Orature

joseph roach on the dynamics of circum-atlantic performance, in which memories of the old & co-creation of the new mingle. Adewale S. Adenle, Dancing in Congo Square, 2010.

Orature is an art of listening as well as speaking; improvisation is an art of collective memory as well as invention; repetition is an act of re-creation as well as restoration.

— Joseph Roach, Cities of the Dead: Circum-Atlantic Performance