Sonic Solidarity: Breaking Languages and Chanting for Freedom by Michelle Hartman

In times of crisis, protest chants in many languages ring out through the streets. Anyone can chant in a demonstration, and everyone hears these chants, but they are rarely studied. In this lecture, Michelle Hartman , professor of Arabic and Francophone literature, McGill University and cotranslator of A Long Walk from Gaza , will look at how chanting and poetry use “breaking language” with a focus on how solidarity is expressed through sound—how poetry, writing and chanting can mobilize the power of using multiple languages in unexpected ways to call for freedom.