American Railroad - Ep 2 New York

Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen

PRX

Arts

4.6 • 675 Ratings

🗓️ 3 January 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Embark on American Railroad, a five-episode podcast hosted by Rhiannon Giddens that seeks to right historical wrongs by highlighting the untold stories and unheard voices from the diverse communities that built America’s railway systems.

Next stop: Hell’s Kitchen, a New York City neighborhood historian Miriam Nyhan describes as transformed by immigration and expansion of the state’s railroad boom. Despite tensions between Black and Irish railroad workers, living and laboring side-by side created a distinctly American sound. Musicians Lenwood “Leni” Sloan, and Silkroad Ensemble member Maeve Gilchrist use music to capture the energy and urgency of the time in their workshop with New York’s Irish Arts Center.

Founded by Yo-Yo Ma, Silkroad is both a touring ensemble comprised of world-class musicians from all over the globe, and a social impact organization working to make a positive impact across borders through the arts. To find out more about Silkroad's American Railroad - the album, the tour, the TV series and the podcast, go to silkroad.org/american-railroad.

Listen to all episodes of American Railroad from Silkroad and PRX on your favorite podcast platform.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From PRX.
0:08.0	We're standing on the high line on Manhattan's west side, looking out towards the Hudson River.
0:14.0	This is a vibrant green public space built on an elevated railway line from the 1900s.
0:20.0	But look past the park's swaying wildflowers and cool art installations.
0:24.6	Along the pathways, you can still see the old tracks,
0:27.6	where freight trains carry coal, dairy, and beef to waterfront businesses and residences.
0:33.6	Stand clear of the closing doors, please.
0:42.9	New York, with its vast subway system and its bustling pin station, was shaped by the railroads, both above and below ground. These tracks fueled the city's growth, driving its
0:48.6	economy and swelling its population. But beneath that progress lies a deeper story about the hands that built them.
0:56.0	They arrived on different ships at different times, but their paths met here.
1:03.0	People of African origin and people who originate from Ireland, both have a catastrophic crossing on an ocean.
1:15.6	They both leave everything behind, everything, except their epic memory.
1:21.6	The Irish, fleeing hunger and oppression, and African Americans,
1:26.6	bearing the weight of years of enslavement and displacement,
1:30.3	they labored here together, building a city that shunned them.
1:34.3	They took the jobs nobody else wanted to take.
1:37.3	They were the infrastructure, they were the sandhogs, they were the gandie dancers, they fought in the wars.
1:45.0	In their shared struggle for survival, racism and discrimination often pitted them against each other.
1:51.0	While there are instances of this tension and conflict and competition,
1:55.0	there was a coming together that coexisted with the conflict.
2:00.0	They were also listening to the songs of joy,
2:03.5	the songs of laughter, the songs of sorrow,
	...

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