Listening Party – Canto IX (after Listening All Night To The Rain) convened by Shamica Ruddock

BOOK HERE

Event Schedule:

5:30 PM – 6:00 PM:
Opening Playlist
Join us for a curated selection of music with refreshments.

6:00 PM – 7:05 PM:
Discussion Part 1
We will present selected audio material accompanied by prepared reflections. This segment includes facilitated discussions, encouraging participants to share their immediate reactions and feelings. We will explore parallels and distinctions between the audio pieces with guided prompts to enrich the conversation.

7:05 PM – 7:30 PM:
Participant Contributions
To conclude, we invite attendees to share their own references and contributions to the discussion. This is an open space for everyone to add their voice and perspectives to the conversation.

We invite audience members to bring along their own sound references. This could be a song or audio piece, in vinyl or digital format.

–

This listening party is proposed as an informal study session – convened in consideration and in contrast to an accepted hegemonic aural regime. Canto IX (after Listening All Night To The Rain) proposes an exploration of sound as an entry point into a diverse decolonial temporality. Departing from dominant narratives and sonic landscapes that reinforce colonial power frameworks, Canto IX (after Listening All Night To The Rain) expands on disrupting and subverting these norms by inviting participants to engage with a multiplicity of voices, rhythms, and sonic textures.

Through curated listening sessions, discussions, and interactive experiences, Canto IX aims to unveil the complexities of decolonial sonic expressions and their potential to challenge, reimagine, and transform our understanding of history, memory and identity. By foregrounding voices and narratives that have been marginalised or silenced within the dominant aural regime, the listening party endeavours to create space for alternative perspectives, experiences, and forms of knowledge production.

Convened by Shamica Ruddock, an advocate for decolonial praxis and sonic liberation, in collaboration with the Stuart Hall Library and various related archives and research platforms, Canto IX brings together scholars, artists, activists, and community members to collectively explore the intersections of sound, memory, and resistance. Drawing upon resources from the Stuart Hall Library and other archival repositories, the event seeks to foreground the rich tapestry of decolonial sonic heritage while also imagining future sonic possibilities that challenge the confines of coloniality.

As participants immerse themselves in the sonic landscapes curated by Canto IX, they are invited to reflect on their own embodied histories and the ways in which sound shapes and informs their lived experiences. By centering decolonial temporality as a framework for engagement, the listening party encourages participants to envision new horizons of sonic memory and collective liberation, forging pathways towards a more just and inclusive sonic future.

Unseen Guests and associated events are supported by the British Council.

About the artist

Shamica Ruddock is an artist often found working between sound and moving image. Shamica’s current research concerns sound cultures and Black sonic modalities. Approaching sound as a site for knowledge production, she considers the ways Afro-diasporas emerge through sound. She is particularly interested in how Black technosonic production functions as a form of narrativising and worldmaking. Maroon histories, fugitivity and Black temporal entanglements have also proved resonant departure points. Selected presentations include the Barbican Centre (UK), Treasure Hill Artist Village (TW), Tate Britain (UK), and Aesthetica Short Film Festival (UK). In 2022 Shamica had a solo show with the South London Gallery titled Deciphering a Broken Syntax, producing a 4 track vinyl record of the same name. Residencies include Amant Foundation (US), Black Cultural Archives (UK), Somerset House (UK) and QO2 (BE). In 2021 Shamica was a British Library Eccles Centre Visiting Fellow researching Maroon sound cultures.