Duke Performances is pleased to report that the organization had a highly impactful 9-day residency with acclaimed Haitian-American singer-songwriter Leyla McCalla from Thursday, February 27 through Friday, March 6, 2020. The residency culminated in the world premiere of Breaking the Thermometer to Hide the Fever from Wednesday, March 4 through Friday, March 6 at Duke University’s von der Heyden Studio Theater — a new multidisciplinary performance by McCalla and New Orleans-based director Kiyoko McCrae exploring the legacy of Haiti’s first privately owned Creole-speaking radio station and the assassination of its owner, Jean Dominique, in 2000.



Breaking the Thermometer, commissioned by Duke Performances and co-commissioned by the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans and MDC Live Arts at Miami Dade College, is the newest installment in Duke Performances’ From the Archives initiative, which invites forward-thinking performing artists to engage creatively with archival materials from Duke’s David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Duke Performances received New Music USA Project Grants for two previous From the Archives projects, Jenny Scheinman’s Kannapolis: A Moving Portrait and Gerald Clayton’s Piedmont Blues.

Over the past two years, McCalla and McCrae, with guidance from Duke professor and Haiti specialist Laurent Dubois and Radio Haiti project archivist Laura Wagner, have mined the archive for recordings that showcase the impact of Radio Haiti-Inter on Haitian cultural and political history. As part of the final 9-day residency at Duke, artists engaged with the community of Duke scholars, presenting to classes on Public Policy (16 attendees) and African diasporic dance (35) and participating in a lunchtime conversation moderated by Dubois (74); a dinner with local and national scholars in the field of Caribbean Studies (22); and a post-show reception for project collaborators that included Michele Montas and J.J. Dominique (Jean Dominique’s widow and daughter, respectively) and Jocelyn McCalla (Leyla’s father), whose stories are featured in Breaking the Thermometer (25). The residency engaged a broad cross-section of the Duke and the Durham communities, with targeted outreach to the local Haitian population. Campus and community partners included the Duke Forum for Scholars and Publics; the Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library; and Duke Departments of Music and Dance. Total attendance for the performances was 380, for a grand total of 552 community members directly impacted by the residency.

Additionally, Duke Performances commissioned Laura Wagner to write extensive program notes and, as part of a broader collaboration with Duke Arts, to create a full-scale immersive exhibit in the Rubenstein Arts Center — just down the hall from the von der Heyden Studio Theater. Both sets of materials provided patrons and the general public an opportunity to learn more about the history of Radio Haiti, including the photographs and archival audio used in Breaking the Thermometer. It is our hope that these materials will travel with the piece, providing audiences in other cities, both nationally and internationally, an opportunity to engage in a deeper fashion with the work, its archival sources, and the historical events that inform it.

Outside of the premiere, the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans has served as a primary partner, helping to facilitate community engagement and provide valuable residency and performance space. The CAC hosted the first production residency in September and October 2018.

Breaking the Thermometer will be available for touring on a national and international basis starting in Fall 2020, including confirmed performances in Philadelphia (WXPN/World Cafe Live, Nov. 2020) and New Orleans (Contemporary Arts Center, Dec. 2020), where the performance will include additional community engagement activities highlighting New Orleans’ cultural and historic connection to Haiti. MDC Live Arts at Miami Dade College is confirmed to present the work in 2021.

The Breaking the Thermometer to Hide the Fever residency resonated deeply on campus and in the community, and it enabled Duke Performances to full achieve its residency goals, which included:

• Co-commission and present a work of high artistic quality honoring the legacy of Radio Haiti and Jean Dominique, and allowing it to have a touring life beyond Duke Performances
• Provide the Duke and Durham communities with an opportunity to attend and engage with a world-class music and multidisciplinary performance
• Engage the Duke and Durham communities in a timely exploration of Haitian history, identity, and culture, as well as the indispensable role of a free press in any democratic society
• Provide insight into McCalla, McCrae, and their team’s creative process and provide additional context for the work through a series of conversations in different community settings (and across disciplines)

Duke Performances has assembled a project website to help document the project and provide useful information to the public and prospective presenters.

Duke Performances is grateful to New Music USA for its generous support of Breaking the Thermometer to Hide the Fever.

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Credits

Directed and produced by Kiyoko McCrae
Music written, arranged and performed by Leyla McCalla
Sound and Projection Design by Kyle Sheehan
Story developed by Leyla McCalla, Kiyoko McCrae & Kyle Sheehan
Choreographed and performed by Sheila Anozier
Drumming and percussion by Jeff Pierre & Shawn Meyers
Lighting Design and Technical Direction by Jo Nazro
Set Design by Jebney Lewis
Dramaturgy by Laura Wagner
Photography by Alex Boerner