One of the finest thinkers and writers when it comes to the practice of listening. His inspirations seem to never run out, as this is already the third volume in what looks like a coherent series, after Acoustic Territories and Acoustic Justice. Brandon LaBelle, again, brings critical attention to listening as a practice, one that can wield significant impact onto individual, interpersonal and community wellbeing.

From self-determination to social participation, somatic healing to collective repair, political recognition to ecological engagement, listening is vitally influential in negotiating our most fundamental challenges. Through thoughtful examinations of listening’s role across society, Poetics of Listening convincingly shows listening to be not only important to social struggles, but a form of poetic imagination and communion. It moves listening toward a broader application and view, which includes the ability to listen across human and more-than-human worlds, to listen into or with one’s body, or to listen out for futures to come as well as addressing unfinished histories, and it challenges us to think more broadly about what it means to hear and be heard within today’s complex environments.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Note on Text
Introduction: An apprentice to listening
Chapter 1: Listening-into: inner life, consciousness-raising, and the care of the self
Chapter 2: Listening-toward: recognition, thirdness, and compassionate action
Chapter 3: Listening-with: sympathy, bodily life, and healing justice
Chapter 4: Listening-against: power, negative method, and the diplomatic arts
Chapter 5: Listening-across: ecological thinking, biopoetics, and planetary practices
Postface: The Will to Listen
Bibliography
Index

Paperback, published in 2025, 240 pages.