Y’all Don’t Wanna Hear Me (You Just Wanna Dance)
February 4, 2025 - February 5, 2025
Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste, Y’all Don’t Wanna Hear Me (You Just Wanna Dance) performed at Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, 2023.
Program Details
Performance: Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste, Y’all Don’t Wanna Hear Me (You Just Wanna Dance)
Date: Single event, February 4/5, 2025, 6:30pm (date and time to be confirmed)
Location: walking route on UTM campus concluding at CCT Atrium
Presenters: The Blackwood and Black @ UTM
In early February 2025, The Blackwood and Black @ UTM will present Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste’s performance Y’all Don’t Wanna Hear Me (You Just Wanna Dance) on UTM campus, followed by a discussion with the artist and an invited contributor.
In Y’all Don’t Wanna Hear Me (You Just Wanna Dance), Toussaint-Baptiste uses a Long-Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) against its intended purpose of crowd dispersal, alternatively presenting it as a technology that might unite and even guide a crowd through sound. Over the course of the device’s battery life, the artist plays music through the device, using its built-in microphone to speak about his artistic practice, recite facts about the device’s history, and otherwise uses the technology to bring public joy. The performance culminates with participants dancing the “Cha Cha Slide” together, with the dance’s instructions (“slide to the left / slide to the right…”) guided by the directional sound of the speaker.
Y’all Don’t Wanna Hear Me […] continues Toussaint-Baptiste’s interest in the embodied effects of sound, particularly as they relate to Black experience. By reappropriating the LRAD speaker through performance, Toussaint-Baptiste creates an opportunity to gather through Black music, conversation, and dance.
Please note: the LRAD speaker produces localized, directional sound at a moderate volume. The artist uses it for audio playback and voice amplification only, and does not use its crowd dispersal effects.
This event is presented in the context of The Art Gallery Problem (January 8 – March 5, 2025), a group exhibition at The Blackwood taking place in both galleries and public sites on campus, where Toussaint-Baptiste will present a related artwork.