About the Project

Margins In Resonance is a welcoming and collaborative audio-social project that invites members of diverse Black communities to share their stories, voices, and sounds. The project is a way of connecting with the Black diaspora* and investigating the role that music and sound plays in shaping identity, culture, and belonging.

This project asks members of the Black community to share with me about their lived sonic experience. Together, we will ask:

What role does music play in shaping your sense of self? How do the places you call home, and the realities you live every day, influence the sounds you're drawn to, whether you're listening, or producing?

These questions stem from my own journey as a diasporic Black woman, navigating the layered complexities of identity, place, and belonging. Growing up surrounded by dominant representations shaped by imperial and Western ideals in music and media, I have often struggled to see myself fully reflected in the narratives around me. That absence led me to listen more intently for what felt authentic and aligned with my own sense of self. It also inspired me to seek out the sounds of my birthplace in the West Indies, drawing on collective and diasporic memories, and tuning into forms of resistance that echoed my own experience.

My work is deeply informed by Black studies and diasporic research, which help me trace the socio-historical threads that shape my identity and the broader realities of Black life across geographies. Through sound (collecting and producing), I engage with these threads, grappling with what it means to carry multiple histories, and finding resonance in the stories, rhythms, and voices of other Black diasporic people.

While participating in the Open Studios artist residency at Struts Gallery in Sackville, New Brunswick, I am looking to connect with Black community members from a range of backgrounds and lived experiences in the region. I will ask to record the audio of our conversation to create samples to add to a mixed audio collage that pieces together field recordings, experimental sounds and music. The work will be presented to the public at the end of August.​

Keywords

Audio Collage

A way of making sound art by layering and blending different audio elements. You can take different sounds like music, people talking, birds singing, water crashing, footsteps, or whatever you can capture audibly, and mix them all together to make something new to listen to.

A term used to describe the movement or dispersion of people from their ancestral homeland. As individuals and communities navigate new geographic and cultural contexts, maintaining ties to cultural, emotional, and historical roots can become both more complex and more essential to the formation of identity.

Referring to spaces or communities that exist outside the mainstream or centers of power. Sometimes people choose to be there, drawn by a sense of freedom or difference. Other times, they are systemically excluded or overlooked. But from the edges, people often see things others can’t, and their perspectives can be sharp, creative, and full of possibility. bell hooks’ Choosing the Margins as a Space of Radical Openness (1989) offers a powerful reflection on what it means to live in the margins, reimagining it as a space of possibility, resistance, and transformation.

Learning by making things. Instead of just reading books or writing papers, you can also discover new ideas by making art, music, or other creative stuff.

In music, resonance is when the vibrations of one sound match the natural frequency of another, causing it to start vibrating too. It’s like one sound waking up another because they’re in tune with each other. More broadly, resonance can describe when a sound, idea, or feeling sticks with you in a meaningful way, even after it’s gone. It’s often used to talk about deep connection or relevance that echoes across time, place, or experience.