Welcome to our audio altar. Plug in. Relax yourself. Listen deeply.
Created and produced by Black Feminist Queer Press Hush Harbour in collaboration with RoomĀ and Writing While Black, Speech Sounds is a 5-part audio-series showcasing sound artists, griots, and poets while engaging in a conversation around memory and culture for those within the African diaspora.
The seriesĀ centres the power and tradition of oral storytelling in the past, present, and future for Black communities. Themes include Black sound origins, queerness in sound, Black aesthetic, Black joy, ancestry, and eldership as well as artistic process.
Episode 1 | The Art of Listening
Featuring Mahlikah the Moonrise Poet and Michie Mee
In āThe Art of Listeningā we talk about how listening and being listened to is critical for Black thought, counterculture, revolution, and myth-making.
Episode 2 | Queer Gifted & Black
Featuring NASRA, Nicole Shawan Junior, with special appearances by Yvvana Yeboah Duku, Onyka Gairey, Dianah Smith and others
In our second episode, we follow the dark, beautiful, incomprehensible spectrum of queerness among Black sound makers.
Episode 3 | Honouring Our Auntiesā Audio
Featuring Myrtle Henry Sodhi, Felene Cayetano, Miss Rose and Aunt June
In āHonouring Our Auntiesā Audioā we listen to the wise storytellers within our families, friend circles, and communities, bridging multiple diasporas with the commonality of archiving the everyday.
Episode 4 | Our Aesthetics: Celebrating Black Sounds
Featuring tUkU matthews, Edythe Rodriguez, Tata Henieriette and jamilah malika abu-bakare
Episode 4 is an entirely FUBU call to the heavens, forever out of reach from the white gaze. This episode does a deep dive to unpack, understand, express, and celebrate the nuanced texture of sound-makers that are committed to Black collective aesthetics.
Episode 5 | Artistic Process: How to Make a Sonic Story
Featuring jamilah malika abu-bakare, Mahlikah the Moonrise Poet, NASRA, Myrtle Henry Sodhi, tUkU matthews, Alannah Johnson and Whitney French
This final episode recaps the seriesā previous themes while meditating on āprocessā for individual Black sound makers and other curious creatives building up their own repertoire around sonic storytelling.
About Hush Harbour
Hush Harbour is a Black Feminist Queer Press. In their own words:
Hush Harbour is dedicated to the imagining of Black feminism in the tradition of Octavia E. Butler. We create and envision Black futures through literary and sonic storytelling with an emphasis on the revival of short fiction.