Listening Through the Sacred Bush

The evening will explore how embodied rural traditions—Lasotè, Bèlè, and plant-based ritual—continue to carry resistance, knowledge, and community through generations. With a focus on Martinique and Barbados, this session brings together three practitioners who connect the vibrational, the ecological, and the spiritual in their work.

Marcel Jean-Baptiste, also known as Mawongany, is a Martinican composer, scenographer, and coordinator of the association Permactivie. He will guide participants through an active listening session grounded in Bèlè—a rhythmic and spiritual musical tradition deeply tied to resistance and rural community life.  Isambert Duriveau, a Martinican sculptor, musician, and educator, will focus on Lasotè, a form of communal agricultural labour that weaves rhythm, cooperation, and ancestral knowledge. With decades of experience as a cultural worker and teacher, Duriveau offers deep insight into the poetic, social, and spiritual dimensions of this practice—where cultivation becomes ceremony, and collective work becomes a form of mutual care. Annalee Davis, an artist, writer, and cultural activist from Barbados, brings these traditions into conversation with her post-plantation artistic practice. Her work investigates how plants, land, and embodied ritual can serve as tools for healing, resistance, and counter-knowledge—growing future strategies for repair.

Together, the three guests invite us into an intimate space of sonic, tactile, and spiritual resonance—asking what it means to listen deeply to the land, to one another, and to the lineages that continue to speak through us.

This evening is part of Spore’s ongoing collaboration with the Martinique-based association Permactivie, which supports agroecological and artistic practices rooted in ancestral knowledge.