first of its kind: a major museum presentation that displays Dancehall and Reggaetón not just as music genres, but as political and spiritual histories of Caribbean music.
The exhibition, curated by Puerto Rican native Carla Acevedo-Yates, brings together more than forty artists, painters, photographers, installation artists, and sound sculptors, all working in the tradition of two genres that were born in the streets, survived every attempt to suppress them, and ended up shaping global culture anyway. Featured artists include Isaac Julien, Alberta Whittle, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Edra Soto, and Cosmo Whyte, among others.
The show traces a journey from Kingston to San Juan, from Panama City to the Bronx, from the Notting Hill Carnival to the clubs of London’s Black diaspora. It begins, fittingly, with the sound system, that most democratic of institutions, a mobile disco that transformed empty yards and street corners into temporary places of musical worship. From there, it moves through Dancehall’s evolution as a genre that gave voice to the Jamaican working class: fashion, attitude, bodily autonomy, and political critique all rolled into a bassline.
Dancehall and Reggaetón are not only musical genres but cultural practices and powerful expressions of resistance and joy, reminders of the Caribbean’s centuries-old traditions of dance and music as means of liberation and protest rooted in Black history and culture.
The exhibition’s title is inspired by the shifting RPMs (revolutions per minute) that mark the tempo and history of Caribbean popular music, as well as by the historic events now known as the Verano del 19, or Summer of 2019, in San Juan, Puerto Rico; multi-sectoral protests demanding the resignation of then-Governor Ricardo Rosselló. On July 17, the same day that Rosselló resigned, LGBTQ+ and feminist activists led perreo combativo, or “combative twerking,” on the steps of San Juan Cathedral, transforming reggaetón’s characteristic dance into a form of political protest. This reclamation of public space through dance, an act deeply rooted in Dancehall history and culture, demonstrates how music and dance can serve as bold acts of collective resistance and emancipation.
What makes this genuinely significant is not just the quality of the work on display, though that is considerable. It is the fact that a major American art institution has looked at Dancehall and Reggaetón, music that was fined, censored, and criminalised at its own origins, and said: this is art history. This is political history. This is ours.
One gallery has even been converted into a karaoke bar, with a Dancehall and Reggaetón playlist open to singers every Tuesday evening. What is missing is the link between the two genres, the origins of the music, and any mention of the ongoing lawsuit by Jamaican producers Sly & Robbie versus the entire Reggaetón genre.
Dancing the Revolution: From Dancehall to Reggaetón runs at the MCA Chicago through September 20.
