Crossing the Blvd: Strangers, Neighbors, Aliens in a New America [AUDIO CD]

From 1999- 2002, documentary artists Warren Lehrer and Judith Sloan traveled the world by trekking the streets of their home borough of Queens, NY— the most ethnically diverse locality in the United States — in search of story, culture, and soul. The result is a book (W.W. Norton), a series of public radio documentaries, a performance-work, and this audio CD documenting many of the people Sloan/Lehrer encountered along their way.

This Crossing the BLVD CD features original music compositions by Scott Johnson (of John Somebody fame), text/audio compositions by Sloan/Lehrer, and music by Crossing the BLVD participants. Scott Johnson's compositions for sampled voices and an electro-acoustic chamber ensemble, and text/audio pieces by Sloan & Lehrer cross the boundaries between music and speech, journalism and expressionism, tradition and the avant-garde. Music by Crossing the BLVD participants include the gypsy-punk-cabaret band Gogol Bordello, Nigerian gospel singer Kingsley Ogunde, Romanian-American musicians Christine and Dinu Ghezzo, and more. Beautifully performed and recorded, this CD is a rich and original musical soundscape that reflects the new immigrant experience at the crossroads of a paradoxical and ever-changing America.