Attuning to In-the-Red Frequencies with/in Readers Workshop

Abstract

In this article, we ‘think with’ the theoretical concepts of flow, rupture, layering, and sampling to affectively attune to ‘in-the-red frequencies’ flowing across/with-in a New York City primary classroom—that is, alternative sonic frequencies that trouble and refuse hegemonic literacy practices. These hip-hop concepts theorise affect in relation to Black intellectual frameworks for moving, feeling, and sounding. Such frameworks honour philosophical practices emerging from Black people's lived experiences—practices that, historically, have been perceptually coded out of legibility by white supremacist institutions. Ultimately, we argue that thinking with flow↔rupture↔layering↔sampling enables more equitable practices that push literacies ‘into the red,’ namely, by respecting multiple perspectives, histories, and truths; accounting for power, privilege, positioning, and complicity; and highlighting ‘otherwise’ social worlds not predicated on hegemonic whiteness, anti-blackness, and socio-political violence.