Abstract
Abstract This article examines how Edwidge Danticat’s memoir Brother, I’m Dying (2007) and Wyclef Jean’s musical album The Carnival (1997) stage Haitian refugees’ encounters with US law. Both artists experiment with what I term “vocal labor,” a set of aesthetic strategies that denaturalize the human voice in order to decouple its facile elision with individuality and intelligibility. I argue that Danticat and Wyclef destabilize their own positions as articulate spokespeople to expose the legal and extralegal mechanisms that solicit refugees’ voices only to disarticulate and disavow them. In doing so, I demonstrate how Black performance reveals and responds to the sensorial dimensions of state-sanctioned violence.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
