Embodied Collective Choreographies: Listening to Arena Nightclub’s Jotería Sonic Memories

Merging sound studies, performance and jotería this essay documents sonic moments memories of 1990s Los Angeles at Arena, a nightclub frequented by queer Latinx youth. Building on Alexandra Vasquez's "listening in detail" Karen Tongson's "queerly listening," the author argues that listening is an auditory practice methodology employed communities engaged world-making strategies. Through listening, we are able to hear which map collectivity, community building, experimentation resistance against hostilities encountered youth LA 1990s. Highlighting three soundmarks or recognizable sounds—whistles, foot-stomping, clapping—and their meanings, maps corporeal embodied performances self as it critical histories nightlife Angeles.