Ivor L. Miller (Institute for Research in the African Diaspora in the
Americas and the Caribbean, City University of New York)
Submitted: Sat, 23 Feb 2002 14:29:19 -0500 (EST)
Dr. Ivor L. Miller
IRADAC (Institute for Research in the African Diaspora in the Americas
and the Caribbean)
City University of New York--Graduate Center.
e-mail: imiller@hampshire.edu
Web page: http://afrocubaweb.com/
Ivor Miller is a cultural historian specializing in the African Diaspora
in the Caribbean and the Americas.
His book Aerosol kingdom (University Press of Mississippi, 2002), is
based on his M.A. thesis from African American Studies at Yale University. This
work documents and interprets the creation of Hip Hop culture in New York City
from its beginnings in the late 1960s till the present, focusing on the
Afro-Caribbean and African American contributions resulting from 20th century
migrations. Based on interviews with major painters and musicians of this
movement over a period of 14 years, this book examines issues such as the
creation of multi-ethnic, racial, and gender cultural practices; naming
traditions; the train as metaphor in the African Diaspora; the subversion and
re-invention of standard language; cooptation by and resistance to big business;
the global expansion of Hip Hop; and the importance of class conflict in this
cultural movement.
Over the past ten years, Miller has conducted field research in Cuba. His
doctoral dissertation (Northwestern, 1995) examines the Yoruba-derived
Santeria religion of Cuba, focusing particularly on the status of
African-derived religions, cultural traditions, and identities in Cuban
history, particularly during the post 1958 Revolution. In 1997 he
collaborated with Dr. Wande Abimbola, the Awise (spokesperson for
babalawos) of Ile Ife, Nigeria, former president of the University of
Ile-Ife, on a book comparing Yoruba traditional religion, culture and
language in Nigeria with that of its derivatives in Brazil, Trinidad,
Cuba, and the USA: Ifá will mend our broken world (Aim
Books, Roxbury, Massachusetts, 1997).
Miller's current project documents the little known history of the Cuban
Abakua, a society derived from the Cross River region of Nigeria. Working
in collaboration with Abakua elders, he has documented the foundation of
the society in the 19th century, and its continual role as a symbol of
Cuban national culture. Abakua lore in Cuba may prove useful to Cross
River peoples as they reconstruct their own past. In July 2001 he helped
facilitate an historically first-ever encounter between the Efik of
Nigeria, and the related Abakua of Cuba at the Efik National Association
meeting in Brooklyn, NY.
Miller's work has been supported by fellowships from the Schomburg
Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library; The
Cuban Exchange Program at Johns Hopkins University; The Institute for
Research in the African Diaspora in the Americas and the Caribbean
(IRADAC) at the City University of New York (CUNY); Amherst College.
Recent publications:
2002 Aerosol kingdom: subway painters of New York City. Jackson,
Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, c2002. (218 p.)
2000 "A Secret Society Goes Public: The Relationship Between Abakua
and Cuban Popular Culture." African Studies Review. vol. 43, no. 1
(April 2000): 161 - 88.
"Religious Symbolism in Cuban Political Performance." TDR: A
Journal of Performance Studies. Vol. 44, no. 2 (T166): 30 - 55.
1997 Ifá Will Mend Our Broken World: Thoughts on Yoruba Culture
in West Africa and the Diaspora: Wande Abimbola, Interviews and Introduction
by Ivor Miller. -- Roxbury, MA: AIM Books. (206 p.)
Other keyword: Latino