Listening Hymns | ILYICH

Listening Hymns is a performative spoken word archive that invites you to explore the practice of listening through the voices of artists, musicians, poets, writers, educators, athletes, meditators and activists.

It celebrates the worlds of listening through sonic and somatic practices, culture and politics, anti-fascism, critical theory, spirituality, intersectional feminism and community building. The archive unfolds through radio shows, university lectures, sound meditations, listening sessions, exhibitions and musical performances under the many names of the artist.

Here, this ever-growing choir of voices is playfully performed at Refuge Worldwide as part of ILYICH's artist residency, interwoven with live DJ sets and samplers, sound modules, percussion, and readings.

This episode brings together xwélmexw scholar and artist Dylan Robinson, exploring hungry listening and the politics of attention; Vietnamese Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh, teaching us how to be a bell master; somatic therapist Rae Johnson, reminding us of embodied activism; and legendary Detroit producer and DJ Theo Parrish, who resounds listening as obsession and a deep commitment to practice.

This show is a meditation on attention - asking how sound moves through the body, how listening grounds us, and how it can help us move forward when the path seems uncertain.