Reflecting on Carnivalesque Improvisation as Anti-Racist Public Pedagogy

Abstract This chapter studies improvisation as an anti-racist praxis through Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of the carnivalesque and the author’s experience with the Latin Alternative band the Rumba Madre. In order to do so, David Vila Diéguez reflects upon the band’s performances in the United States during President Trump’s administration. In these performances people from all racial backgrounds would get together and dance to different Latin styles opposing the antagonistic division promoted by the government. The chapter focuses on three different types of improvisation: rhythmic improvisation, dancing improvisation, and speech improvisation. The first focuses on the percussion solos and improvisations, the second on the audience’s reaction improvising dances to specific Latin rhythms with which—in most cases—they are not familiar, and the third on improvised chanting sections in Spanish the audience would engage with even if they didn’t speak the language. At the same time, and following Bakhtin’s concept of the carnivalesque, the chapter pays special attention to the audience’s corporeality and laughter as two of the main driving forces of this anti-racist praxis that allows for everyone to engage in a “complete withdrawal from the present order” (Rabelais, 275).