SOUNDSCAPES OF SOCIAL JUSTICE
This online symposium, co-presented by SONCITIES and the Harvard University Department of Music, brings together sound artists, composers, and sonic theorists in a 2-day gathering exploring issues of soundscape and social justice, through talks, listening sessions, artist presentations, conversations, and panels. We are thrilled to welcome a vibrant group of speakers whose work engages with social and political issues in relation to listening, field recording, and sonic ecologies. The symposium features keynote speakers Ain Bailey and Louis Chude-Sokei, whose work tackles issues of race, memory, community, and technology in connection to soundscape and listening, and invited speakers Mike Bullock, Edzi’u, Olani Ewunnet, Allie Martin, Jacek Smolicki, Christabel Stirling, and Tom Western, whose music, sound art, and writing forges new ways of engaging with soundscape, from issues of sonic citizenship and belonging to urban sonic ecologies, the sonic dimensions of gentrification and climate crisis, and soundscape and field recording in relation to indigeneity, vocality, and power.
WEDNESDAY 7 DECEMBER
All times given in Eastern Standard Time (EST) and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
10.00 EST (15.00 GMT) Welcome by Yvette Janine Jackson and Gascia Ouzounian
10.15-11.00 EST (15.15-16.00 GMT) Olani Ewunnet, ‘YE DEJI ABEBA NEGN: Sonic Floral Imaginaries in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’
11.00-12.45 EST (16.00-17.45 GMT) PANEL
Christabel Stirling, ‘Sound, City Life, and Critical Ethnographic Scholarship’
Alison Martin, ‘Freedom Sounds in the Nation’s Capital: Juneteenth Weekend in Washington, DC’
Tom Western, ‘Covered Mouths Still have Voices’
13.00-14.00 EST (18.00-19.00 GMT) Modes of Sonic Assembly: A Keynote Conversation with Ain Bailey
THURSDAY 8 DECEMBER
All times given in Eastern Standard Time (EST) and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
10.00– 11.45 EST (15.00-16.45 GMT) Listening session with Edzi’u, ‘Ts’ats’ee Sounds,’ and Mike Bullock, ‘Energy, industry, and emergency’. Moderated by Yvette Jackson.
12.00 PM - 12.45 EST (17.00-17.45 GMT) Jacek Smolicki, ‘From Soundmarks to Soundscars (and back): Socio-environmental imaginations in soundwalking and field recording practices’
13.00-14.00 EST (18.00-19.00 GMT) Keynote lecture. Louis Chude-Sokei, ‘Race and the Prosthetic Ear’