BY REBECCA WEXLER
NEW YORK—With the exception of the delicate gold rings on nearly all of her fingers, Petra Gelbart does not look stereotypically Roma. Her fair skin and small hazel eyes suggest her father’s Czech and Eastern European roots more than her mother’s Romani heritage. Her children, curled up on the couch in her Queens apartment, inherited more of the distinctive Romani characteristics. Patrik, 6, and Julia, 4, have curly black hair and big almond-shaped eyes set against tan skin.
When Petra sings, however, the force of her Czech-Moravian Romani heritage becomes apparent. Her full-bodied and confident voice easily fills a room, leading some to describe it as “much bigger” than her youthful face and slight 5’3” frame. Her fingers delicately play her accompanying accordion, somehow making the awkward instrument appear elegant. Petra’s mother and grandmother taught her to sing when she was six.
Weaving traditional Russian Romani songs with Latin, Jewish, and R&B inspired twists, Petra is known mostly for her vocal work with the band VIA Romen—which describes its style as “Nuevo Russian Romani” and prides itself on being a modern, 21st century gypsy music band. She began playing with VIA Romen on and off in 2004.
Modest about her musical talents despite her PhD in ethnomusicology from Harvard University, Petra again points to her children as the real musicians. Julia is learning violin, while Patrik plays piano and is already a “classical music nerd,” according to his mother.
In her role as a musician, activist, and academic, Petra is using music to both raise awareness of Romani culture, and counter the crushing stereotypes that have plagued the Roma.
Since emigrating from India to Europe in the 14th century, the Roma’s history on the continent has been marked by enslavement, ethnic cleansing, and segregation. Just last summer, roughly 1,000 Roma were forcibly expelled from France and repatriated to their “countries of origin,” a difficult designation given that many were French-born citizens.
While some elements of Romani culture—namely their musical traditions and historically nomadic lifestyle—have been romanticized in popular culture, other much darker stereotypes brand the Roma as criminals, thieves, and swindlers. Such labels have left the Roma on the fringes of society, oftentimes leaving them without access to education, health care, and jobs.
Through her work with the nonprofit Voice of Roma—an organization dedicated to promoting and presenting accurate Romani culture and traditions—Petra says she is trying to give a sense of legitimacy to this group by presenting its many dimensions.
“There are plenty of visible Romani fortune-tellers, but people already know that the Roma tell fortunes and don’t need more of that,” Petra says. “What we need to see are Romani doctors, professors, and lawyers who have proven that when given a chance, they are just as capable as any other ethnic group of being successful members of society.”
In trying to combat these stereotypes, Petra has joined a growing number of educated, professional Roma working to rebrand their image from thieving nomads to integrated and productive citizens.
Her most recent venture, a yet-to-be-named institute for Romani music at New York University, is an attempt to build on this idea of legitimacy. Working with a Romani professor from Rutgers, Petra hopes that the institute will be a place for scholars, academics, musicians, and students to find accurate information about the Roma and interact with real members of the Roma community.
According to Laura Silber, the director of public affairs at the Open Society Institute—a foundation that dedicates some of its programming to advocating for Roma equality—Petra’s firm foothold in both Roma and American culture makes her a particularly effective advocate.
“She has achieved success musically and academically while holding on to her Romani heritage,” Silber says. “She represents what is possible when the Roma are provided the education and access they deserve.”
For her part, Petra is using music as a natural entry point to educate the masses.
“People think they really ‘know’ Romani music and think that it’s supposed to be all fiery and wild, so I like to go and play something really quiet and slow. People are always so surprised to learn that’s Romani too,” Petra says.
Like many activists, Petra likes to talk about her cause more than herself. Clad in jeans and slippers while sipping tea in her kitchen one evening, she talks briefly of her childhood while keeping one ear open to make sure her children are in bed as they are supposed to be.
Petra was born in former Czechoslovakia in Usti nad Labem, a town that became notorious in the 1990s for the construction of a wall separating Czech family homes from Roma tenement housing. The 150-meter wall was completed despite widespread condemnation by the Council of Europe and the Roma Civic Initiative, but torn down six weeks later amid mounting international pressure.
When Petra was four, her family moved to Prague, and then to Maryland when Petra was ten. The move would be one of many, and Petra has since lived in places including California, London, Prague, and Boston.
While Petra now describes her primary identity as Roma, as a child, she was more concerned about being “American” than embracing this heritage.
“I didn’t look like a Romani kid, so I never really had to deal with being one,” Petra explains.
It was not until she began experiencing rampant racism during her frequent trips to the Czech Republic in her teens that Petra embraced activism. While living in Prague at the age of 19, she joined the anti-racist movement in earnest, marching in protests against the popular Neo Nazi party, and advocating for equality and improved race relations.
“I think it took living in the Czech Republic as an adult to realize how screwed up things were,” Petra says.
“I remember during a protest this little 70-year-old lady came up to me and started beating me with her purse after some Neo Nazis told her I was Roma. She probably thought I was going to go steal something from her,” she adds with a sarcasm she uses to describe most misconceptions about the Roma.
For Petra, a large part of correcting those misconceptions has centered around music. Paradoxically, Romani musicians have been easy fodder for the stereotypical gypsy caravan scenes popularized by movies, but also represent a very real tradition for many Romani families. The musicians are caricatured too, just positively rather than negatively.
“It can be very difficult to use music without further pigeonholing the Roma,” the Open Society Institute’s Silber says. “Petra is uniquely positioned to do this effectively because of her expertise in ethnic identity in music, and personal experience as a Romani musician. She can view these issues as an expert, and a participant.”
Petra recognizes the delicate balance between representing Romani musicians, and becoming just another stereotype herself.
“It can be difficult because a lot of Romani musicians have found that the headscarves and the gold coins and the rest of the get up actually sells pretty well, and market themselves based on those kinds of stereotypes,” Petra says.
Dismissively referring to event flyers with crystal balls and caravans, Petra adds, “There’s just so much crap out there. I find that I’m constantly having to ask some of these people ‘Is this really the way you want to be portrayed?’”
Personally, Petra prefers playing for college audiences that are oftentimes more willing to consider different viewpoints and “don’t mind being lectured about human rights.” While European audiences are downright bigoted and see the Roma as a “dirty criminals,” Petra says there is a dual kind of ignorance in America. Americans are both overly familiar with the negative connotations of being a “gypsy” while lacking any real awareness that the Roma are actually an ethnic group.
“I love telling those kinds of audiences that actually the vast majority of Roma aren’t nomadic, and haven’t seen a caravan since the middle ages,” she says with a smirk. “Stuff like that really blows their minds.”
In addition to the overexposure to negative Romani stereotypes is a serious lack of competing images that challenge those associations. Like so many persecuted populations, the critical mass of Roma who are well integrated and have regular jobs are largely unwilling to “come out,” as Petra describes it.
“Even my mother won’t tell anyone she’s Roma. She lives in California, and is basically content to have everyone speak to her in Spanish and think she’s Hispanic,” Petra says.
While recognizing the importance of a “Pan-Romani” movement as part of her awareness and advocacy efforts, Petra is quick to point out that the Roma are not a static, one-dimensional group.
“You have to think about the Roma like you would think about any other ethnic group,” Petra emphasizes. “I mean, what’s a Slav? When I ask people, they tell me it’s an absurd question because there are Christian Slavs, Muslim Slavs, Eastern Slavs, Western Slavs, etc. It’s the same with the Roma.”
While currently recovering from a back injury, Petra plans to rejoin VIA Romen in May for the annual California Herdeljezi Festival, a weekend celebration featuring Romani dance workshops, music performances, food, and personal storytelling. While she will probably wear a long skirt and scarf, her music and her message will be strictly on her terms.
Online: http://www.voiceofroma.com/