NTS Guide to: Twoubadou

Twoubadou, rooted in the Haitian Creole word for "troubadour," echoes the emotional narratives of its medieval namesake. Twoubadou traces its origins to the early 1900s, when seasonal migrant laborers working the cane fields in Cuba came to know and love Cuban guajiro music. The Cuban sound was soon melded with Haitian méringue and twoubadou was born. Twoubadous, akin to traveling bards, craft (often humorous) songs of love, life's complexities, and fleeting passions. "Twoubadou represents so much of what’s great about Haiti as an incubator for the arts, always bringing disparate cultures together to form wonderful new and uniquely West Indian expressions. Twoubadou is beautiful. Twoubadou is joy." Link Show made by Hugo Mendez.