The Visitation

a sound walk for Jackie Robinson Park

created by
Christina Campanella & Stephanie Fleischmann

photo: Dan Efram

An urban odyssey in search of the collective memory of a deer’s 2016 sojourn in Harlem’s Jackie Robinson Park. A meditation on the presence of the mythic in the everyday and the uneasy relationship we tread between the built environment and the natural world. A visceral sonic journey through our longing for the solace of the wild that charts the histories and hauntings of a particular urban geography, embedded within the geology of time.

music, sound & narration: Christina Campanella
text: Stephanie Fleischmann

Lenape historical consultant: Oleana Whispering Dove

with
Black-Eyed Susan, Callie Holley, Mia Pixley, Carl Hancock Rux, John-Andrew Morrison, Abraham Gomez-Delgado, Jude Shiner, Mark Spencer, Sammy Baker & Ryan Packard

Duration: 49:14

Initiated in collaboration with Mallory Catlett

Commissioned by Here Arts Center. With Support from Café Royal Cultural Foundation.

photo: Elizabeth Felicella

Available via URHERE, or by following the instructions below

Download/print out map before you head out.

Bring: headphones, map, smartphone

Starting point: Take the A train to 145th. Enter Jackie Robinson Park at 145th Street and either Edgecombe or Bradhurst Avenue. Position yourself on the path near the gate in front of the pool.

  1. Take note of your surroundings in relation to the map

  2. Place your phone in DO NOT DISTURB mode

  3. Connect your headphones

  4. Click “Listen in Browser” or the PLAY button on the soundcloud image of the deer below.

  5. Listen for instructions and follow along on the map.

    The walk can also be experienced remotely, simply by listening at home.

“The place itself is an integral collaborator in the work you’re making. It’s not just what you’re seeing as you go on the walk but how it feels to be moving through that particular space.”

—The Medium

“A unique, immersive meditation.”

—Reviews Hub

“An episodic fantasia in which the very fabric of time is haunted by this singular creature’s spectral “visitation”…. The experience overall demands that listeners bask in their immediate surroundings, as well as thoughtfully contemplate the shrouded crevices of our collective history and the current bruised state of the natural world.”

—Viewpoints