What I Hear -- Kew Gardens

I decided to take my soundwalk through my own neighborhood in Kew Gardens. I’ve only lived there about seven months and in that time I have never paid much attention to all the sounds around me. For the most part, while walking through the streets, I listen to music or talk to whoever may be with me. Because of this, I have never realized all of the different noises that are present in a place which I once regarded as quite but, have since learned better. The first sound that I noticed while on my walk was that of the wind. I feel that the natural sounds that come from nature tend to be the ones that are ignored the most. With the wind also comes the sound of the rustling of leaves or whatever trash that may be littered on the ground. On this day the sound of birds could be heard singing their songs now that the weather has finally started to warm up. Walking off of my own block and onto the busy street of Queens Boulevard, I was hit with enough sounds to make it difficult to pinpoint them all. The most prominent sounds were that of the traffic. The engines of cars roaring and the honking of horns by impatient drivers were very clear. With the cars, more wind could be heard as the traffic whooshed by me. The F train underneath my feet could also be heard from the grates on the sidewalk. And, of course, the people all around me made even more noise. I could hear the clanking of heels on the concrete sidewalk, a mother rushing her two young children along, several people talking on their phones, and even more people playing music loud enough to be heard from their headphones. It’s incredible the amount of different sounds that surround us that most people, including myself, tend to ignore. It is something I will definitely be more aware of from now on.

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The Library from Brandi Ude on Vimeo.