Soundin' Canaan: Black Canadian Poetry, Music, and Citizenship (PB) (2024)

Part exploration of a key group of Black
Canadian poets, part literary, cultural, and musical history, Soundin' Canaan
demonstrates how music in Black Canadian poetry is not solely aesthetic, but a
form of social, ethical, and political expression.

Soundin' Canaan refers to the code name often used for Canada
during the Black migration to Canada. The book analyzes the contributions of
key Black Canadian poets, including their poetic styles and their performances.
The book has several key objectives, including recuperating the collision of
the historical and the Biblically derived figure of Canaan, the promised land
of freedom and security for an African American population seeking to leave the
shackles of slavery behind and the northern terminus of the underground
railroad. Centering around the poetry of George Elliott Clarke, Dionne Brand,
M. NourbeSe Philip, Wayde Compton, and rapper K'naan, it delves into how these
poets draw inspiration from African American and Afro-diasporic musical genres,
such as blues, jazz, reggae and dub, hip-hop, and remix, to reshape the notions
of identity and citizenship. Soundin' Canaan asks: what does Canadian
citizenship sound like, especially when voiced by Black Canadian poets who
embrace a fluid and multicultural form of citizenship that moves between local
and global spaces, much like music does?

Using a DJ Methodology, the author mixes in close readings of
poetry, music, cultural and literary history, as well as various interviews
with the poets. The book includes an accompanying soundtrack to further enhance
the reading experience. Moreover, the book uses musical and sonic terms to
analyze the poets' works and reveals their engagement with ideals and
exclusions of state-authorized multiculturalism in a society built upon settler
colonialism and anti-Black racism. What happens when those not normally seen as
citizens with full rights are brought more into the picture and seen as
co-performers of the Canadian remix project? No longer for the elite alone,
citizenship is to be universally conferred for all Canadians.