Afro-Latin Soul Music and the Rise of Black Power Cosmopolitanism

Book excerpt: Whereas research on the global impact of US African American culture and politics and transnational connections in the African Diaspora has increased significantly since the release of Gilroy ́s Black Atlantic, the hemispheric dialogues between black communities in the US and Latin America have remained somewhat understudied until now. Focusing on the role of Soul music for the popularization of the Black Power movement in Afro-Latin American contexts in the 1960s and 1970s, this book aims to contribute to a better understanding of the networks of solidarity that connected geographically and linguistically distant afro-diasporic communities in their struggles for emancipation and against the diverse manifestations of white supremacy that have shaped societies throughout the Americas in the 20th century. Drawing on field research and interviews with musicians, DJs, and activists in New York, Rio de Janeiro and Panama, this multi-sited study traces the inter-American flows of Soul music in diverse Afro-Latin American contexts. Crossing boundaries between African American and Latin American Studies this book opens new perspectives to scholars of Black Transnationalism, music and social movements in the African diaspora of the Americas.