Dancing Together

This video above is of a drawing I did on the subway this morning. It’s of a woman on her headphones, which were rather large in relation to her stature. She was talking in an animated way to whomever was on the other end of the line.

Normally, I would speed up the video, but when I tried, I realized that the audiobook I was listening to is on the video as well. So you get an audio glimpse of what I’m currently listening to, a book by Yo-Yo Ma called “Beginner’s Mind.” Ma speaks very quietly and then plays a composition related to what he is discussing. The energy of the music and his playing made me animate the drawing even more than I might anyway. I’m not sure if you can see it, but I felt it.

In this section during my drawing, he plays first an Argentinian composition, then he talks about discovering Brazilian music for the first time. He says it asks “everyone to dance together… and seems to contain the entire human spectrum.” I don’t know Brazilian music, and will have to listen to more of it. But I find it interesting that I drew this on the subway as I listened to this inclusive music. The diversity of New York City, as witnessed so clearly on the subway, is what I love about this city. With the exception of one recent obvious incident, the murder of Jordan Neely, citizens of New York City know very well how to get along together. With all the different cultures and upbringings that are found in New York, it’s kind of amazing that it works.

We all need to dance together, for joy of course, but also to survive.