What is the sound of detention? What is the sound of resistance? There is a long history of artistic curation and sonic intervention contributing to civic engagement and social justice. A musical score can be both a call to action and a tool for decolonization.

Sound can also be used to quell uprisings, as we witnessed when long-range acoustic devices (LRADs) were deployed by the police at Standing Rock. But what happens when those same sounds are wielded as a form of protest, echoing with the songs of refugees and migrants? How can we listen to Indigenous histories? How can we listen to the soundscape of nearly a billion people on the move and in search of refuge, navigating a world of forced removals, expulsions, and detentions?

This webinar will bring together composers, performers, authors, and cultural historians to explore these questions and more as we look at a range of media and global artistic practices that have captured and repurposed the sounds of protest, resistance, and empowerment.
  • How curators, composers, and historians document, contextualize, and amplify the sounds of protest
  • How musical scores replicate or analyze sites of conflict, protest, or direct action
  • How gallery spaces construct a community of artworks, both local and global, that become an experience of civic engagement
  • How local music histories can tell the story of changing neighborhoods, bearing sonic witness to the challenges of gentrification and eviction
  • How musicians have created soundtracks for labor and immigration movements, making music that resonates at immigration marches and in front of detention centers

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