Gramercy, a short film

My short film “Gramercy” is now live on the Association for American Geographers’ website. It addresses my ironic experiences while living in a women’s residence in New York City’s fancy Gramercy Park neighborhood.

My interest in spatial politics in the most direct terms (i.e. no academic jargon here) is part of the narrative. From 2001–2003, when I left for graduate school, I lived in Parkside Evangeline, a Salvation Army-owned dwelling. It was across the street from the last private park in Manhattan. Update: See the entire short film on Youtube here.

I initially lived in several places in Brooklyn before moving to Parkside, which had a long wait list; I am still not sure how I got to the top of it. The director of the residence was a very warm and generous person and I think our conversation on the phone may have had something to do with her admitting me). At the time, I was selling lots of paintings to Peligro, an art gallery in New Orleans. Some of my pieces were even purchased wholesale by the House of Blues.

I’d wake up surrounded by colorful paintings. I could barely move in my room, which had a twin bed, a desk with a hatch, a dresser and sink, but it was more often than not, a joyous time in my life. I shared a bathroom with other women, old and young, on my floor. At the time, I was newly-divorced and in my mid-30s.

These days, I teach students enrolled in my “American Civilization Since 1865” class about young women entering urban areas at the turn of last century and the great interest in seeing them reside in “moral” places. Parkside was part of that narrative well into the 20th century. Many scholars, including Victoria Wolcott, Saidiya Hartman and Hazel Carby, have addressed the many sides to this complex topic.

As I share in the film, one of the biggest bonuses was having a key to the last private park in the city. Our building had 11 keys, or one for each floor. Only people living on the park’s four sides could enter. I am aware that students at nearby Washington Irving High School, where I briefly taught English and an ESL course after being laid off amid the 9/11 chaos in the city, once protested such an exclusionary practice.

After leaving New York for UNCG-Greensboro, where I enrolled in my first graduate program, I would periodically return to New York to see how the building was changing. When I lived in Parkside, the residents were either working class women of varying ages, students, artists or young professionals. The Salvation Army, which ran the building, sold it in 2008 to a private company that turned it into a condominium.

I am interested in how I was able to inhabit this space without thinking about the things I would think about now. We live in a much different world. My time in Gramercy is addressed in my public history book.