RADICAL LISTENING BREAKOUT WORKSHOP

Event Title: “Decolonising the Auditory Gaze: A Sonic Safe Space”

Location: University Wellness Annex, Room "Namaste-2"

Facilitator: Braxleigh (ve/ver), Adjunct in Restorative Audiology and Whisper Politics

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BRAXLEIGH (ve/ver)

Welcome, welcome, dear trauma-vessels. I’d like to open today’s session by recognising the frequencies we are privileged to hear—and those that are systemically silenced, such as the voices of fungi and the colonial overtones of orchestral tuning.

GROUP:

murmurs of solemn acknowledgment

BRAXLEIGH (ve/ver)

Let’s begin by radically listening… to ourselves. Please, close your eyes and repeat after me:

“I am a problematic construct in progress.”

“I am committed to hearing what I fear.”

“I disavow coherence as a colonial imposition.”

GROUP:

(in overlapping disarray)

I am a problematic… / I hear fear… / Coherence is violence…

BRAXLEIGH (ve/ver) (gently)

Beautiful. Now we will pair up. One of you will speak your emotional truth for 60 seconds. The other must listen without reacting, judging, or blinking. We call this unflinching presence. If you blink, you have imposed a boundary.

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PAIR 1: ASHLEIGH (she/her) and JORDAN (he/they)

ASHLEIGH (she/her)

Hi. Um. I want to name that I’m deeply grieving my complicity in the gluten-industrial complex. I used to eat sourdough without interrogating its Eurocentric yeast cultures. That version of me is dead now.

JORDAN (he/they) (visibly trying not to blink)

Thank you. I hold space for your carb awakening.

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PAIR 2: MORGAN (xe/xem) and RILEY (they/them)

MORGAN (xe/xem)

I feel unseen by the community because my neopronouns are not featured on the university lanyard options. Why is there no “Xe/xem/sparkle/soul” template? It’s erasure.

RILEY (they/them) (a tear rolls down one cheek)

You are legible to me, Morgan. Always.

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INTERRUPTION: UNAUTHORISED ENTRY

A janitor walks in, clearly confused.

JANITOR (he/him by default)

Sorry folks, just here to check the leaky ceiling tile?

(Gasps all around.)

BRAXLEIGH (ve/ver)

You’ve entered a sonic consent space without an auditory permission slip.

ASHLEIGH (she/her)

Do you identify as cis? Because this is an anti-frequency zone right now.

JANITOR:

…I just have a ladder?

RILEY (they/them)

A vertical hierarchy instrument?

GROUP:

Hostile eye contact.

JANITOR:

Okay I’ll… come back later.

BRAXLEIGH (ve/ver)

Yes. But first: would you like to atone for the footsteps?

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THE APOLOGY CIRCLE (IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING)

Participants now sit in a tight circle, knees touching, hummus dangerously close to lap-level. Each person must deliver an apology for something they have not done—but might one day accidentally become complicit in.

JORDAN (he/they)

I apologise in advance for any dreams I might have that reproduce heteronormative symbolism.

ASHLEIGH (she/her)

I apologise for once owning a dreamcatcher I bought at a boutique.

MORGAN (xe/xem)

I apologise for how my veganism might invisibilise the lived realities of carnivorous identities.

BRAXLEIGH (ve/ver)

I apologise for this circle, which is geometrically oppressive to triangles.