Sonic Activism, Radical Futurities and Counterhistorical Trickster Poetics

Application summary

This project explores the convergence of activism, music and storytelling within a critical perspective on history and contemporary environmental justice movements. Its core aim is to scrutinize the interplay between different forms of historical narratives, marginalized versions of history, and the potential for devising alternative future scenarios in which oppressive norms are confronted. This research employs counterhistory, storytelling and music as narrative tools to engender a bottom-up historicism. Counterhistory is a narrative form that defies mainstream discourses and historical determinism by posing speculative "What if?" scenarios. Through an inquiry into counterhistories in the form of storytelling and music, this research aims to challenge our understanding of history and its connection to present-day environmental justice issues. The project explores how climate justice initiatives have been using music and storytelling to engage younger audiences and challenge the growing stigmatization and aggression directed at them by far-right populist movements. The research will investigate how climate justice efforts can learn from the diverse forms of resistance and futurity practiced by various oppressed communities in the Global South, particularly in Latin America. These communities have a rich tradition that encompasses alternative temporalities and trickster poetics, including the profound use of sonic phenomena as tools for resistance and cultural preservation. By employing interdisciplinary methodologies encompassing phenomenology, dialogic ethnography, and participatory performance, this project aims to cultivate a multivocal understanding of the potential of storytelling and music in challenging historical determinism and oppression. The last stage of the research will highlight manifestations of sonic resistance and futurity among activists, as well as among marginalized peoples.