Giving an invited talk next week. Putting on my smarty pants.

Listen Up! Sound-Making Publics in Urban Education

Artists and activists have important assets to enrich school and community settings, but systemic barriers often keep these assets from educators and youth. In this presentation, I focus not on the barriers but on what happens when urban educators overcome them. My particular focus is sound-making publics: hip-hop and electronic music producers, DJs, and artists/activists who apply the aural humanities in schools, libraries, rec centers, and other public spaces. I use examples from a decade of work connecting artists, educators, and youth to make beats, scratch records, and manipulate sounds. Listening in on this work, we will hear how young people’s aural imaginations guide their learning, how micro-networks of assets evolve over time, and how educators use sound as a response to injustices around them. Come with ears open and headphones on.