DIGit event incorporates historic Roebling Bridge

By SANDY LONG

LACKAWAXEN, PA/MINISINK FORD, NY — An intrigued audience gathered atop the Roebling Bridge on a balmy August evening last week to experience “Roebling Bridge Arts,” a first-ever multimedia event that explored various forms of audio art and included performances of song, poetry, chant, dance and theater.

As dusk gradually descended, people strolled from one end of the bridge to the other, conversing quietly and listening to sounds streaming live from various parts of the world, joined with the natural sounds of the Delaware River below.

Here, Cassie Valentin, left, Mary Greene and Tom Lisenbee listen to jazz pianist Kazzrie Jaxen’s piano composition, “Roebling Resonance,” as it was projected over the water. Jaxen created the music as “an offering to the resonance of the Roebling site,” influenced by her realization that the bridge’s construction resembled that of a piano. Greene is director of the Upper Delaware Writers Collective, which created and recorded the sound poem, “Call Me River,” broadcast earlier in the evening.

DIGit is the annual media arts exposition of the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance based in Narrowsburg, NY.