Bri spotted the guitar and microphone from across the sidewalk and could not keep walking. A woman wearing a ‘B’ initial necklace, fresh off a shift at a custom hearing protection company, she crossed the street with a simple explanation: ‘I saw it and I was like, I need to see who this is.’ Within minutes she was standing next to Reggie, a street musician with a guitar, singing Michael Jackson’s ‘Human Nature’ to anyone in New York City who happened to walk past. What happened in the next hour proved that the average rush-hour crowd hides an unlikely number of people who can genuinely sing.
One song and then I got to go home
Bri came in with conditions. One song, she said, then she had to get home. Reggie, who runs the Sing with Me project, welcomed the terms. She chose ‘Human Nature’ because her dad raised her on Michael Jackson. ‘It’s a pretty song,’ she said, as if that settled it. Standing on a public corner in Manhattan, she sang with the ease of someone who had been warming up all afternoon, her voice finding the melody cleanly while Reggie played beneath her. When it was over, she asked where to find his work online, learned the name Guitaro 5000, and declared she loved a good number at the end of something. Then she stayed for a second song. After ‘Genie in a Bottle,’ she said she felt ‘light’ and ‘free’ and mentioned she had not even warmed up that day. She plugged her own Instagram handle on her way out: Bri from the Block, with a four instead of an F.
Courtney came around next, also just off a shift in the same neighborhood. She issued an actual challenge: a duet, one where Reggie would have to carry his own part. Reggie accepted. What she mentioned almost as an aside was the real story: her workplace runs its own chorus. Weekly rehearsals, an hour each session, casual but consistent. She had come from rehearsal when she walked into the Sing with Me setup. ‘This is like so fitting,’ she said. The two performed ‘Best Part’ and then moved into ‘Say Something,’ trading harmonies in front of pedestrians who slowed down or stopped entirely. Reggie said afterward it was the first time he had harmonized with someone on the microphone in a long time.
Thirty-one years at the post office and lyrics for days
Craig, a bystander who stopped to compliment Reggie’s playing, ended up in front of the microphone himself. He works at a United States Post Office nearby and is 31 years into the job, a fact that surprised Reggie, who said he thought Craig was 31 years old. Craig is 57. He wanted to sing ‘Love’s in Need of Love Today’ by Stevie Wonder because, he said plainly, ‘the world is chaotic and ain’t nobody spreading love.’ He called out all people, all colors, all shades, all races before the first note landed. When the song finished, he told Reggie: ‘I feel like I released all the pressures of work. I’m able to spread love even more than I usually do because I released it right here on this corner.’ Reggie told him he felt it.
The moment Craig almost did not stop
Craig admitted he almost kept walking. He saw the setup, the guitar, the microphone, the small crowd forming, and made a choice. ‘I can’t walk by this,’ he said.
Bri got home eventually, but not before sending the livestream link to her mom and waving at the camera. She had come for one song and left after two, which is, as Craig might put it, just human nature.
