Mapping the Sounds of Resistance: Layers of Loyalty in the Atlanta Women's Movement, 1968–73

I am interested in how sound and soundscapes can be used as historical sources in addition to written word and other oral and visual sources. For this poster presentation, I will be using digital mapping software to see what places in Atlanta served as meeting spots, political rallies, marches, and other places of intersection and interaction for the people supporting and protesting the Women’s Movement in the Atlanta area between the years 1968-1973. I want to know how/if the place and sound of these events reveal loyalties, or disloyalties, of the participants. Did the sonic soundscape of a march or gathering encourage or discourage loyalty to the movement? Were there infiltrators in the scenes, and can we tell this from sounds of resistance? I will be using underground publications from Atlanta, like The Great Speckled Bird, as well as other oral histories held in the Georgia State University Gender and Women’s Studies archives to map the location of these gatherings. Then I plan to take footage and (audio) recordings of these gathering and layer these sources within the digital map of Atlanta. I will show how we can create a digital soundscape of resistance using mapping software and previously recorded media, to discuss themes of loyalty and oppression, and intersection and interaction in the Atlanta Women’s Movement.