E14 S2 - Locating Liberatory Pleasure Practices in Black Sonic Cyberfeminism through Janelle Monaé’s "Dirty Computer" feat. Priya Mosher

In this episode of Feminist Sonic Futures, we’ll be discussing the place of pleasure in sound, specifically through a Black cyberfeminist lens by exploring the soundscape of pleasure in Janelle Monaé’s emotion picture and studio album Dirty Computer. We will be listening to the tracks "Make Me Feel," "Dirty Computer (feat. Brian Wilson)," "Screwed (feat. Zoë Kravitz)," "Django Jane," and "Pynk (feat. Grimes)." We’ll be talking through the work of many prominent feminist theorists, grounding in Annie Goh and Marie Thompson’s “Sonic Cyberfeminisms: Introduction,” and primarily engaging with Meina Yates-Richard’s “‘Hell You Talmbout’ Janelle Monae’s Black Cyberfeminist Sonic Aesthetics” and Robin James’ “‘Robo-Diva R&B’: Aesthetics, Politics, and Black Female Robots in Contemporary Popular Music.” Outside of the syllabus, we will be informed by and discussing Hortense Spillers’ "Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: An American Grammar Book,” Joan Morgan’s “Why We Get Off: Moving Towards a Black Feminist Politics of Pleasure,” and adrienne maree brown’s Pleasure Activism. In thinking through theoretical conceptions of embodiment, flesh, and pleasure, I turn to liberatory pleasure politics as a framework for reimagining the Black body as a site of joy and autonomy rather than one of pain and dehumanization. Once we access the site of that pleasure in the body, this podcast explores the question of how that pleasure can be created and reproduced through sonic tools. Hope you enjoy!