For years I have been disturbed by loud, percussive rock music in stores in the Juilliard neighborhood. These are stores Juilliard students patronize. Standing in line at a pharmacy at 70th Street and Broadway is an ordeal. Having a drink at a coffee bar on 67th Street and Columbus is nerve-wracking.

Eileen Pollock. (Photo by David Beyda)

With our current crisis, I have found the sounds of the “culture” around me increasingly anxiety provoking. We have been so utterly shaken in our basic assumptions, our sense of safety has been breached, and the heartless beat of rock music seems uncannily to reflect the violence and cruelty that has destroyed our innocence.

So I have decided to take action. I now ask the store manager to turn off or turn down the speaker system. I tell the manager that we are all under enormous anxiety, and the sound of rock makes it worse. If asking once doesn’t work, I ask again. I will do whatever it takes to create a peaceful atmosphere.

When I enter the upscale coffee bar, if loud rock is playing, I ask the supervisor to turn it down. At first, he invariably resists. “It’s set that way,” he says. I have kept at it. I have sent e-mails to corporate headquarters. I repeated my request on numerous visits. By now he actually responds (with a look of resentment) when I ask him to turn it down (or better yet, off!). I do not mind his resentment. I am not looking to make him happy.

At yet another pharmacy on Amsterdam and 70th Street, on the Sunday after September 11, a line of customers around me agreed that the sounds over the speaker were intolerable. But no one had the courage to say anything to the young supervisor. So I spoke up. The young man told me, “We’re here eight hours a day. The customers are only here a few minutes.” I answered with quiet vehemence, “But we pay your salary.” The next day I called the store manager and protested the supervisor’s attitude. The manager agreed with me. Now there is no music playing at this pharmacy when I visit there.

What is keeping us from speaking out against the aural onslaught around us? Fear? Of what? Of whom? I have chosen to take a stand for silence.

At this time of overwhelming grief and ongoing anxiety, it is essential that we who participate in the Juilliard community keep our equilibrium, fragile though it may be. One way is to create as serene an environment as possible.

Eileen Pollock is an Evening Division student.

Voice Box is a student opinion column appearing regularly in The Juilliard Journal. To submit a column for consideration, please e-mail it to journal@juilliard.edu with “Voice Box” in the subject heading, and include a phone number where you can be reached. Columns should cover topics of interest to the Juilliard community.