Episode 37 Neighborhood Poetics

Thanks for Hitting Play and then listening to Hit Play. This episode: Brooklyn Bridge, Fort Tryon Park, Herbert Von King Park!

Some of the plays in this episode may contain sensitive topics. For more specific content warnings, check out the timecodes below.

If you like what you hear and want to support the New York Neo-Futurists, subscribe to the show, consider making a donation at nynf.org, and join our Patreon. Patreon membership gives you access to bonus content like video plays! We’d really appreciate any support in these difficult times. Contributing to our Patreon helps us continue to pay our artists. 

Take care of yourself, blow some bubbles, and share it with us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

1:36 - Metaphors are my love language, so I love my daily bike ride by Michael John Improta 

5:15 [CW: racist murder, hanging] - A Brief History of Fort Tryon Park * by Kyra Sims

6:34 - Joy Space by Anooj Bhandari

* If you'd like to contribute to the GoFundMe to support the family of Dominique Alexander, go to gofundme.com/f/justicefordomo

Our logo was designed by Shelton Lindsay

Our sound is designed by Anthony Sertel Dean

Hit Play is produced by Anthony Sertel Dean, Julia Melfi, and Léah Miller

Take Care!

Transcript 

Episode 37 Neighborhood Poetics

Show Intro

Electronic instrumental music plays underneath.

Julia: 37: Neighborhood Poetics. I’m Julia Melfi—a New York Neo-Futurist. While our on-going, ever-changing, late-night show, The Infinite Wrench, is on hold for the foreseeable future, we wanted a place to keep making art for you. So we made this podcast.   

If you’re already a fan of The New York Neo-Futurists, or any of our sibling companies, hi! We can’t wait to do anything indoors with you. If this is totally new to you—welcome to it!

We play by four rules: We are who we are, we’re doing what we’re doing, we are where we are, and the time is now. Simply put: we tell stories, and those stories are our own. Everything that you hear is actually happening. 

Outdoor noise

So if we tell you we're pruning some plants after they got a little too hot in the heat wave this past weekend, then we are really pruning our plants that got a little too hot in the heat wave this past weekend. Like me right now. 

Just a heads up that some of the plays in this episode may contain sensitive topics. For more specific content warnings, check the timecodes in the show notes.

Julia: And now, Anooj will Run the Numbers!

Anooj: Thanks Julia! I’m Anooj, a New York Neo-Futurist. 

In this episode we’re bringing you 3 plays. The first is by Michael John Improta. The second by Kyra Sims. And the last is by me--Anooj Bhandari.

That brings us to 145 audio experiments on Hit Play. Enjoy!

Music winds down.

Play 1: Metaphors are my love language (1:36)

Michael: Metaphors are my love language, so I love my daily bike ride. GO!

Michael: I haven’t fucked with the MTA since early March. 

I know that it’s safer now.

I know it gets cleaned, and that many of you feel totally fine riding it.

Not me.

And for that reason I bought a bike.

Outdoor noises of a bike ride with gentle music underscore

I commute just under 8 miles to work 5 times a week. 

My favorite part of the commute is the bridge crossing. 

I turn right onto the Brooklyn Bridge Promenade from Tillary street, and I prepare myself mentally for the climb. 

The first part is simple, it's a straightaway, with some trees on my right.

I usually get myself to a good moderate speed here. Something that can get my heart rate moving, but not exhaust me. 

And then there’s a brief curve to the left and a small downhill before the main climb up the bridge. If I can get to a fast enough speed on a higher gear going downhill then the momentum will carry me through a good portion of the harder uphill part. So I pedal as hard as I can on the highest gear. And when I have used up that momentum I’m probably a third of the way through the climb.

So I lower the gear and I focus on rhythmically putting one pedal stroke in front of the other. I have never stopped on the uphill before. But I have wanted to every time. Instead I focus on the rhythm. I focus on just continuously moving forward. And I let the burn hit my thighs. I know that soon they will be rewarded for their effort. As long as I don’t stop pedaling, as long as I keep moving forward. I will make it.

Before I know it, I am about 2/3 of the way up the hill. This is where the concrete becomes wooden planks, and the incline becomes less severe. As an alternative the wooden planks offer a seriously bumpy ride. It's a slightly different kind of challenge. I get used to this new texture quickly. And this part of the ride goes by in no time. So I make it to the first tower, and I cross under and through to the straight section of the bridge that spans the river. 

Once I start across I look down, through the wooden planks you can see the water sparkle. Flashes of waves shining sun back up at me. And off to the left The Statue of Liberty stands as triumphant as I feel. One more glance at the water as I think of the beauty of crossing bridges by bike. I’m only halfway across the bridge now, but what follows is my reward for pushing myself through the first half. 

I cross the second tower and begin my descent. My speed increases, and the wind resistance blows my clothing, and hair, and sometimes pulls a tear from my eye. There is one yellow speed bump you have to be careful of. It sits there waiting to catch you not paying attention so it can buck you from the saddle. But past that, the planks become concrete again and the ride speeds down smoothly towards Manhattan. I have crossed the bridge again.

Music and bike sounds stop.

At least normally that's what happens. But sometimes, like today, you make it halfway across and then you get a flat in your rear tire forcing you to take the subway for the first time in like forever 

MTA closing doors beep

So that you can  get to work on time… Hmm. Whatever. I still dont fuck with the MTA.

Play 2: A Brief History of Fort Tryon Park (5:15)

Kyra: A Brief History of Fort Tryon Park. A Poem By Me. GO!

Sound of birds chirping and outside noises

Fort Tryon Park, at the top of the Heights

Is verdant, and filled with impeccable sights

And evidence of geological might

Dominique Alexander was hanged here.

Lenape lands, then Dutch came through

Then British, then soon large estates there grew

Then Rockefeller had a plan to brew

Dominique Alexander was hanged here.

New Yorkers know this as the place

Where Cloisters create intentional space

For history and art to blend with deft grace

Dominique Alexander was hanged here.

I walked there once, into the park

As dear lady Moon bestowed her dark

“It could have been me,” I now remark--

Dominique Alexander was hanged here.

Enjoy the gardens, enjoy the Met

Enjoy the time you still have yet

Enjoy it all, but never forget:

Dominique Alexander was hanged here.

Background noise fades out

Play 3: Joy Space (6:34)

Anooj: Joy Space. GO!

Floaty underscore music with sound of a shower eventually fades to wind

Anooj: Shapes within shapes within my arms, spreading, gliding elbows melting with soap, across hair and skin and folds, folding in, expanding, how many combinations of ways are there to move these limbs, to become a magician or perhaps good at geometry within the confines of my shower. 

I stand, playing with the suds, I build bubbles, create glossy windows with my arms and when I see the neon blues and purples and greens shine across them as they wave, I stop calling it a window and start calling it... a mirror. And when I slam my body through its glass it doesn’t shatter, but pops, falls to the ground, my body, mixes, again to make shapes within shapes within my arms, spreading, joy. 

There’s a growing self-consciousness within this body and how it feels joy, how it expresses joy, is my joy taking space? Is it what I knew as joy but no longer know, and am I thinking too hard about the intellect of joy to even discern joy for myself anymore, every walk on these Brooklyn sidewalks makes me wonder if my joy is a gentrified version of the joy that was, and I freeze, build bubbles as sanctions, separated, I look at the smoothness of a bubble flying through the wind and call it glass, let it cut my skin and return to showers where I’d rather just keep my eyes closed and head down until reminders, 

Herbert Von King park on a hot Sunday morning I sit in my body, skin draping on roasted park benches accumulating asks to return to the shower, and I watch the pigeons. See how gentle their bodies walk along the perimeters of tar and as they turn their heads watch the neons… watch the blues and purples and greens shine off of their necks and let myself be absolutely stunned that something so beautiful is in what we call nature and right before I thank the world for a window into this beauty, I pause, and I call it a mirror, and I look at myself, my neck shining these colors, wings at my side, and just think how much potential there is in a world where I can still unlock a moment of joy that my mind doesn’t question. Shapes within shapes within shapes within shapes within my arms. 

Shower sound comes back, music fades out, then water fades out

Show Outro

Electronic instrumental music plays underneath.

Julia: Thanks for Hitting Play and then listening to Hit Play. If you liked what you heard, subscribe to the show and tell a friend! If you want to support the New York Neo-Futurists in other ways, consider making a donation at nynf.org, or joining our Patreon–Patreon.com/NYNF. Patreon membership gives you access to bonus content like video plays and livestreams. And if this episode gets over 1,000 downloads, we're gonna order one of our Patreon supporters a pizza on us. More incentive. We’d really appreciate any support in these difficult times. Contributing to our Patreon helps us continue to pay our artists. 

Take care of yourself, blow some bubbles, and share it with us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

This episode featured work by: Michael John Improta, Kyra Sims, and Anooj Bhandari. If you’d like to contribute to the GoFundMe to support the family of Dominique Alexander, check out the link in the show notes, or go to gofundme.com/f/justicefordomo. Again, that link is in our show notes. Our logo was designed by Shelton Lindsay. And our sound is designed by Anthony Sertel Dean. Hit Play is produced by Anthony Sertel Dean, Léah Miller, and me, Julia Melfi. Take Care!

Music fades out!