Re-voicing: Community choir participation as a medium for identity formation amongst people with learning disabilities

This article examines findings from ethnographic research with the ReVoice choir project in North-West England. ReVoice was a community choir that consisted of members from two charitable organizations and the author of this article. A number of ReVoice’s members were adults with learning disabilities and part of the choir’s remit was to produce music that would feature in a film about hate crime perpetuated against people with disabilities. In the light of debates regarding the politics of identity for people with disabilities, this article illustrates how the formation of the choir, the rehearsal process and the choir performances constituted a distinctive cultural context that afforded people significant opportunities to develop an alternative, empowered sense of self in concert with others.