Published in The Dorchester Reporter in January 2022.
Rebecca Zama, singer and activist, resists the pressure to ‘pick a sound’
Hunched in a dimly lit Dorchester recording studio last November, the Boston-raised singer Rebecca Zama tests her track: riffing in English, belting in Haitian Kreyol, murmuring in Spanish, and, when forgetting a lyric, cursing in French. As the young artist seamlessly flits from language to language, her hands dancing in the air, her pink Converse sneakers tap to the beat and a fusion of notes and sounds fills The Record Co. studio in Newmarket Square.
Afro-Cuban percussion beats thrum from her pulsating computer, providing a background for Zama to sing. She only stops to take another sip of her ever-present iced coffee that is half-finished at 6 p.m.
A first-generation Haitian American born in Washington, D.C., Zama is enchanted by the rich sounds of so many different cultures. As she sings, her head bobs to the rhythm, her long black hair swaying behind her.
“If I can’t say something the way I want to say it in English, I can say it in French,” she said. “It just helps me to think outside the box and not confine myself during my songwriting.”
Kenneal Patterson 