Peace of Heart Choir Sings at The Unveiling of THE POEM

By Carrie Wesolowski

Photos by: Frank Asencio

Amidst the splashes of technicolor on towering billboards and screens, the iconic Times Square ball, the Red steps/TKTS booth, the costumed characters now back in force, the retail clothing stores, some new construction across the way, there was a new kid in town from April 8—May 4…….an immersive art installation THE POEM by Cuban artist Raúl Cordero that beckoned us to stay a while and to meditate and discover our own silent ohm in the middle of this sprawling noisy metropolis that is New York City… to stop the noise and to filter out all of the competing images and messages vying for our attention, vying for our dollars--and just center ourselves with poetry and nature—if just for a moment.

THE POEM is a 20-foot structural tower covered in a mountain laurel cascade that draws your eye away from those blaring Times Square images and instead sky bound. This piece of respite was unveiled on April 8 in the historic landmark, Father Duffy Square.

And Peace of Heart Choir was the musical joie de vivre that closed this unveiling ceremony. And we were happy to be there. The unveiling was truly blessed by blue skies. At various points, we stood underneath the structure and looked up, mesmerized by those blue skies, trying to get a photo of the words whose characters in the poem were illuminated at the top interior of the foliage through glowing bulbs of black light.

The following are the words of the poem by poet/educator Barry Schwabsky illuminated in the tower:

calm silence rolls

deftly through so much clamor

roar echo un heard

The press conference began with an introduction of Raúl Cordero and his remarks were followed by brief comments by Barry Schwabsky who stressed he could never have dreamed he would have his poem in Times Square. Inspiration to all that our dreams are possible.

At the invitation of Times Square Alliance, this was our first public performance of 2022.

And the first one since March 2020--before the pandemic started--in which we sang unmasked…We could see each other’s faces, each other’s smiles and the audience could see our faces too…

We opened with an original composition by our esteemed musical director Robert René Galván to celebrate the unveiling of the outdoor sculpture, “THE POEM” by the artist Raúl Cordero.

Our first song we sang a la The Mile Long Opera which made me feel a bit nostalgic--as a Pentatonic improv in which each choral section sang one line—either the words by Barry Schwabsky illuminated inside the tower or the words from Raúl Cordero’s video art piece which were shown on at least one billboard near the site.

The Pentatonic improv went well in spite of the noise, including one very enthusiastic canine spectator who was quite vocal throughout the speeches and our musical performance.

We also sang Paz Y Libertad and One Day. It felt joyous and triumphant to sing of peace in a troubled world so in need of it and I could see that it resonated with our audience—in their faces—that look in their eyes and that sense of hope in that collective wish..

And there was a bit of lightheartedness too. At one point, René noticed that a piece of foliage from the structure had fallen on Suzy’s hair and I pushed it off and remarked that it truly was an immersive art experience as she was now literally immersed in it. Suzy and I laughed.

Afterwards, we chatted and took photos and people stopped me to say "thank you," "thank you for our performance"--audience members, representatives from the Times Square Alliance, and even Barry Schwabsky who I briefly chatted with.

I love this quote by Raúl Cordero:

“It’s difficult to create meaningful art for people in an era when their attention is scattered across so many mediums and technologies simultaneously. THE POEM seeks to stop time, reminding us that humans also have the capacity to invest in one thing at a time — like listen to ‘the secret dialogue of trees’ (as put poetically by Reinaldo Arenas) and read a poem, even when standing in the center of Times Square.””

— Raúl Cordero

It's so satisfying to know that our musical performance was a celebration of this ideology and that as a lifelong New Yorker, this was truly a uniquely memorable experience in Times Square.

In Peace and Harmony,

Carrie Wesolowski, Alto 1