Game Night with Black Beyond
to play
Fictional Office Holiday Party with Canal Street Research Association
to play
Food Mahjong Club
to play
Shroomscape Game Night with LES Ecology Center & The Interbeing Project
to play
Mixed Media Mixtape with Umber Majeed
to play
Listening Room: Night Time Drop-In Hours at CTHQ
to play
Mixed Media Mixtape: YouTube Spiral
to play
So close to human
to play
to dream
TALES FROM AREA 212: THE URBAN LEGEND… THE RUMOR…
sonic commons
to play
to document
Sounding Together Towards the Unknown
sonic commons
to play
to dream
to make
Kitawîrisu’ (or The Gambler) with Nathan Young, Warren Realrider, and Mekko Harjo
sonic commons
to play
Synesthesia ∞ Solidarity with Gabo Camnitzer and Elian Chali
sonic commons
to move
to play
“Oh” with Maia Chao, Erik DeLuca, Matt Evans, Amirtha Kidambi, and Daniel Midgley
sonic commons
to play
to document
“No one on earth could feel like this.” with Constantina Zavitsanos, Geo Wyex, S*an D. Henry Smith, Christian Amaya Garcia
sonic commons
to play
to dream
Break-Ups to Make-Ups with Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste
sonic commons
to play
to act
to scheme
to make
The People’s Karaoke Machine with Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste & Daphne Carr
sonic commons
to play
to be a neighbor
to act
to scheme
Symphony No. -1: Rehearsal with Ethan Philbrick
sonic commons
to play
to act
to scheme
to dream
to make
Whisper Becomes Shout With Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste and troizel
sonic commons
to play
to act
to make
Resist & Build: Land & Space in NYC
to be a neighbor
to scheme
Parallel Walks: Creating A Community Forest: Artist Walk with Matthew López-Jensen
to move
to be a neighbor
Parallel Walks: Foraging in the city! What is it? How is it done? And is it worth it? with Journei Bimwala
to move
to be a neighbor
Parallel Walk with GrowHouse
to move
to be a neighbor
The Fight to End the 24-hour Workday: Screening of For Whom the Alarm Sounds
to be a neighbor
to document
Parallel Walk: Advancing by turning and turning
to move
to be a neighbor
Jungle whispers and forest echoes.
to be a neighbor
to document
LES Yearbook Showcase
to be a neighbor
to document
Revisiting Creative Time’s “Poets in Bars” with Nuyorican Poets Café
to be a neighbor
Revisiting Creative Time’s “Poets in Bars”: What does it mean to be a poet in New York City?
to be a neighbor
FOOD #2: Communal Meal & Storytelling Gathering
to nourish
to be a neighbor
Lower East Side Arts & Culture Open House
to be a neighbor
The Censored Voices with Samora Pinderhughes, The Healing Project, Anjelica Mantikas, Esq.
sonic commons
to be a neighbor
to act
Listening with Politics with Lawrence Abu Hamdan
sonic commons
to be a neighbor
to scheme
Listening Session with DJ Cintronics, The Avenue DJs from The Lower Eastside Girls Club
sonic commons
to be a neighbor
to make
Time Share With GENG PTP, YATTA, Yaz Lancaster, Dena Igusti
sonic commons
to move
to be a neighbor
The People’s Karaoke Machine with Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste & Daphne Carr
sonic commons
to play
to be a neighbor
to act
to scheme
Listening Room with Aki Onda
sonic commons
to nourish
to be a neighbor
to dream
to document
Love Letters for Solidarity
to act
to make
WE REMIND YOU: An evening on HIV & Palestine
to act
to document
Tactical Media: Collective Brainstorm & Poster Swap with Gregory Sholette and Viva Ruiz
to act
to document
Civic Dis/Engagement #1: We Mean What We Say (Subverting Political Language)
to act
to scheme
Civic Dis/Engagement #2: And Still We Protest
to act
to scheme
Civic Dis/Engagement #3: Not This Again? Let’s Scheme Otherwise
to act
to scheme
The Censored Voices with Samora Pinderhughes, The Healing Project, Anjelica Mantikas, Esq.
sonic commons
to be a neighbor
to act
“I Must Become a Menace to My Enemies”: On June Jordan and Liberation as an Ongoing Practice
to act
to document
“Surveillance Party”: Security and Safety for Artists in These Times
to act
to scheme
Break-Ups to Make-Ups with Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste
sonic commons
to play
to act
to scheme
to make
The People’s Karaoke Machine with Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste & Daphne Carr
sonic commons
to play
to be a neighbor
to act
to scheme
Symphony No. -1: Rehearsal with Ethan Philbrick
sonic commons
to play
to act
to scheme
to dream
to make
Whisper Becomes Shout With Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste and troizel
sonic commons
to play
to act
to make
Parallel Walks: Creating A Community Forest: Artist Walk with Matthew López-Jensen
to move
to be a neighbor
Parallel Walks: Foraging in the city! What is it? How is it done? And is it worth it? with Journei Bimwala
to move
to be a neighbor
Defanging The Snake: Psychic Self-Defense & Weaponry in Filipino Martial Arts with Caroline Garcia
to move
“I Can Beat You Up”: Angry Asian Womxn and Sisters in Self Defense
to move
Workshop with Trans Boxing
to move
Parallel Walk with GrowHouse
to move
to be a neighbor
Rinse
to move
to nourish
Inner Harmony: Discovering Your Healing Power through Tai Chi, Qigong
to move
Parallel Walk: Advancing by turning and turning
to move
to be a neighbor
Twerk As a Tool for Personal Liberation
to move
Dreams with AYDO Studio & Mudang Jenn
to move
to dream
Monthly Reiki Meditation
to move
to be still
Monthly Reiki Meditation
to move
to be still
Monthly Reiki Meditation
to move
to be still
Music Research Strategies: Listen Like Wolves – A Grammar of Motives
sonic commons
to move
to scheme
Synesthesia ∞ Solidarity with Gabo Camnitzer and Elian Chali
sonic commons
to move
to play
Time Share With GENG PTP, YATTA, Yaz Lancaster, Dena Igusti
sonic commons
to move
to be a neighbor
Sonic Commons
In 2025, gatherings at CTHQ are organized around the Sonic Commons: the texture of sounds (and silences) that form the urban landscape. Sound shapes our atmosphere: the ways we interact with each other, what we hear and don’t hear, how we listen and to what or who. What are the sounds of community, of history, of power, of industry that make up our city? How does sound shape the daily experiences of the cityscape, and what social actions emerge from sonic interactions?
In the context of increasing political turmoil, unpredictability, and authoritarianism, we explore how the politics of sound can be explored as metaphors and tools to help us listen, decipher, decode, and move past this tumultuous moment. In a sonic commons, what is shared corresponds to what is heard, what is silenced and what is amplified within our public spaces and our culture at large.
Programs and ideas are organized around a growing list of sonic fragments found in public space, including (but not limited to):
the summer anthem, the high heels clicking on the street, the catcall, the cackle, the small talk, the spontaneous street conversation, the shit talking, the lo-rider, the birdsong within city greenspaces, the protest slogan, the call and response, the collective song, the impetus to speak out, the notion that voices are heard (but is the hearing ever translated into action?), the censored voices, the scream, the shout, the catatonic scream, the silence, the stillness, the saying something when seeing something, the public address, the sign language, the signage, the place names modified for colonial tongues, the codes, the slang, the diasporic dialects, the endangered languages, the underground codes, the busking, the rhythm of urban infrastructure, the phone sounds played out loud, the personal speakers, the thunder, the bass, the noise pollution, the noise ordinances, the alarms, the sirens, the screeching of a halt, the struggle to breathe deeply in a polluted cityscape, the right to breathe, air, the obstruction of breath, asthma, indigenous sonic agency, the noise, the rumbling, the telephone game, the prank call, the rumor, the encrypted group chat, the urban legend, the rumors, the hysteria, the call to prayer, the call to action.
SCHEDULE
JUNE-AUGUST
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JUNE
Wednesday, June 4 | 6-7.30 pm
Facilitated by the practitioners of the NYC POC Healing Circle
Plant Allyship for Energetic Healing with jei laura
Thursday, June 12 | 6-8 pm
With Maia Chao, Erik DeLuca, Matt Evans, Amirtha Kidambi, Daniel Midgley
Wednesday, June 18 | 6-8 pm
“I Must Become a Menace to My Enemies”: On June Jordan and Liberation as an Ongoing Practice
With Monaye Johnson
Wednesday, June 25 | 6-8 pm
“No one on earth could feel like this.”
With Constantina Zavitsanos, Geo Wyex, S*an D. Henry Smith
JULY
Wednesday, July 9 | 6-8 PM
With Mendi + Keith Obadike
Wednesday, July 16 | 6-8 PM
Opposing the Attention Economy with Intentional Listening
With Kamala Sankaram, Liz Pelly
Wednesday, July 23 | 6-8 PM
Accent Sisters Dialect Corner “日落过早：Breakfast After Dusk”
With Chiarina Chen, John Tsung, Siyi Chen, Jiaoyang Li
Wednesday, July 30 | 6-8 PM
With GENG PTP, YATTA, Yaz Lancaster, Dena Igusti
AUGUST
Wednesday, August 6 | 6-7.30 pm
Facilitated by the practitioners of the NYC POC Healing Circle
Plant Allyship for Energetic Healing with jei laura
Disorderly Noise: Kicking Off a Year of the Sonic Commons
sonic commons
The Coded Language: QueerWordPlay
sonic commons
Pomegrenade, a Collective Song
sonic commons
The Censored Voices with Samora Pinderhughes, The Healing Project, Anjelica Mantikas, Esq.
sonic commons
to be a neighbor
to act
SONIC UNDERCOMMONS: PROTECTION with yuniya edi kwon and Holland Andrews
sonic commons
SONIC UNDERCOMMONS: COMMUNION with Joy Guidry, Li(sa E.) Harris, Dorchel Haqq
sonic commons
Listening with Politics with Lawrence Abu Hamdan
sonic commons
to be a neighbor
to scheme
Scoring to Remember with Laura Ortman & Razelle Benally
sonic commons
The Scream and The Silence with Harmony Holiday, Raven Chacon, JJJJJerome Ellis
sonic commons
Listening Session with DJ Cintronics, The Avenue DJs from The Lower Eastside Girls Club
sonic commons
to be a neighbor
to make
TALES FROM AREA 212: THE URBAN LEGEND… THE RUMOR…
sonic commons
to play
to document
Sounding Together Towards the Unknown
sonic commons
to play
to dream
to make
Music Research Strategies: Listen Like Wolves – A Grammar of Motives
sonic commons
to move
to scheme
Kitawîrisu’ (or The Gambler) with Nathan Young, Warren Realrider, and Mekko Harjo
sonic commons
to play
Synesthesia ∞ Solidarity with Gabo Camnitzer and Elian Chali
sonic commons
to move
to play
“Oh” with Maia Chao, Erik DeLuca, Matt Evans, Amirtha Kidambi, and Daniel Midgley
sonic commons
to play
to document
“No one on earth could feel like this.” with Constantina Zavitsanos, Geo Wyex, S*an D. Henry Smith, Christian Amaya Garcia
sonic commons
to play
to dream
Love is Listening With Mendi + Keith Obadike, Rena Anakwe / DJ Lady Lane, chukwumaa / chuki, Havily Nwakuche, Rain Abdalla
sonic commons
to dream
Opposing the Attention Economy with Intentional Listening With Kamala Sankaram, Liz Pelly
sonic commons
to scheme
Time Share With GENG PTP, YATTA, Yaz Lancaster, Dena Igusti
sonic commons
to move
to be a neighbor
Break-Ups to Make-Ups with Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste
sonic commons
to play
to act
to scheme
to make
Spirit Tea, Moon Whispers with Atheel Elmalik & Marwa Eltahir
sonic commons
to nourish
to dream
to be still
The People’s Karaoke Machine with Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste & Daphne Carr
sonic commons
to play
to be a neighbor
to act
to scheme
Symphony No. -1: Rehearsal with Ethan Philbrick
sonic commons
to play
to act
to scheme
to dream
to make
Listening Room with Aki Onda
sonic commons
to nourish
to be a neighbor
to dream
to document
Monthly Reiki Meditation
sonic commons
to nourish
to be still
Stranger, Neighbor, Enemy, Best Friend with Steffani Jemison
sonic commons
A Sower Went Out to Sow Her Seed: Songs, Medicine, and the Power of Prediction With Toshi Reagon and Suhaly Bautista-Carolina
sonic commons
to nourish
to dream
to make
Monthly Reiki Meditation
sonic commons
to nourish
to be still
Whisper Becomes Shout With Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste and troizel
sonic commons
to play
to act
to make
Watermelon Pictures: WE NEVER LEFT, a film by Loulwa Khoury with Q&A
sonic commons
to scheme
to dream