It is my pleasure to announce the next set of soundwalks led by Chicago teaching artists, alum of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology. The Summer Soundwalks In The Parks Series kicks off at 5:00 PM on Saturday, May 8 at Ping Tom Park with “A Sonic Taste of Chinatown” led by Amanda Gutierrez. Address: 1700 S. Wentworth Ave. (meet at the Pagoda)

General Description

Teaching artists will lead a series of seven thematically focused soundwalks across the city engaging multi-generational communities in parks located on the far south, south, west and north sides of Chicago. Walks will last 35-45 minutes followed by a 15-minute reflective conversation. Thematically, they focus on nature and wildlife, citizen science, place-making and black history.

Parks, themes, and teaching artists

• Lindsey French, mycelium and plant communications soundwalk, or river listening, proposed at Ping Tom Park.
• Amanda Gutierrez, spatial codes of immigrant neighborhoods, proposed at Ping Tom, a bilingual walk.
• Eric Leonardson, Frog monitoring at West Ridge Nature Preserve and Singing Insects at North Park Village Nature Center, with Dr. Carl Strang.
• Norman Long and Sara Zalek, movement with nature at Big Marsh.
• Norman Long, place-making and black history at and around the DuSable Museum and Washington Park with links to the Gwendolyn Brooks and Margaret Burroughs Centennial Celebrations.
• Anthony Janas leads a soundwalk around Northerly Island that taps into a world of unheard sounds below the surface

In 2016, the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology led a series of guided soundwalks for Night Out In the Parks, and at least one workshops and training session—for the Singing Insect Monitoring Program—aimed at engaging multi-generational communities in their own neighborhoods.