Summer Soundwalk Series: Deirdre Harrison and Avreeayl Ra

Join us at Bynum Island in Washington Park for “Noises, Sounds, and Sweet Airs”, a soundwalk led by Deirdre Harrison and Avreeayl Ra.

RSVP here: https://forms.gle/GFC4DFfyi1tMNPZC7

Deirdre Harrison works as a director and performance artist in Chicago’s burgeoning new music/opera scene and with her kids’ chamber band The Lucky Trikes, who lead free, public music story times all over the region, and their bigger, bawdier adult iteration, The Lucky Bikes. Deirdre has worked as a professional actress and singer for many years in London, Rome, New York and all over the regions in the UK and US.  She believes all people have stories to tell, and that listening to each other’s stories enriches us all beyond measure. During the day, she runs a consulting practice, Big Dipper Projects, Inc. to support and coach nonprofits, creative small businesses and individuals, and to produce cultural events. In March 2023, she produced a global conference with over 200 scholars and artists for the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology’s 30th Anniversary at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida.

Avreeayl Ra Amen (he/him), born Arthur L. O’Neil in Chicago on May 21, 1947, has become a local legend in the rich, progressive Chicago avant-garde jazz scene, with a career spanning more than half a century. John Kelman of IndieJazz.com described his solos as “part Tony Williams, part Evan Jones, and all RA.” The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) describes him as a “master drummer” and claims him as a longtime member. Ra represents one of Illinois’s most treasured cultural exports as a home-grown jazz musician; he has played in various African nations, Austria, Canada, China, England, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden.

In partnership with Night Out In The Parks and the Chicago Park District, our program consists of a series of guided soundwalks, workshops and training sessions that engage multi-generational communities in their own neighborhoods. Participants will listen to and for cultural and natural features of the landscape. Rivers, streets, residential and commercial dwellings, traffic patterns, human and animal sounds all feature in these soundscapes. Are plants tuning in, contributing, or responding to all this sound? How do we listen culturally, collaboratively, and more carefully?