Gage Averill is an ethnomusicologist. He has written on the role of music in both Haitian and Trinidadian migration to North America, especially on music’s contribution to a poetics of place that enacts nostalgia and memory, negotiates the relationship of migrant communities to host communities, and sustains a sense of transnational connectivity and identity.  To this end, he has worked on the popular music industry, on secular rituals such as carnival (or rara in Haiti), and on popular religion. His immersive ethnography has included playing in and directing ensembles, marching in carnival bands, judging contests, writing liner notes and music journalism, and producing festivals.