For my Soundwalk, I decided to explore Brooklyn's Chinatown, otherwise referred to as “Eighth Avenue.” Just outside of the subway station, I observed a cacophony of sounds coming from all different directions. While the neighborhood is by no means as loud as say, Park Slope during Celebrate Brooklyn, there really is so much to listen to on a normal day like this. Sound signals are immediately noticeable as I cross the street from the station: the sound of several greyhound sized buses rumbles in the foreground. The shrill wail of a police car siren sounds from a few blocks away. On this busy avenue, other than sound of the wind brutally whipping at my ears, the keynote sound that one really notices as a constant in Eighth Avenue are the cars. The streets are swarmed with cars on either side of the road, wheels audibly rolling over the pavement past me and away toward their destinations. The heels of women's boots clack against the cement, baby carriages roll past me, older siblings returning home from school, adults chattering away in Cantonese, Mandarin, English. It's 6pm on a weekday and children of mostly Chinese descent are returning home from school. Their voices are truly what I believe are the soundmarks of this neighborhood. This neighborhood is densely populated with Chinese families, many of whom are immigrants. Houses and cramped apartments line every block, and businesses too are plentiful. This family friendly atmosphere makes way for a wide range of age groups who speak all different dialects of Chinese, though really most of them understand Mandarin.
This, my friends, is Eighth Avenue.
