Rasta Gyal Workin' (in) the Culture

Abstract

This short creative ethnography experiments with the interrelationships between ethnographic form and function in embodied practice. Gender, sexual, and racial dilemmas play up close and personal as the author hones in closely on just one night, one episode in a series of what makes up 3½ years of ethnographic fieldwork. The author finds that the rhythm of the dancehall cannot be separated from the rhythm of the writing, if she were to attempt to bring the scene to life by being as faithful to her lived experience as possible. Unfettered by theoretical abstractions in this particular writing form, she attempts to transport the reader into a felt understanding of the performative site-a site rich with fodder for the function of shared personal understanding and scholarly exploration.