This paper explores the resurgence of orality and sonic strategies in contemporary transatlantic Black poetry, focusing on the works of Terrance Hayes and Kayo Chingonyi. It argues that both poets use sound not merely as a stylistic device but as a counter-hegemonic force that reimagines lyricism beyond the ocularcentrism of print culture. Drawing on Walter J. Ong’s theory of secondary orality, Fred Moten’s concept of the phonotext, and developments in sound studies and Black aesthetics, this study analyzes how Hayes’s (2018) American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin and Chingonyi’s (2017) Kumukanda reclaim the auditory dimension of poetry through voice, rhythm, and musical vernaculars. Through close readings, the analysis shows that this sonic emphasis positions the ear—rather than the eye—as the primary mode of poetic engagement and resistance. Situated within broader histories of displacement, racialized surveillance, and diasporic cultural survival, this paper suggests that sonic poetics offers new possibilities for decolonizing lyric form across borders.
Nabih, M. (2025). Transatlantic resonance: Orality, resistance, and diasporic lyricism in Hayes and Chingonyi. Journal of Languages and Translation, 12(2), 50-59. doi: 10.21608/jltmin.2025.452166
MLA
Muhammad Ismael Nabih. "Transatlantic resonance: Orality, resistance, and diasporic lyricism in Hayes and Chingonyi", Journal of Languages and Translation, 12, 2, 2025, 50-59. doi: 10.21608/jltmin.2025.452166
HARVARD
Nabih, M. (2025). 'Transatlantic resonance: Orality, resistance, and diasporic lyricism in Hayes and Chingonyi', Journal of Languages and Translation, 12(2), pp. 50-59. doi: 10.21608/jltmin.2025.452166
VANCOUVER
Nabih, M. Transatlantic resonance: Orality, resistance, and diasporic lyricism in Hayes and Chingonyi. Journal of Languages and Translation, 2025; 12(2): 50-59. doi: 10.21608/jltmin.2025.452166
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