The Sunshine Hotel

society, culture · EN-US

The thing about audio is that you have no choice but to listen. You can’t write off a speaker based on looks or the variety of other characteristics we may use to pre-judge. You have to settle into the sound, hear the words, and be transported. That power allows the medium to reflect on the darker corners of life, and give listeners access to places they may never be. The Sunshine Hotel was the last of the Bowery flophouses. A ten dollar “room” and a cast of unique longterm residents on the second floor of a building on New York City’s Bowery. Our guide is manager Nathan Smith, who casually shows us the ropes and introduces us to the regulars. The feeling is uncanny - awkwardly settling into a chaotic sonic landscape and the rules of the place, followed by a quiet resignation as we hear the stories of the men that have made a home at the Hotel. Perhaps not unlike their first days there, it’s unsettling but comforting. The piece leaves the listener with a softness we don’t often