The Brasserie Lorraine is a cultural center organized by a cooperative in the center of Bern. You can meet here informally, without any obligation to consume. There is food, drink and often events. In summer there is a concert every second Monday. So also on July 18th. On that Monday, the group Lauwarm, a five-piece Swiss combo, performed in the “Brass”, as the center is also called.
On that July 18th, however, the band could not finish their concert. The cultural center canceled the concert after several visitors complained. The accusation: cultural appropriation. Because Lauwarm plays reggae, and two of the band members have dreadlocks.
Some people speak of cultural appropriation when members of the white majority society use a culture whose members have oppressed them. The Jamaican music style reggae should therefore only be played by the black indigenous population. And according to this way of thinking, dreadlocks are also taboo for white people.
The cancellation of the concert caused a stir. Brasserie Lorraine made its Instagram account private. The cultural center has now published a statement on its website and justified the cancellation: “We do not claim that we did the right thing by canceling the concert,” it says there. However, just letting it continue felt wrong. “We could also call it overload.” One wants to have a discussion that produces a clean analysis and also includes the accompanying consequences that colonialism has left in the discussion.
The musicians from Lauwarm also spoke up: “As a band, we have never been directly confronted with the topic of cultural appropriation,” writes the group on Instagram. “We treat all cultures with respect. But we also stand by the music we play, our appearance and the way we are.”
In an interview with the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung” (“NZZ”), band boss Dominik Plumettaz expressed his disappointment at the cancellation of the concert: “We felt alienated because nobody from the audience approached us when we played that evening ” said the musician. His band’s performances are not about cultural appropriation. “We are inspired by other cultures and other styles of music, develop them further and make our music that way.”
The cancellation of the concert is likely to further fuel the discussion about the concept of cultural appropriation and “cancel culture”. At the end of March, a similar case caused a stir: the climate activists from Fridays for Future Hanover imposed a performance ban on the musician Ronja Maltzahn. She also wears dreadlocks.
Source used: Brasserie Lorraine, Lauwarm on Instagram, “NZZ”