South Williamsburg (inside no mask land)

Cities and Memory - remixing the world

It was during my first month in New York in July 2020, even with a visa I’ve been received as an alien. I left my country, the country where I immigrated (Denmark), and my continent during a strange period. It was more than coming from outside; all those mouths, lips, teeth, and tongues hidden behind masks created another layer of distance. Can you belong when you cannot touch, face, embrace or connect with strangers?
I chose to come to the US with a plan in my head, and the pandemic arrived; the person I was could not exist in this new reality. How did I insert myself in a culture where people were still shaking every time they were listening to an ambulance siren? I felt lost, disconnected and alone, but new and more simultaneously.
I decided to have a checkup. I lived in prime Williamsburg then, and the only doctor available was in south Williamsburg. While entering the space, I felt I was in another time because no one was wearing masks. I was happy to see facing but frightened by the unknown. It was a strange walk, and I discovered another secret space inside the new space where I was trying to make sense of myself.
Recorded by Sylvain Souklaye.
Part of the Migration Sounds project, the world’s first collection of the sounds of human migration.
For more information and to explore the project, see https://www.citiesandmemory.com/migration