Guest edited by Regina N. Bradley, the Sonic South Issue examines sound. From Deafness to silence to a tool of liberation, “Sound is where the South can be its most complicated and unapologetic,” writes Bradley, “where it can boast its plurality and multiple communities.”
“So much of what is calling to us in the South remains yet unheard.”
“Sound is where the South can be its most complicated and unapologetic being, where it can boast its plurality and multiple communities.”
“Mundane practices are what form habits, stabilize norms, and reproduce culture. This begs the question: What culture am I reproducing by repeating the words Ole Miss?”
“They communicate using a family sign language our family developed in the 1800s. They jokingly call it Johnson Family Sign, fingerspelled ‘JSL.’”
“We head off into the night, the kids holding their instruments straight, their knees interlocked in step, a model of discipline and swagger.”
“Sound is a medium to enter historic, political, environmental, and personal realities. Whatever present moment the river might invite me to, it is a thick moment, a moment in motion.”
“The music is a gift; it makes room for us.”
“I’d started to doubt the Gram Parsons myth, but I could still feel its narcotic lull.”
“A teacher’s inability to hear the funds of knowledge, strength, joy, and love from students’ voices is not the fault of the student.”
“right there is where it all happened”
