Writing in Clave: Music and Poetry in the Caribbean

Writing in Clave: Music and Poetry in the Caribbean is the first literary study of the globally prominent clave rhythm, an Afro-Cuban principle codified in the 1920s and the heartbeat of Latin music. I argue that clave, beyond its musical function, served as a structural and poetic principle that shaped transnational literary and musical expressions of Caribbean identity from the 1920s to the 1960s. Building on insights from my first book and training in literary studies as well as music, Writing in Clave proposes a new methodology for approaching the interrelations between literature and music. I examine important literary movements that were forged in dialogue with musical trends, beginning with “Black poetry” in the Hispanophone Caribbean (inspired by Cuban son and rumba music) and ending with linkages between salsa music and Nuyorican poetry in New York City. By considering poems, declamations, songs, musical treatises, scores, and vocal improvisations, I demonstrate the way a common clave framework syncopates (that is, places in rhythmic tension) music and literature in debates concerning race and community.