Songs of Speculation

Songs of Speculation (excerpt) is a lecture that explodes into multi-form performance, calling on the body, time, and the power of music to reclaim histories forgotten or lost. It is a response to the call of Black feminist scholar Hortense Spillers’ evolving paper, “To the Bone: Some Speculations on Touch,” which considers the life and experiences of Sally Hemings; and also deeply explores the concept of Black female subjectivity and life. Songs happens in: ~A lecture space; ~Ancestral spaces; ~A ripple through dimension beyond the playing space, which in this case, is your ears.

The work is woven with and interrupted by original songs performed on a looper pedal; allowing for the recording, layering and amplification of live vocal composition channeled through the spirit of ancestor and muse. This instrument (much like the black feminist), is meant to be taken seriously and handled with great care. The aim of this work is to reanimate hope through the remixing of history--critically speculating and fabulating until it begins to create a future that embraces the radical possibility of living and loving beyond what has been historically prescribed to Black women.

written and performed by Jillian Walker

designed and engineered by Ben Williams

co-produced by Jillian Walker and Ben Williams

recorded at The Collapsable Hole NYC 2019

WINNER of the inaugural “Audio Unbound” award in the 2020 Third Coast International Audio Festival

“Undying thanks are due to the ongoing work of Saidiya Hartman, Rizvana Bradley and others who now form the Practicing Refusal Collective; as well as visual artist, Kara Walker, choreographer and performer, Okwui Okpokwasili, and the Songs of Speculation Brain and Body Trust who came together around the work at its various stages: Mei Ann Teo, Susan Heyward, Jess Applebaum, Dominique Rider, Tuce Yasak, Kris Sidberry, Brandon Webster, Stephanie Weeks, and Sara Stern.

Thanks also to William Burke/Little Theater at Dixon Place and The Bushwick Starr, where the work was performed in its early stages.

Songs of Speculation has also been excerpted and performed live at Judson Memorial Church, Park Avenue Armory, and Joe’s Pub.

The full work premiered and was performed by Jillian Walker at JACK in Brooklyn, NY. It was directed and co-produced by Mei Ann Teo. Thank you Alec Duffy at JACK and Mei Ann Teo for uplifting and amplifying this experiment in liberation with great care and concern.”

-JW