Hypocrisy of Justice: Elevator Soundscape
30 Seconds, 3 Trumpets: Centering Black Women and Girls in Native Son, is an immersive soundscape housed within the main elevator and staircase of the Gidwitz Lobby of the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts. The soundscape surrounds visitors with the voices of local, Chicago-based Black women and girls of varying ages, e as they narrate selected passages from Richard Wright’s 1940 novel, Native Son. As each passage is read, the listener is transitioned between each voice with an ensemble of three trumpets playing three consecutive notes, referencing the three divisions of the novel: Fear, Flight and Fate. Interspersed within the soundscape, listeners will also hear the voice of a young Black girl singing gospels referenced in the novel.
While the seminal novel centers the story of Bigger Thomas, a Black man contending with the racial inequities of Chicago’s South Side in the 1940’s, Bigger’s story is carried through violence and fatal acts towards women. This installation gives the agency back to Black women and girls by supporting and amplifying their voices in the contemporary moment. It also provides an opportunity to ground the visitor experience in the novel and to encourage reflection upon entering and exiting in response to the events within Hypocrisy of Justice: Sights and Sounds of the Black Metropolis.
Readers: Naomi Baty, Wisdom Baty, Zenobia Black, and Sadie Woods
Vocals: Degame Young
Curation: Inés Arango, Erica Cheung, Sidney Mori Garrett, Sigrid Neptun, and Maya Ortiz Saucedo
Sound Editing: Sidney Mori Garrett
Special thanks to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Hyde Park Jazz Festival, and the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts for making this soundscape possible.