To start, what I found extremely intriguing in this article, was the title of the piece, particularly the concept of “Listening as Activism”. When reading it, I found that it slightly confused me, which is what captivated me. To me, when I think of activism, the first thing that comes to mind is a voice: being heard. While I am aware that it is not the only form of activism, it is the first thought I get. I have heard of silent protests, written protest, verbal protest, but I never thought of listening as something that constitutes activism. When you think about it, it is something that goes hand in hand with having a voice and taking a stand, but it was not a connection I made until I read this article.

Once I read the article, the details of how listening is activism, became clear to me. I was introduced to Olivero’s “Sonic Meditations” and the power that sounds have. One quote that particularly stand out is:

“Her eccentric sound exercises—what she once called “recipes” for listening”

That stuck with me for some reason. It goes back to the topic of listening, and by using “recipes”, it refers to a way in which it can be recreated. Listening is one thing I would never correlate with a recipe, yet Olivero has managed to create a recipe for activism through listening, at a time of huge political turmoil. Olivero also says:

“Take a walk at night. Walk so silently that the bottoms of your feet become ears.”

There is something about this that just seems so powerful to me. Your feet, probably the furthest things in your body away from your ears, can also be channeled into a listening device.
How your bodies then become a vessel of listening, not just to outside noise, but to internalize those listening skills. Similar to how Elaine Summers, taught students to become sensitive to signals in their bodies. To truly understand what it is that is happening around you by listening and to familiarize yourself with what would have gone unnoticed before.

It was also beautiful to see how this particular form of activism was used to support women, at a time where they did not get a voice. Since they had been “held down” for so long, musically and in other ways as well, Olivero’s group and method was just one way in which they could take back what they could express and channel into something powerful. There is something truly moving about that…