‘A critical mass of articles and incendiaries, reflections and rallying cries, has skewered the notion that refugee storytelling is somehow inherently useful, and that ‘giving voice’ is a benevolent practice.’ In this piece, Tom Western, argues that within these reductive narratives of ‘refugeeness’ the ‘complexities, creativities, histories, humour, ambiguities, and political struggles go missing’ and … Continue reading The Active Citizens Sound Archive
This presentation was given by Tom Western at the Refugee Hosts International Conference as part of Panel 1: Disrupting Humanitarian Narratives. The presentation puts sound and listening at the centre of forced migration, asking how they inform experiences of displacement and practices of emplacement. Sound is an access point to the agency of people who have crossed borders: … Continue reading Sounding Stories, Telling Sounds: Listening with Displacement and Emplacement
This soundscape of Athens, Greece, offers an evocative and immersive insight into sounds of everyday life in the city. Athens has become home to many refugees from Syria and elsewhere, who have brought with them new sounds documented in this piece. Engaging with spaces of refuge through sound is a method that can help us … Continue reading ΤΣΣΣΣ ΤΣΣΣ ΤΣΣ ΣΣΣ – Summer in Athens: A Sound Essay
