Sounding a queer rebellion

Drawing on ethnomusicology, anthropology, sociology of religion, clinical and social psychology, law, social health, and performance-based activism, this project aims to develop responses to violence with LGBTI musicians in Latin American countries. The project seeks to benefit LGBTI individuals and society by visibilising violence, shaping policies, and strengthening voices of repressed communities so they can resist on their own terms.

LGBTI youth protest against violence and discrimination with music. Compositions, audio-visual
creations, protest music at demonstrations, and therapeutic LGBTI music events serve to represent, visibilise and build communities. Music spaces become communities of psychological healing where subversive voices find themselves and the power to face a violent society.

This network of scholars, practitioners and activists, predominately identifying as LGBTI, will benefit society by uniting established, but isolated, actors and stakeholders multiplying the impact of existing efforts to co-produce knowledge through dialogue, ARTivism and music making (via workshops and seminars in Bogota and Lima); collaborate in the design and facilitation of cultural interventions replicable across the region; and provide a virtual space to host a repository of Latin American LGBTI musicians to strengthen their networks, share information on mental health and increase possibilities of work.

• Keele Academic Lead: Dr Fiorella Montero-Diaz
• Methods used: Music making, sonic street interventions, performance based ARTivism. Also workshops and talks designed to enable the co-production of knowledge by academics, artists, artivists, LGBTI music collectives, LGBTI organisations and LGBTI activists.
• Partners: Dr Luis Gabriel Mesa Martinez (Universidad Javeriana de Bogotá - Colombia); the project brings together a network of 13 scholars and artists from Peru, Colombia, Chile, Argentina and Brazil, from diverse fields to explore the topic of LGBTI musical resistances in Latin America.