‘Kriolu voices sounding’: Tending to epistemic justice and conflict in collaboration

This article explores how community‐engaged programme planning offers ethnographic insight. Co‐written by an ethnomusicologist and a Cabo Verdean community leader, its conversational form aligns with the multivocal nature of collaboration. The piece describes university‐community collaboration leading to ‘Kriolu voices sounding’ (January‐February 2024), a series of public‐facing panels and workshops aimed at amplifying Cabo Verdean music and activism in Rhode Island. Through reflexive storytelling, the authors show how the Cabo Verdean practice of djunta mon (joining hands; mutual help) infused their partnership. Drawing on collaborative anthropology advocating ‘epistemic partnership’, they propose the term ‘dialogic disruptions’ to describe the tensions inherent in community‐facing coalitional work. Through a frank discussion of the disruptions encountered, the article offers a concrete example of public‐facing solidarity work that attempts to reckon with and learn from difference, opening towards more nuanced understandings of ‘community’.