Julie Jewels Smoot

Listening does not need to be directional to be valid. Sound can be present without asking the listener to go anywhere, see anything, or arrive at a particular experience. You are allowed to remain exactly where you are. Trauma-informed listening prioritizes choice.

Sound is often used to move us somewhere else. Toward calm. Toward clarity. Toward a different state. But sound does not need to create change in order to be supportive. In this work, sound is allowed to remain with what is already here. It does not pull the body forward or ask it to soften.