Local Frequencies, commissioned by Creative Time and produced by Danny Kapilian, was a project consisting of sonic portraits of three New York City neighborhoods: Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and the North Shore of Staten Island. While walking through the streets of these neighborhoods, performing artists Gabri Christa, Toshi Reagon, and Everton Sylvester recorded sounds that signify home and community, such as chats with neighbors on front stoops, radio stations playing in restaurants or bodegas, local sermons, or community concerts or gatherings.

The collected recordings were edited into three unique fifteen minute compositions narrated by Rita Houston of local radio station WFUV. The compilation was distributed at a variety of sites in the three neighborhoods, including film screenings, bookstores, hair salons, and takeout food joints as well as broadcast to greater New York on WFUV. Local Frequencies culminated with a free, live concert featuring performances by Gabri Christa, Toshi Reagon, and Everton Sylvester.n

Photograph by Toshi Reagon

Gabri Christa, Toshi Reagon, Everton Sylvester

Local Frequencies

New York City

2003