Warren Lehrer

This installation was made possible in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer, Viper Records, EarSay and the Sorensen Center for International Peace and Justice.

This CUNY installation furthers Lehrer’s recent interest in bringing literature and poetry to people in non-traditional ways. In his novel A Life In Books, his protagonist Bleu Mobley produces lines of book clothing, book lamps, toilet paper poems, and large scale leaves of poetry that fly over town and country. In the fall of 2015 and again in 2106, Lehrer worked on another large-scale window project, Art In Vacant Spaces, with his Community Design class at SUNY Purchase, the White Plains BID (Business Improvement District), and Sloan as poet. “Instead of populating these vacant storefront windows with pretty pictures and nice designs,” said Lehrer in a USA Today article, of the White Plains project, “I thought why not populate them with visual poems that reflect the people and the conditions of the place.” The CUNY Law School installation continues this idea of bringing poetry to the streets while reflecting the values of a place and its inhabitants.

“In this time of cruelty toward refugees and immigrants, 1001 Voices envisions a compassionate future,” Sloan says of the poem and the project. “With this installation people see themselves in the words and the images while looking at their own reflection in the windows. We see ourselves, we see our history, we see the ideas of what it means to be an American – in the opening lines ‘Here, everybody comes inside to my table, even if they were at war with each other somewhere else.’” The poem reflects the large numbers of refugees who have come to New York, and many refugees and immigrants represented by CUNY Law School clinics and law students. The last line of the poem, “Tell me your stories, I’ll keep them alive,” speaks to the process of deep listening good lawyers use with their clients, and Sloan and Lehrer use in their EarSay theatre workshops at the International High School and in Crossing the BLVD and other projects. The poem and its visualization give voice to the idea of interconnection and understanding through story. “Here, everybody has a shout deep inside them, crossing borders, crossing paths, aching for, eager to…”

1001 Voices: An Anthem for a New America
An installation of visual poetry written by Judith Sloan, visualized by Warren Lehrer.
2017, CUNY Law School/Sorensen Center for International Peace and Justice
Long Island City, New York

The poem—written by Sloan, visualized by Lehrer for 17 contiguous street-level windows at 2 Court Square in Long Island City—portrays a message of welcome and inclusion as it celebrates the Law School’s mission: “law in the service of human needs.” The installation features an excerpt from Sloan’s libretto of 1001 Voices: A Symphony for a New America, which pays homage to recent waves of immigrants and refugees to the United States and re-envisions Emma Lazarus’ sonnet The New Colossus (written in 1883 for the Statue of Liberty). The symphony was commissioned by the Queens Symphony Orchestra. Music composed by Frank London. Libretto written by Judith Sloan. Projected Visualizations designed by Warren Lehrer. At a time when “sanctuary” cities like New York are under attack for their efforts to protect immigrants and asylum seekers, this public work adapted from the symphony—located across from the Court Square subway station on a bustling street in the most diverse county in America—sheds the light of poetry and art on a national crisis that is dividing the country and calling into question the meaning of the “American Dream.”

The window installation is part of the Sorensen Center’s Justice Through Art Initiative, a collaboration between the CUNY Law School community and artists “in order to bring new perspectives and depth to social justice issues and legal challenges.” Lehrer’s panoramic design sets discrete phrases within the poem into their own panels—through typography, photography, color, shape, metaphor. Each of the 17, six-and-a-half foot wide panels float within a street level window. The panels are double-sided, enabling viewers to interact with the poem inside and outside of the building. The installation instigates a series of dialogs and performances beginning in September, 2017, at CUNY Law School.

The Panels

















installation and site photos

This installation was made possible in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer, Viper Records, EarSay and the Sorensen Center for International Peace and Justice.

This CUNY installation furthers Lehrer’s recent interest in bringing literature and poetry to people in non-traditional ways. In his novel A Life In Books, his protagonist Bleu Mobley produces lines of book clothing, book lamps, toilet paper poems, and large scale leaves of poetry that fly over town and country. In the fall of 2015 and again in 2106, Lehrer worked on another large-scale window project, Art In Vacant Spaces, with his Community Design class at SUNY Purchase, the White Plains BID (Business Improvement District), and Sloan as poet. “Instead of populating these vacant storefront windows with pretty pictures and nice designs,” said Lehrer in a USA Today article, of the White Plains project, “I thought why not populate them with visual poems that reflect the people and the conditions of the place.” The CUNY Law School installation continues this idea of bringing poetry to the streets while reflecting the values of a place and its inhabitants.

“In this time of cruelty toward refugees and immigrants, 1001 Voices envisions a compassionate future,” Sloan says of the poem and the project. “With this installation people see themselves in the words and the images while looking at their own reflection in the windows. We see ourselves, we see our history, we see the ideas of what it means to be an American – in the opening lines ‘Here, everybody comes inside to my table, even if they were at war with each other somewhere else.’” The poem reflects the large numbers of refugees who have come to New York, and many refugees and immigrants represented by CUNY Law School clinics and law students. The last line of the poem, “Tell me your stories, I’ll keep them alive,” speaks to the process of deep listening good lawyers use with their clients, and Sloan and Lehrer use in their EarSay theatre workshops at the International High School and in Crossing the BLVD and other projects. The poem and its visualization give voice to the idea of interconnection and understanding through story. “Here, everybody has a shout deep inside them, crossing borders, crossing paths, aching for, eager to…”