Speaking into Silences - Incite at Columbia University

Incubated Project

Speaking into Silences

Scene in the mountains of Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria. September 2017.

Against archives that valorize colonization and silence stories of resistance and response, gathering to listen to the life stories of the peoples of Puerto Rico is a radical act.

Speaking into Silences organized four mass-listening events across the Puerto Rican archipelago: on the west coast, in the mountainous interior, in an underserved neighborhood in San Juan, and on an island municipio. These events centered stories of surviving simultaneous stratified disasters—including hurricanes, earthquakes, political upheaval, economic depression, and the Covid-19 pandemic—within a context of colonial practices and institutionalized racism.

Community partners were empowered with funding, equipment, and training to record their own narratives. Support from Assembling Voices went toward organizing a day of mass-listening, activism, music, and food at community centers.

About the Team

  • Ricia Anne Chansky

    Ricia Anne Chansky, Ph.D. is a professor in the English Department at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez and the Director of the Oral History Lab @UPRM. Her work is focused on decolonial storytelling projects as a means of amplifying the voices of disaster survivors for the purpose of mitigating the climate crisis within the Puerto Rican archipelago and around the world.

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