Sonic Geographies of Hope: How can Song become an Act of Restoration for a Damaged Planet? by Angela Valenzuela (Loica)

I dedicate this work to Robin Wall Kimmerer’s call for acts of restoration for our damaged planet. In my project, I choose song composition and performance as a way to find pathways for personal and collective restoration. Through the methods of artistic research I write songs inspired by my experience of ecological grief, academic reading, interviews to song composers, and journaling. As a contribution from my work, I present a new compositional methodology, Sonic Geographies of Hope. This methodology calls for song composers to write songs grounded in personal and collective grief of our damaged planet. I suggest that these type of songs can become an act of restoration and create collective resonance for more hopeful ways of existing and experiencing the world. This methodology is heavily influenced by the work of A. Hazelwood and her methodology Geographies of Hope in Praxis (2020). While I draw inspiration from this methodology, my work focuses mainly on emotional geographies. This work represents a starting point to explore song methodologies that can nurture immaterial geographies leading to concrete, structural ecological restoration. It is an exploration to find ways to restore yourself to continue to fight for the dignity of the places, more-than human life and people we love.

In this literature review, I explore definitions of hope and ecosystemic thinking from an activist, community-oriented, decolonial, and global south perspective.

2.1 Hope

I gathered definitions of hope from ecologist and activist Joanna Macy and psychologist Chris Johnstone (2022), from decolonial thinker and pedagogy Paulo Freire (1994), from Intercultural Geographer and activist Julianne A. Hazlewood (2023), from professor and geographer Bernardo Mançano Fernandes (2022) and author Teresa Shewry (2015). These definitions complement each other and build a solid understanding of the importance of hope as a collective force to respond to systems of oppression and the climate and environmental crisis. The definitions of hope presented here are grounded in experiences of pain, loss, grief, and love for the world.

Active hope as defined by Macy and Johnstone (2022), is “about becoming active participants in the process of moving towards our hopes and, where we can, realizing them” (Macy and Johnstone, 2022, p.4). They define hope as a verb and a daily decision. Their definition of hope aims to mobilize grief and despair into action for what Macy and Johnstone describe as “The Great Turning” (Macy and Johnstone, 2022, p.26). They theorize active hope into three dimensions, 1) action, 2) shifting consciousness, 3) changing the system.

Paulo Freire (1994) defines hope as an ontological human need, in his book Pedagogy of Hope he states “I am hopeful, not out of mere stubbornness, but out of existential, concrete imperative” (Freire, 1994, p.2). He describes that humans need hope as a matter of survival, specially when fighting unjustices and oppression: “when we fight as hopeless or despairing persons, our struggle will be suicidal” (Freire, 1994, p.3). This is why he goes on to advocate for a pedagogy of hope, where hope is safeguarded as a key expression of our humanity and possibility of liberation. Freire’s hope is similar to Macy and Johnstone’s (2022) definition of Active Hope, because it “demands an anchoring in practice” (Freire, 1994, p.2).

Julianne A Hazlewood et al. (2023), approach hope from a territorial, space-temporal perspective. In her article Be(y)on(d) the map: Collaboratively activating Geographies of (De)CO2loniality/H2Ope in the Ecuadorian Chocó borderlands, she defines hope as “a journey-destination that unfolds through us-formation” (A Hazelwood, 2023, p.1464). She includes 5 dimensions that integrate Geographies of Hope in Praxis: Place, the (un)thinkable, alliances, perseverance/resilience, and the (im)possible. Her work influences what I will present as Sonic Geographies of Hope.

Bernardo Mançano Fernandes (2022) in his article Territories of hope: A human geography of agrarian politics in Brazil, defines immaterial territory as: “ideas, concepts, and theories. Paradigms, or relatively stable constellations of ideas in a given territory, emerge out of material and immaterial disputes in a given territory. The production of the immaterial territory starts from the style of thought, which is an immaterial space, as well as a geographical space that is the material territory” (M. Fernandes, 2022, p. 5). This definition of immaterial territory, when applied to hope, helps me understand how ideas or perceptions about the future affect the physical and geographical realities of our damaged planet.

Lastly, for Teresa Shewry (2015), in her book Hope at Seas: Possible Ecologies in Oceanic Literature, the term hope refers to a “psychic, political, and social mode of engaging the future in terms of specific aspirations and imagined pathways” (Shewry, 2015, p.3). Shewry’s definition is tight to a specific space and time of our damaged planet: “hope emerges within the turbulent environmental life of militarized global capitalism, rather than is simply resistant or situated outside” (Shewry, 2015, p.4). For Shewry, hope is tight to loss and pain: “hope is offered through attunements to present world struggles to enliven environmental relationships that have been lost or damaged. Such hope contingently responds to a world characterized by injury and loss. As such, it's never alone; it always exists intimately with experiences such as sorrow” (Shewry, 2015, p.13). Hope, therefore, exists only if we are attuned to the pain that is at the root of a damaged planet.

Tip

Tip

2.1 Hope

2. Literature review