AKIYO

AS PART OF THE 30TH EDITION OF THE VILLES DES MUSIQUES DU MONDE FESTIVAL & THE MOIS KREYOL FESTIVAL For this exceptional evening, musicians and artists from Île-de-France will join the members of AKIYO on stage for a unique concert format, the result of shared work involving transmission, encounters, and creation. An original artistic proposal that celebrates memory, gwoka, and the Guadeloupean carnival. AKIYO AKIYO is a music band whose drums echoed through the streets of Pointe-à-Pitre during the carnival in the late 1970s. Formed as a cultural movement, AKIYO aims to revitalize Guadeloupean culture during the carnival and beyond. Their commitment and deep-rooted identity became their DNA right from the start; instead of satin and sequin costumes, they introduced a new way of writing their time and space: they re-examine the body as a space of History, a social and political place. Masks, costumes, and instruments are rethought and used to address the issues affecting Guadeloupe. Saint-Jean rhythms inhabit their music. Their very name stems from the public's question — "a ki yo?", "who are they?". As a pioneer and elder of the "gwoup a po" (skin-drum groups), AKIYO has carried this movement far beyond the archipelago and remains a benchmark of Guadeloupean cultural resistance, from social struggles — including the 2009 general strike — to the memory of slavery.