A New York Moment

So it’s been a while, hasn’t it?

I could sit here and delineate the days for you – days spent discussing white privilege and racism, the details of packing and moving and getting paid for the next two years, personality tests and discussing how to work with people who function differently than ourselves, nights spent sleeping, playing cards, swapping entertaining stories, and (last night) and excursion to a Greenwich Village piano bar where the waitress told us “if you can’t afford to drink here, you might as well buy a six-pack and go home.”

But that would easily get dull and trivial, especially since I’ve barely begun processing the information for myself, so I’m far from a point where my thoughts could be shared concisely or effectively.

So instead, something small.

On Friday, Abby, Michael, and I ate lunch at a little deli in the Village called 6 and 12…I grabbed their sandwich menu as a kitchen resource, because everything on the menu looked amazing. On the way back, we got a little lost (but, unlike my common Cincinnati experience, managed to avoid the ghetto). What seemed to be inconvenient became a blessing as we stumbled upon a chain-link fence covered in ceramic tiles. Each tile was decorated as a personal memorial to (or political comment on) 9/11. Now, while I have no desire to visit Ground Zero, it was a rather profound experience to be in the city where the event occured, surrounded by people who needed no real reminder of it, looking at a memorial to the friends and loved ones of the people whizzing by us at this busy intersection.

 

www.tilesforamerica.com

Community.

Today, I feel like we have finally (can you say “finally” after only 4 days?) become a community. We went to Alma Matthews House for the first half of a session on white privilege and racism, which I’m just beginning to unpack for myself and have no idea how to communicate to someone else. But it was really good – they made sure everyone was given ample opportunity to speak and share, we ate falafel at a hole-in-the-wall store in Greenwich Village, I got strange Greek sauce spilled on my pants, we made pictures of our culture, I took a nap in the basement when I was supposed to be processing, we argued with an old man over the price of cantaloupe, we had amusing encounters on the subway, we had we cooked dinner for 20 people, we found Central Park and decided it really is kind of scary after dark, especially when you don’t know where you’re going, we drank beer and bonded in the common room – complete with salsa dancing and hilarious storytelling.

It was good. Very good. It feels like a whole experience now, instead of just a series of lectures followed by awkward group dynamics in a dormitory at Columbia University.

And to top it all off, we keep accumulating free reading material!

Community Mapping

When I saw “community mapping” on the itinerary for today, I thought, “oh man, that sounds like something I am going to love. And right I was. Today at about 4:30 (after finishing the sharing from yesterday – these people are amazing individuals) we were paired of and sent out, two by two, to explore the area around River Hall, the row house on 114th between Broadway and Riverside where we are all living for the next three weeks.

Groups were assigned areas north and south of our humble abode, from 100th street north to 125th (the main thoroughfare in Harlem), and from Riverside Drive to Amsterdam. People shared observations from areas with a ride range of cultural, economic, and social situations. Some people concentrated on businesses and economic life, some talked to residents of the areas they were exploring, some brought back stacks of take out menus for our edification. It was interesting both to learn about the communities and to see everyone’s different approaches to explaining and defining a particular urban space.

My buddy Jamie and I, however, were given a slightly different task: we were sent out with $2 in hand and told to “map” the Subway system. Well, not the whole subway system. Just line one. From the southern tip of Manhattan (South Ferry) to 242nd Street, in the Bronx. If you click on this link and look at the red line on the far left of the island…that’s the territory we covered.

Anyway, we were on the Subway for a full two hours. And it was fascinating. The way the race and ethnicity and socioeconomic status of the people on the trains changed as you traveled through the city; the relative cleanliness and safety and amenities at the stations; even the way every single piece of advertising on every single train was aimed at lower-income minority females – from divorce lawyers to food programs for single mothers to educational opportunities to and entire train covered in Bud Light ads. There was one point where we noticed that, following a mass exodus from the train at Penn Station, virtually every single white person crowded down the stairs to Penn Station for connections to Jersey and the outer suburbs while anyone of any other race or ethnicity sat waiting for the connecting train to Brooklyn. If that doesn’t raise some profound understanding of the world in your head, well…you’re not me.

As you may have guessed, the sociologist in me was in full glory. I could do things like that every single day and not get bored. Despite that, however I never recommend riding the Subway for two straight hours unless you have a very very good reason. My whole body smells like sweaty plastic mingled with polyester shirts and leftover cigarette smoke and bleach and alcohol and pretty much every other pleasant scent you can imagine.

But it was totally worth it.

“My Story”

The adventure has begun! After introductions, moving in, the largest grocery shopping trip I have ever been on in my life (food for 19 people for a week or more), and a little bit of sleep, we are now halfway through our first day of training. Which mostly has been a lot like kindergarten =).

We have each been assigned the task of sharing our “stories” over the next two days – complete with art projects. So from 9-4 today, we have free time to be creative – cut, paste, draw, paint…whatever we can think of using the large box of art supplies in the hallway. Here is my (nearly finished?) product:

Now I just have to figure out what I’m going to say about it!

And really, if you’ve never been grocery shopping with 19 people who have to check out both individually and as small groups, you really should. It’s quite the experience.

Away I Go

Its the time of the season for bidding farewell;
Beauty and sadness – that no tongue can tell.
Wild birds will rise up on the strength of wings, in the changing wind.
Bound for a new home that is calling them – to a distant land.

Go on and find the place that is calling you, out in the world
Go on and learn what you need to know.
I know no matter how far away you are, out in the world
I hold your hand wherever you go.