Instructor: Noehre
WF 09:30 AM – 10:50 AM
Black Poetics and Sonic Ecologies
Sound has a particular impact on our physiology as humans. Poetry has historically used the relationship between sound and body to create an emotional impact on the reader. In this class, students will gain the tools to discuss poetic techniques with special attention to the impact of sound on life and artmaking. We will also explore sound ecologies that make up our own lives– i.e. the auditory sensations that we live in and experience daily.
Much of the course readings will focus on how Black poets, writers, and artists use sonic techniques to create ecologies of sound in their work. We will explore how sound relates to the making/un-making of knowledge, music as a way of encoding freedom and liberatory thought, and discuss the sonic co-opting of Black culture. Students will, no matter their background, develop an understanding of their own cultural sound ecologies and creatively reproduce, challenge, beautify, or dismantle the sounds that impact their everyday life. We will read poetic and critical works from JJJJJerome Ellis, Fred Moten, Joy Priest, Roger Reeves, and June Jordan as well as view visual/video art that relies upon sound for meaning-making by artists such as Arthur Jafa.
Students in this course will write critically about how sound impacts art as well as make and share their own multi-modal sound-reliant poetic works. All experience levels with music, multi-modal artmaking, and poetry are welcome!