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The University’s Lane Series presented Lila Downs at the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts-the event’s co-presenters-April 26 in a vibrant show of cultural diversity through music.
Lila Downs has won both Latin and American Grammies for her profoundly expressive voice, which is highlighted further by her spirited stage presence.
According to the director of the Lane Series, Natalie Neuert, this performance was a long time coming.
“I have admired Lila for many years and we have tried to bring her to Burlington as a Lane/Flynn co-presentation for quite a while-her schedule has been tricky though,” Neuert explained.
“UVM has some deep connections with the state of Oaxaca. We’ve had a program for undergrads in Oaxaca which focuses on field work in food systems, sustainability, music, culture etc. for many years, so I knew there would be a lot of interest from campus in bringing her.”
The daughter of a Mixtec singer and Scottish-American art professor and filmmaker, her strong Oaxaca roots inspire her work.
Whether she took the audience to the streets of Mexico with the sounds of Cumbia and traditional folk songs sung in Spanish or north of the border with American blues and jazz, Downs’ musical language was infectious regardless of translation.
“Her stage presence is so strong and vibrant that even though I didn’t always know what the words meant, her energy made her songs easy to understand and fall in love with,” senior, Anabel Rothschild said. “She put on a performance that everyone visibly loved.”
There was something animalistic in Downs’ flexibility as a performer. Many of her songs explored the portrayal of human emotion as seen in animals.
From a crying dove-from “Cocurrucuc?? Paloma”-or graciously awaiting the warming nourishment of chicken in “Los Pollos,” Downs became the animals she sang about using her voice and body in animated dance.
“Her ability to use her voice as an expressive instrument is quite extraordinary,” Neuert added. “It can sound beautiful, or even harsh, [like a] human or like an animal or bird.”
Alongside her long-time band-La Misteriosa-of first-rate, multicultural talent, Downs incorporated props like scarves, shawls and an apron for “La Cumbia del Mole,” to further embody the characters and themes of her lyrics.
“Something so simple added so much to an already strong performance,” Rothschild said. “It was just this extra Mexican flare that made her comfortable on stage.”
But at other points of the concert, the message of her work required little extravagance beyond her own words.
Downs reached out to the migrant worker population hiding in the shadows of Vermont agriculture and members of the Burlington-based organization, Migrant Justice, who were in attendance.
She discussed the injustices of undocumented Hispanic workers and dedicated the song “Minimum Wage” to their struggles, as images of the migrant community picking America’s vegetables and traversing desert borders were projected behind her.
“The powerful, riveting Lila Downs, is a voice for Native Indigenous cultures of Mexico and in the continents of North and South America,” UVM alum, Alma Hartman said. “She is an advocate for immigrant Hispanic American rights as well as human rights and does so through her art form.”
Visiting artists like Lila Downs continue to enhance Vermont as it transitions to a much more multi-cultural society after being relatively mono-cultural for most of its history, Neuert suggested.
As a variety of peoples, languages, foods and culture find a home in Burlington, the Flynn and UVM Lane Series continue to celebrate their arrival.
“And how wonderful to celebrate that with art, music and dance,” Neuert said. “The arts are perhaps one of the strongest ways we can appreciate the differences and similarities between cultures and look outward and forward instead of inward and back.”
