La Danza Poética #46 Juaco - Conversaciones Poéticas con RAMULA
A special collaboration between La Danza Poética and La Rebelde Academia de la Música Latinoamericana (RAMULA).
Joaldo Domínguez, aka Jo Selector, a journalist, radio maker and DJ based in Brussels, and the man behind RAMULA on Groovalizacion Radio, recently sent me recordings of his good friend the poet Gustavo Gómez Giraldo, aka Juaco. This week Joaldo also recorded an interview with Juaco sending it across the ether from Brussels, and in Melbourne I mixed it in with a number of the poems - from Juaco’s series ‘Las Condiciones Objetivas’ - and some wonderful new music from Brazil’s Sentidor, Ecuador’s Mateo Kingman, France/Ecuador’s Nicola Cruz, and Argentina’s Negro Dub.
This show is (apart from my interruptions) in Spanish. For English speaking listeners I will post a translated transcript of the conversation for you here shortly. But please, listen, now, to the music in the voice, which is universally understood.
TRACKLIST
Juaco a.k.a Gustavo Gómez Giraldo - Conversacíon con Joaldo Domínguez
Mateo Kingman - Sendero Del Monte
Juaco - La Joya (poemas de la serie ‘Las Condiciones Objetivas’)
Juaco - Dioses todopoderosos
Nicola Cruz - La Mirada (Umoja Remix)
Nicola Cruz - Cumbia del Olvido (Jiony Remix)
Juaco - Se preparan para la guerra
Nillo & Sentidor + Friends - Casa da Minha Alma (Wolf Remix)
Juaco - Danzo sobre la sombra
Sentidor - Inverno
Juaco - A nosotros no nos hicieron de un pellizco de barro
Sentidor - Dezembro
Negro Dub - PPK - Resurreccion (Negro Dub Remix)
Mateo Kingman - Dame Tu Consuelo
Juaco - Memoria de mudos
Sentidor - Os Momentos Plenos Da Minha Vida São Verdes
Juaco - La lista de los notables
NOTES ON THE SHOW
Gustavo Gómez Giraldo
Juaco, aka Gustavo Gómez Giraldo, was born in Caramanta, a little village in the Andes mountains (Antioquia, in Colombia). In his life he worked as a lottery retailer, a paperboy, a bus driver assistant, a taxi driver, a smelting worker, a worker in the banana plantations, a teacher, producer and cultural facilitator, but all through the last 41 years, he has been writing poetry. He tells Joaldo that he started to write through the influence of the socially conscious republican Spanish poet Miguel Hernández and Argentinean folk poet-singer Atahualpa Yupanqui.
"Uno no puede vivir sensaciones de otros como turista, uno tiene que ser el otro.
El yo individual que aparece en la poesía siempre es un singular colectivo.
Es un oficio muy peligroso porque todo lo que uno hace afuera, lo hace adentro de uno".
Juaco
Juaco is a poet in their tradition, concerned with the liberation of the working class. He hopes, he tells Joaldo, that conversations between the guerrilla and the government in Colombia may lead to the first steps towards peace, for a country that has been torn apart by war since La Violence, in 1948, with the poor, and the innocent, the victims. Living in Brussels, Gustavo’s health is fragile, meaning he is unable to participate in militant acts and demonstrations. So he speaks to us through his poetry, and we take the profound, and revolutionary, action of listening.
This mix is also kind of a focus on ZZK Records! Three artists from ZZK’s roster feature. First, Mateo Kingman. His debut album, Respire, has just been released. The singer-songwriter of Ecuadorian-Amazonian music fuses traditional Latin American sounds with hip-hop, rock, and pop, plus his own recordings of the jungle. I featured a track of Mateo’s last month. Now another from the album, which is on AYA Records, a new imprint from ZZK. Nicola Cruz we have featured a number of times on La Danza Poetica, and more in this show, from the remix album of Prender el Alma. And, a ZZK release of electro-cumbia remixes by Negro Dub.
I also want to highlight the latest from Sentidor. From Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Sentidor is musician and audio/visual artist João Carvalho. Bringing together electronica, Brazilian sounds, poetry and experimentalism, the album Memoro Fantomo_Rio Black is a a sensory electronic diary, a chronicle of depression and an artistic study of the mind and memories. Richly textured and deeply felt. We also hear in this hour a track from his previous collaboration with Nillo.
The image I use for this show is from Sentidor's collaboration with Amanda Gasparetto - Valsa Num Trem Adormecido:
Also! Speaking of ZZK Records, this energetic group have released also the first in a documentary series, The Nu LatAm Sound - the first video features Mateo Kingman. Watch it here:
My very big thanks to Joaldo, for this special program. RAMULA is a great podcast, where music and its creators are contextualized, historical and political and cultural depth and energy. You can find previous podcasts on groovalizacion.org/ramula Also I thank Juaco, for sharing his beautiful voice, deep insights and poetry. ¡Muchas gracias, poeta y maestro!
