The Cry of the Senses: Listening to Latinx and Caribbean Poetics by Ren Ellis Neyra – A Sonic Exploration of Diasporic D

Introduction

In a literary landscape often dominated by sight and text, The Cry of the Senses: Listening to Latinx and Caribbean Poetics by Ren Ellis Neyra offers a transformative way to experience Caribbean and Latinx culture. This rigorous yet poetic work invites readers to tune into sound—not just as music or noise, but as a radical form of connection, resistance, and solidarity. Published by Duke University Press, this hardcover edition is an essential addition for scholars, students, and anyone passionate about decolonial thought, black radical traditions, and queer poetics.

Book Overview

At its heart, The Cry of the Senses reimagines how we listen to the Caribbean Americas. Ren Ellis Neyra weaves together black radical thought, performance studies, cinema, and literature to show how sonic practices—from salsa to spoken word, from courtroom testimonies to experimental film—challenge colonial and post-Enlightenment ways of knowing. The book argues that by listening with our whole bodies, we can forge new forms of sensory solidarity across diasporic communities. It is a call to feel sound as a raucous, dissenting, and connective force.

Key Highlights

• Interdisciplinary brilliance: Merges black radical tradition with Latinx and Caribbean art, music, and performance.
• Multisensorial method: Introduces 'poetic listening' as a way to engage with sound beyond the ear.
• Rich case studies: Analyzes works by Xandra Ibarra, the Fania All-Stars, Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, Édouard Glissant, and Eduardo Corral.
• Decolonial lens: Challenges antiblackness, colonialism, and humanist hierarchies through sonic dissent.
• Queer and black perspectives: Centers multiple forms of blackness and queerness in the Caribbean Americas.

Inside the Book

Ellis Neyra takes readers on a journey across genres and forms. Each chapter listens closely to a different sonic manifestation: the rhythm of a Fania All-Stars concert, the visual-sonic textures of Beatriz Santiago Muñoz's films, the poetic cries of Eduardo Corral, and the legal testimony that becomes a cry for justice. The book also delves into the provocative art of Xandra Ibarra and the philosophical writings of Édouard Glissant. Through these examples, Ellis Neyra demonstrates how sound operates as a form of diasporic dissent and connectivity that refuses to be contained by colonial categories.

Key Topics

• Sound studies and sonic poetics in the Caribbean and Latinx contexts
• Black radical tradition and its intersection with queerness
• Decolonial aesthetics and sensory solidarity
• Performance, cinema, and music as sites of resistance
• Multisensorial listening as a methodological practice
• Diasporic identity, memory, and community formation

Reader Benefits

This book offers a fresh lens for understanding how sound shapes identity and politics. Readers will gain tools to listen more deeply—to art, to history, and to marginalized voices. It challenges conventional academic boundaries and invites a more embodied, poetic engagement with the world. For Indian readers and students of postcolonial studies, the book's emphasis on decolonizing the senses resonates powerfully with local struggles for cultural and political autonomy.

Learning Outcomes

• Understand the role of sound in Caribbean and Latinx diasporic cultures
• Analyze how sonic practices challenge colonial and antiblack epistemologies
• Apply multisensorial and poetic listening as a critical method
• Identify connections between black radical thought, queerness, and performance
• Critically engage with works by key Latinx and Caribbean artists and thinkers

Who Should Read

The Cry of the Senses is ideal for students and scholars in sound studies, Latinx and Caribbean studies, black studies, queer theory, performance studies, and decolonial thought. It also speaks to artists, musicians, filmmakers, and writers interested in the politics of listening. For Indian academics working on diaspora, postcoloniality, and sensory ethnography, this book offers a vital comparative framework.

About the Author

Ren Ellis Neyra is a scholar and writer whose work bridges black radical tradition, queer of color critique, and Latinx and Caribbean poetics. Their research focuses on how sound and sensorial practices can reimagine solidarity and dissent. Ellis Neyra is known for a poetic, interdisciplinary style that challenges conventional academic boundaries.

About the Publisher

Duke University Press is a prestigious academic publisher based in Durham, North Carolina, known for its groundbreaking books in cultural studies, critical theory, and the humanities. Their titles consistently push the boundaries of scholarship, making them a trusted source for innovative and rigorous work.

Conclusion

The Cry of the Senses is more than a book—it is an invitation to listen anew. By attuning ourselves to the cries, rhythms, and silences of the Caribbean Americas, we can begin to build a world based on sensory justice and radical connection. For anyone seeking to decolonize their ears and their imagination, this hardcover volume is an indispensable companion.