=?x-unknown?q?30321=3A__Wilcken_=28announce=29=3A_MAYA_DEREN=B9?==?x-unknown?q?S_CLASSIC_VODOU_FIILM_ON_FRIDAY=2C_APRIL_13TH?==?x-unknown?q?=2C_IN_MANHATTAN_=28fwd=29?=

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From:  Lois Wilcken <makandal@verizon.net>

For immediate release

MAKANDAL AND THE HUNTER COLLEGE HAITIAN DRUM WORKSHOP PRESENT MAYA DEREN¹S
CLASSIC VODOU FIILM ON FRIDAY, APRIL 13TH

Makandal, a company that brings the traditions of the Haitian people alive
in music and dance, and the Haitian Drum Workshop of Hunter College announce
a special screening of experimental filmmaker Maya Deren¹s Divine Horsemen:
The Living Gods of Haiti on Friday, April 13th, 8 pm, in Brecher Hall at
Hunter College CUNY.  This viewing of the film celebrates its recent release
by Mystic Fire Video in DVD format.

In 1947 Deren departed for Haiti on a Guggenheim fellowship with a plan to
film sacred Afro-Haitian dance within an eight-month time frame.  But once
in Haiti, she discovered that ³the dance could not be considered
independently from the mythology.²  During her filming over the next several
years she studied anthropology, experienced the ³white darkness² of spirit
possession, and published the classic book, Divine Horsemen:  The Living
Gods of Haiti in 1953 (reprinted by McPherson & Company, 1983).  In 1977,
Deren¹s widower Teiji Ito and his second wife, Cheryl Ito, posthumously
completed the making of the film.

Please join us in celebrating this classic on Haitian Vodou.  Savor the rare
aural and visual images from the 1940s and ?50s, which bring to life the
private (ritual) and public (Carnival and Rara) faces of Vodou.  Our program
offers a brief introduction by Dr. Lois Wilcken (author, The Drums of
Vodou), a showing of the film, a discussion moderated by Hunter College
students, and light refreshments.

Admission
$5 general public; FREE for Hunter students with College ID

Travel Directions
Subway:  6 to 68 Street/Hunter College
Car: Street parking usually available. You may also use Gemat Parking Lot,
1317 2nd Avenue between 69th and 70th Streets, open from 7 am to 1 am.  For
fees, call 212-639-1454.
Enter the North Building on East 69th St between Lexington and Park.  Take
an elevator to the 6th floor, make a left, then a right after the double
doors.  Walk straight to Brecher Hall.

Makandal and the Ethnomusicology Program of the Hunter College Music
Department established the Haitian Drum Workshop in 1983, and the
Undergraduate Student Government has chartered and funded it since 1996.
The Workshop meets Friday evenings to study the remarkable rhythms of
Haitian Vodou with Master Drummer Frisner Augustin (NEA Heritage Fellow).

Further information:  718-953-6638, makandal@verizon.net