While brainstorming possibilities for our date, we realized that we were both planning on soon patronizing an unlikely local establishment for some free intellectual fun: the Union Square Barnes and Nobles. This B&N location hosts a plethora of author readings, signings and performances, including last Monday’s featured performer, the downtown cabaret artist and now author, Justin Vivian Bond, who we both wanted to see (does this mean we are a perfect match?). We figured this would be the perfect event to attend for the “entertainment” portion of our date, as we are both fans of Justin Bond and the event was appealingly open to the public, free, and queer (talk about priorities).
The aisles in the bookstore were wide and were very navigable for anyone using a wheelchair. We found that the wide center aisle in front of the main entrance led directly back to the wheelchair-accessible elevator. We got to the event space and were told that a person in a wheelchair could either sit in the center bank on the aisle (allowing for full visual access to the stage), or in the audience (in this case, a chair or two would be removed from the original seating arrangement).
Justin Bond’s reading of V’s (“V” is Bond’s preferred pronoun) new memoir Tango: My Childhood, Backwards and in High Heels (published by the Feminist Press) was supposed to be supplemented by a conversation/performance with Sandra Bernhard, but Bernhard had to cancel her appearance at the last minute. Instead, Feminist Press editor Amy Scholder informally interviewed Justin Bond, and Bond energetically performed three of V’s songs from V’s album Dendrophile. We really enjoyed the performance, but our positive feelings towards Bond paled in comparison to that of a fellow audience member who was moved to topless-ness after V’s last song (unfortunately we weren’t able to capture this on camera).
We decided not to get our book signed after the event, instead choosing to find an inexpensive restaurant. Had we decided to stay, though, there was a ramp leading from the floor to the stage for any person with alternative ways of being mobile to participate in the signing/meet and greet. We headed down University Place, a street with a variety of good restaurants to choose from. However, the fact that many of the restaurants were cramped on the inside (like Grey Dog) and did not have accessible entryways or bathrooms narrowed our selection. We traveled five or six blocks from Union Square until we found Pop Pub. Pop Pub’s wide outdoor ramp made it an obvious choice for us. The interior was spacious and easily accommodated a person using a wheelchair with little disruption to the space/flow of traffic. As an added attraction (but really something that should be standard), the bathrooms were wheelchair accessible and located right off of the main dining space.
(Image from: http://www.refinery29.com/static/bin/entry/21a/x/47377/image.jpg)
After enjoying some burgers by faux-candlelight, we moved further downtown in search of some elusive “alone time.” Although we had the larger goal of getting home to Lillian’s Broome Street dorm before calling it a night, we figured before completely capitulating to the strictly private sphere we would search out something a little bit more juvenile (in all the right ways). As Lillian is one of the many student workers at Bobst, she had the access code to not only the general break room, but also her specific office, all of which are abandoned in the evening after-hours. Journeying to Bobst with that specific goal in mind also made us consider the larger accessibility of such a central building to NYU student life, and how a more mundane “study date” might play out.
Signs instruct students to enter Bobst through the central revolving doors, but the doors to the right of it are designated for wheelchair access. All of the turnstiles can be entered through, but the right-most one by the security desk allows non-ablebodied students to both enter and inquire about additional assistance needs. Bobst’s larger elevator makes it easy to access all of the floors (the 7th floor for our less-than-bookish purposes). If we were there for an actual study date (is that actually a thing?), navigating the stacks might prove something of an obstacle.
Although there are central aisles throughout all the floors, the width between shelves is actually quite narrow, and even if a wheelchair could fit it would leave little room to navigate, let alone the problem of reaching the higher shelves to access books. There are student workers in the Sorting Rooms on each floor that, if notified, can help locate and access sources, but only work until 8:00pm nightly, which is hardly conducive to late-night studying. This default to student workers in the Sorting Rooms also implicitly assumes that they will be able-bodied, which raised questions (tangential to our date but certainly relevant on a larger level) for us about the work study opportunities afforded non-ablebodied students.
Narrow Aisle
Wide Aisle
But we were at Bobst not to hit the books (for once!), but to catch some conveniently-located alone time. Although it is not a resource that would be afforded everybody (but could ostensibly be accessed via a gracious friend), the fact that Lillian works in Bobst allowed her to use her access code to get into her abandoned office after-hours, an accessible, slightly kinky, and semi-private place to catch some time for dates to get to know each other better...
After our alternative Bobst access, we decided to end the night by heading back to Lillian’s dorm at Broome Street. Her usual route is the Downtown 6 train, the station of which is conveniently located by the multiple-level Astor Place K-Mart. This station also has an elevator you can use to access the downtown platform. Getting off downtown proved something more of a challenge - although the closest station to Broome Street is Spring Street, there is no elevator service there, so we had to take the train one stop further to Canal Street and travel four blocks (as opposed to the two from Spring Street) to get home for the night.
Staying around campus certainly afforded us several accessible venues in close proximity to one another, and it was interestingly one of NYU’s main buildings which raised the most questions and possible obstacles. We think it is worth considering how the presence of an institution like NYU which prides itself on its facilities (and its integration into the surrounding neighborhoods as extensions of its “campus”) has impacted the level of accessibility in non-NYU buildings and businesses around us. How much is accessibility a priority at NYU, and how does that bear on the larger “campus” we move through everyday? But all in all, a (mostly) accessible, cheap and fairly queer time (bonus!) was had by all...
No comments:
Post a Comment