'Although dancehall and reggaetón are associated with entertainment and nightlife, they carry deep social, political, and spiritual histories,' says Carla Acevedo-Yates about a new exhibition she curated that explores how the music genres have been helpful as a form of resistance.
'They have a profound history in Black Atlantic performance, serving as sites of cultural production and tools for survival and resistance. Joy and pleasure are essential to that story,' states Acevedo-Yates, adding, 'The exhibition tries to hold these tensions, between resistance and celebration, and grief and joy, across different sexual, racial, and class experiences. It’s not about replacing one narrative with the other, but about expanding how we understand these cultural forms.'
View of a Bushman sound system at Notting Hill Carnival, London, United Kingdom, 1989.
The show titled Dancing the Revolution: From Dancehall to Reggaetón at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago features the work of some 40 artists including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Phil Collins, Reggie Burrows Hodges, Edra Soto, Alberta Whittle, Carolina Caycedo, and Lee 'Scratch' Perry spanning painting, sculptures, video, installations, photographs and a special commissioned mixtape project by Juan Rivera on the evolution of the music genres. Central to the selection of artists and artworks for the exhibition were research trips to Panama and Kingston, where Acevedo-Yates met with curators, historians, and artists, and also spoke with pioneering reggae en español artists, including Renato and Nando Boom. The research trips were supported by prior knowledge and by research conducted by her curatorial team.
One of the curator’s highlights in the exhibition is Territories (1984), an early student film by British artist and filmmaker Isaac Julien that examines Black life in Britain, focusing on the Notting Hill Carnival and sound system culture in London during the 1970s and 1980s. The carnival has its origins in Trinidad as a form of resistance to British colonial rule. The film emphasises how the carnival and expressions of black joy in public spaces were subjected to police violence and government surveillance, shares Acevedo-Yates.
Charlie Ace and the Swing-A-Ling Mobile Record Shack, Kingston, Jamaica, 1973.
The idea for the exhibition kicked off about seven years ago during mass protests in Puerto Rico, which included members of feminist and queer communities dancing to reggaetón on the steps of a colonial cathedral in Old San Juan, near the governor’s mansion. The protests eventually led to the resignation of then-governor Ricardo Roselló.
Beth Lesser, Papa Screw, selector for the Black Scorpio sound system, in front of the speaker boxes in the Scorpio headquarters, Drewsland, Kingston, Jamaica, 1985.
Work on the exhibition started some four years after the protests. 'While the exhibition initially focused on reggaetón and the summer of 2019 in Puerto Rico, it expanded to include Jamaica and Panama. It felt important to trace reggaetón’s roots in Black Atlantic culture, from Kingston’s sound system traditions to dancehall to reggae en español,' explains Acevedo-Yates. 'Through my research, I understood that dancehall is not just a genre of music, but also a social space, an attitude, an economy, and even a kind of ritual. Across all of this, I found that visual artists have been engaging with these histories for decades.'
Dancing the Revolution: From Dancehall to Reggaetón is on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago through 20 September 2026