Listening/Speaking in Tongues

The decolonial dimension of my soundwalk practices has integrated the poetic dimension of Gloria Andalzúa’s literature. The main objective is to find significant connections with the mestiza and Chicana subjectivity embedded in the ‘transfonterizo’/’borderland’ concept. Perhaps that idea can convey a subaltern formation that carries the agency of being an immigrant, queer, and in constant flux between borders, languages, and cultures. 

My latest soundwalks are based on a score without using technology but focusing on attentive listening to Andalzúa poetry. This approximation is the case of the soundwalk titled: “Listening/Speaking in Tongues,” which quotes Andalzua’s essay “Speaking in Tongues, a Letter to  Third World Women.” The soundwalk maintains a critical relation to the Concordia University campus and its spatial connections with Andalzua’s experience and struggles in academia as a woman of color. The soundwalk route considers the location’s sonic dynamic of the BIPOC political and historical context as well as the audience’s situated experience in academia. 

Walk presented at Soundwalk Symposium at Concordia University 2022.