SOUNDMAKING PUBLICS
Soundmaking Publics explored literacy and literacy learning in
community settings where youth and adults make beats, scratch records,
play musical instruments, tinker with digital audio workstations, and
generally make a lot of noise. The project assembled an emergent network
of musicians and sound artists in the Detroit metro area for these
space-making activities. Three questions drove this project: 1. How
literacy formations circulate through community networks. 2. How artists
working in the aural humanities learn to teach. 3. How young people use
sound to compose about their vision of justice.
Michigan State University
Detroit & Pontiac, MI
2019—2022
Research articles:
Sonic play: On the b-side of literacy and songwriting. English Teaching: Practice & Critique, 22(4), 462-481. 2023. With Tia Harvey & Rolando Ybarra.
Oh boy, I ain’t playing no games!: Making sense with youth in the aural imaginary. English Teaching: Practice & Critique, 19(3), 365-379. 2020.
Youth, reberations, and Detroit’s most charismatic rapper. Sounding Out! 2020.
Photos by James Easterly