LISTEN TO NEW TRACK “FORT DIMANCHE” FROM MCCALLA’S THEATRE WORK BREAKING THE THERMOMETER TO HIDE THE FEVER
Her voice is disarmingly natural … her magnificently transparent music holds tidings of family, memory, solitude and the inexorability of time: weighty thoughts handled with the lightest touch imaginable.” —The New York Times
Leyla McCalla finds inspiration from her past and present. Whether it is her Haitian heritage or her adopted home of New Orleans, she — a bilingual multi-instrumentalist and alumna of Grammy award-winning African-American string band, the Carolina Chocolate Drops — has risen to produce a distinctive sound that reflects the union of her roots and experience.
Today McCalla is announcing her signing to ANTI- Records with the release of her new track “Fort Dimanche.” Leyla was inspired to write the song after researching the story of the Fort Dimanche prison, a political prison used by the Duvalier regime to interrogate, imprison, torture, and execute dissidents and suspected dissidents. Listen to the new song HERE.
“Fort Dimanche” is also a central thematic song in McCalla’s multi-disciplinary music, dance and theatre work, Breaking the Thermometer to Hide the Fever, which follows Leyla’s personal journey as she uncovers the history of Radio Haiti, the first radio station in Haiti to report news in Haitian Kreyol – the voice of the people. Through this juxtaposition of voices – the personal and political, the anecdotal and the journalistic – McCalla gives expression to the enduring spirit of Haiti’s marginalized poor in the face of several centuries of political oppression. Performances of the theatre work are currently scheduled throughout December in New Orleans and Philadelphia. Upcoming dates are listed below, with more to be announced in 2022.
The process of creating Breaking the Thermometer to Hide the Fever included listening to countless archival recordings of interviews by Radio Haiti’s journalists, and McCalla specifically wrote “Fort Dimanche” after listening to a testimonial interview that Michele Montas – the prominent former journalist and station director at Radio Haiti – had conducted with a survivor of Duvalier’s political prison. In the interview, the man outlined his living conditions, the daily terror and torture that these political prisoners were subjected to and the events that led to his arrest.
“Listening to this interview was chilling,” McCalla said. “In the recording he kept on saying to himself, ‘M prale nan peyi san chapo’ which in Kreyol means, ‘I’m going to the land with no hats’ – as the threat of being executed was ever-present. Those words became the chorus of ‘Fort Dimanche.’ I feel it is impossible to talk about Radio Haiti or Haiti without addressing the horrors and human rights violations of the Duvalier dictatorship and we still feel the effects of this political repression in Haiti today.”
“I want to dedicate this song to those that lost their lives at Fort Dimanche, and to those that survived the unbearable conditions and abuse,” McCalla added. “May we find the courage to look into our darkness in order to be able to see the light.”
BREAKING THE THERMOMETER 2021 PERFORMANCE DATES
12/3 – New Orleans, LA – Contemporary Arts Center
12/4 – New Orleans, LA (2 shows) – Contemporary Arts Center
12/5 – New Orleans, LA – Contemporary Arts Center
12/10 – Philadelphia, PA – The Fringe Theatre
12/11 – Philadelphia, PA – The Fringe Theatre
2022 TOUR DATES
3/24-27/22 – Knoxville, TN – Big Ears Festival 2022
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Breaking the Thermometer to Hide the Fever is made possible, in part, with a grant from the MAP Fund, supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; a grant from New Music USA, made possible by annual program support and/or endowment gifts from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Baisley Powell Elebash Fund, and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation; a grant from the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation; a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the North Carolina Arts Council; and a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
Breaking the Thermometer to Hide the Fever is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Duke Performances at Duke University, the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, MDC Live Arts – Miami Dade College, and NPN. The Creation & Development Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Special thanks to the Human Rights and Radio Haiti archives at the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University for serving as the research site and partner on Breaking the Thermometer to Hide the Fever, and to the Forum for Scholars and Publics.
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LEYLA MCCALLA
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