Blog Assignment 2 - “What I Hear” in Jackson Heights

Rose Crespo

Blog Assignment 2 - “What I Hear” in Jackson Heights 

After spending an hour in Little India located in Jackson Heights, Queens without any means of communication or entertainment, I have heard and seen more about a neighborhood that I pass by every single day. At first I sat on a rock and tried to listen in on conversation that the people passing by were having, but there was so much commotion and noise that instead I tried to just take it all in at once. The texture was dense and thick as the 7 train (which is  came in and out of the station in the background. There is the jingling of the coins inside of a cup held by an older woman who is actually pretty well-known here and not welcome. After a while, the jingling almost becomes like a song - like the melody or chorus of a song and the people speeding through the street are her background instruments. The traditional Indian music coming from of the shops down the street is very specific and meaningful to this specific neighborhood. This street alone between Roosevelt and 37th ave is filled with an abundance of Indian restaurants, clothing shops that have colorful Saris on display and jewelry stores with a type of vibrant yellow gold that everyone is always shocked to see. 

I hear a lot of people speaking Bangladesh and in this particular area - the demographics of the men hanging out here are older men. As they raise their voices I start to notice who’s the “big shot” of the group and I eagerly want to know what they're talking about and why they're so excited about it as they raise their voices. The train is quite loud, but it’s far enough to not be distracting to the hustle and bustle of everyone getting out of the station and running towards their destination. Nobody is getting too loud, for this a pretty calm neighborhood, but there are a lot of playful kids running around creating a very hectic ambiance and dense texture. 

I grew up in this neighborhood so hearing people rush and push and huff and puff is pretty normal to me, but whats meaningful is hearing all of the different languages being spoken. I grew up in a very multi-cultural environment and sitting here and taking it all in makes me very proud to be from this area and it has made me who I am today. I have become open minded and just being able to distinguish languages apart from each other - gives me a lot of pride and joy. These colors and sounds and multi-cultural dynamics aren't available at everyone's disposable in NY even in Queens alone. So being a part of one of the worlds pst culturally diverse neighborhoods is amazing! It was hard to focus on one specific noise, but as people passed me closer and closer I was able to pick up their language differences, but overall they all unified eventually and just became one great big noise.