Free with RSVP: RSVP HERE
Free RSVP with Suggested Donation to Afro Moone + Detroit Sound Conservancy
As walking bodies of water ….. We are all archives,
💭What are the sounds of Detroit that have shaped your journey?
💭How do we preserve these memories and honor those who’ve helped create them?
Join us at Marygrove Denk Chapman Hall for an exclusive community dialogue + performance with Wendell Harrison, Myrtle Thompson Curtis and Jon Dixon moderated by Michelle Jahra McKinney!
📍 8425 W. McNichols
🕡 3:00PM to 6:00pm
🗓️ October 11th
About
Sonic Memory Circles is a free community-centered program that explores the intersections of performance, archival sound, lived experience, and the science of memory. These sessions aim to uplift and preserve Detroit’s history where intergenerational community members exhibit their craft, share stories, and explore the role sound has played in their unique journeys uplifting the importance of memory.
Each session features a guided conversation with a community member, supported by a sound-based demonstration that reflects their individual narrative and an interactive exhibition. Drawing from DSC’s archival holdings, which includes historic music recordings, oral histories, and visual material, Sophiyah E. alongside selected community members, will later revisit each session with a curated playback and Q&A listening session.
This multimodal approach creates a grounded, immersive environment that supports reflection, emotional processing, and intergenerational learning. In doing so, Sonic Memory Circles holistically elevates community knowledge while reframing the archive as a living tool for emotional and cultural restoration. Over time, the project builds a growing collection of sonic testimonies with community that documents how Detroit’s use sound as a pathway to tradition, healing, connection, and cultural memory.
Producers
Detroit Sound Conservancy is a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to preserving, activating, and celebrating Detroit’s musical heritage. DSC shares its resources to support archival practices that amplify this heritage and safeguard its history—of people, movements, legends, and lore. Through archival preservation practices, education initiatives and intergenerational live performance programming, DSC preserves and provides access to the vivid memory of musical movements, uplifts artistic legacies, counteracts reductive representation, and centers the act of listening as a cornerstone of community.
Detroit native Sophiyah Elizabeth is a sound practitioner + interdisciplinary artist with a mission to cultivate collective radical care through musical composition + education, community organizing, and event production. Her practice deepens connections for legacy building, intergenerational well being and accessible health-conscious resources. With over 15 years of experience, Sophiyah utilizes sound research as a central medium with native music traditions , occupational therapy, an anthropological techniques to form a holistic wellness model to aid in care within communities. In 2019 Sophiyah founded Afro Moone, a Detroit-based wellness resource rooted in narrative agency, integrative medicine modalities and community advocacy.
Your donations helps to sustain preservation efforts and integral partnerships with community based organizations dedicated to uplifting the history of Detroit’s Legacy. Learn more on our website detroitsound.org