Cajun Music and Zydeco as Social Barometers
9:30 a.m., Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2006
Webster Hall Auditorium
Admission: free

This presentation traced and illustrated the history and development of Cajun music and zydeco through recorded excerpts. Both music forms share considerable repertoire and stylistic influences, yet each retains its distinct identity. They also serve as effective barometers of their respective societies, indicating the effects of the pressures that have come to bear on them.

Dr. Barry Jean Ancelet is a professor of folklore and Francophone studies in the Department of Modern Languages, which he currently chairs, at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He is a native Louisiana French-speaking Cajun and has given papers and published articles and books on various aspects of Louisiana’s Cajun and Creole cultures and languages. He has a doctorate in Études Créoles (anthropology and linguistics) from the Université de Provence (Aix-Marseille I). Dr. Ancelet is a member of France’s Palmes Académiques and Quebec’s Ordre des Francophones d’Amérique, and hosts the “Rendez-vous des Cadiens,” a weekly live radio show from the Liberty Theater in Eunice, La.