Curating the afrosonic
As members of the Afrosonic Innovation Lab and in their own independent practices, curators Mark V. Campbell and Safia Siad work along the blurred lines of Black sonic and visual culture. Along with curator and DJ Edna Martínez and artist and researcher Satch Hoyt, panelists will discuss their practices that center the Afrosonic.
The conversation is part of the symposium Black Atlantic Networks: Heritage, Knowledge and Solidarity, taking place in Montréal from November 18 to 22, 2025. The symposium fosters transnational dialogue and creates a space for the co-construction of knowledge.
Speakers
Satch Hoyt
Safia Siad
Edna Martínez
Mark V. Campbell
Information
Free activity in English, presented on Thursday, November 20, from 5:00 to 6 p.m.
Duration: 60 minutes
Location:Goethe-Institut Montreal, 1626 Boulevard Saint-Laurent
About the Panelists
Satch Hoyt
Satch Hoyt is a spiritualist, a believer in ritual and retention. A visual artist and a musician, his diverse and multifaceted body of work - whether sculpture, sound installation, painting, musical performance, or musical recording - is united in its investigation of the “Eternal Afro-Sonic Signifier” and its movement across and amid the cultures, peoples, places, and times of the African Diaspora. Those four evocative words (a term coined by Hoyt) refer to the “mnemonic network of sound” that was enslaved Africans’ “sole companion during the forced migration of the Middle Passage.”1 lt was, and is, a hard-won somatic tool kit for remembering where you come from and who you are - and maybe, where you’re going - against all the many odds.
Photo © Dale Grant
Safia Siad (Afrosonic Innovation Lab)
Safia Siad is a curator, scholar, and DJ with a practice centered in deep listening. As a founding member of the Afrosonic Innovation Lab, Siad operates at the intersections of the visual and audio poetics of the African diaspora. Her deep listening sessions have taken place in Montréal, Florence, Toronto, and Banff, while her writing has appeared in C Magazine and in multiple exhibition catalogues. She recently completed her SSHRC funded Master of Arts (Art History) at Concordia University and is currently a curatorial fellow with Gallery TPW.
Photo © Safia Siad
Edna Martinez
Edna Martinez is a DJ and curator from the Colombian Caribbean based in Berlin. She works at the intersection of electronic music, sound experimentation, and diasporic memory, engaging with Caribbean, Latin American, and Arabic musical narratives. Since 2018, she has developed curatorial projects that combine live music, DJ sets, gastronomy, and documentary audiovisual works, creating immersive experiences that connect communities, preserve memories, and foster intercultural exchange.
Photo © Valery Amor