The Heart, The SpiRitual, The Material, & The Home: Centering Translingual Practices of Three Montreal-Based Artists Embedded in Song
This study is about the language practices embedded within the cultural production of three multilingual, woman identifying, singers-songwriters and musicians based in Tio鈥檛ia:ke | Montreal.聽More specifically, this project brings to light how music production and transcultural processes of creativity made space for organic dimensions of language practice, particularly when one鈥檚 language has been minoritized. This study is guided by the theoretical framework of critical-creative writing to center the creative, intersectional, translingual components of these women鈥檚 writings and cultural production. This project was carried out using an ethnographic multiple-case study methodology, was bounded by the context of Montreal鈥檚 community of musical cultural producers, and looked to the cases of three nonblinded knowledge holders and artists: Willows, No茅 Lira, and Ultra K. The main findings of this study center affective, spiritual, and material dimensions of these women鈥檚 language practices. This includes intergenerational, embodied, cultural, land-based, and organic dimensions of language engagement. By bringing to light these rich, often-overlooked modes of communication, this project demonstrates ways in which we can learn from the loving and transformational meaning-making and language practices being mobilized by three women of our local creative community.
This inquiry was led by Bianca Gonzalez and supervised by Dr. Amir Kalan.
bianca.gonzalez [at] mail.mcgill.ca
