#West 4th Street-Washington Square Station

[wanderingnewyork]

From 2020: Waiting for an A train at the #West_4th_Street_Washington_Square_Station, #Manhattan.

[queeryouthautonomy]

State march masterpost (updated as information comes in!)

All times are local time unless otherwise specified. Reblogs are off because this is a living, regularly updated post; please see our website or send an ask for more information! Post you can reblog is here. Alabama: Florence—114 W Mobile St -> 200 S Court St, 3/31, 3:30pm (link) Montgomery—Alabama State House, 3/31, 1pm (link)

Alaska: Anchorage—Dimond Center -> Costco Wholesale, 3/31, 12pm

Arizona: Prescott—Prescott Courthouse, 3/31, 2pm Sierra Vista—Fry and Coronado -> City Hall, 3/31, 3pm (link) Tuscon—Tuscon City Hall, 3/31, 4pm (link)

Arkansas: Eureka Springs—Basin Spring Park, 3/31, 6pm (link) Little Rock—Lucie’s Place, 3/31, 6pm Marion—Brunetti Park -> Marion City Hall, 3/31, 5pm

California: Castro Valley—Castro Valley High School (non-students please join in once the protest has left school grounds) -> Corner of Redwood Rd and Castro Valley Blvd, 3/30, 3:35pm (link) Fresno—N Blackstone Ave & E Nees Ave, 3/31, 4pm (link) Hollywood—Corner of Sunset & Vine, 3/30, 4:15pm Merced—3055 Loughborough Dr -> Laura's Fountain -Applegate Park 1045 W 25th St, 3/31, 4:30pm (link) Pomona—Pomona Pride Center 836 S -> City Hall, 3/31, 4pm (link) Riverside—Back To The Grind Coffee Shop –> Riverside City Hall, 3/31, 4pm (link) Sacramento—Capitol Complex, 3/31, 12pm (link) San Diego—Balboa Park at the Bea Evenson Foundation -> El Prado, 3/31, 5pm San Francisco—Corner of Turk & Taylor -> City Hall, 3/25, 11am (link) | Patricia's Green -> City Hall, 3/31, 2:15pm (link) San Jose—San Jose City Hall, 3/31, 5:30pm (link) Santa Ana—Brad Brafford LGBT Center on 4th, 3/31, 6pm (link)

Colorado: Denver—Civic Center Park, 3/17, 8:30pm | West Steps of the Capitol, 3/24, 11am (link)

Connecticut: Bristol—131 N Main Street, 3/31, 1pm Fairfield—Upper Quad of Sacred Heart University, 3/31, 4pm New Haven—corner of Chaple and Church St, 3/31, 4pm

Delaware: Wilmington—Delaware Historical Society –> Rodney Square, 3/31, 6pm (link)

District of Colombia: Union Station -> US Capitol, 3/31, 3pm (link)

Florida: Altamonte Springs—3/31, 9am (link) Naples—Cambier Park, 3/31, 6pm (link) Ocala—Pine Plaza -> City Hall, 3/31, 3:30pm Orlando—Dr Philips Performing Arts Center, 3/31, 11am Port Orange—Corner of Yorktowne Blvd. and Dunlawton Ave -> Port Orange Regional Library, 3/31, 4:30pm Tallahassee—state Capitol building, 3/31, 2pm (link) Venice—Town Center -> Venice Beach, 3/31, 10:30am

Georgia: Atlanta—state Capitol building, 3/31, 12pm (link) Dalton—3/31, 11am (link) Gainesville—Gainesville Square –> Jesse Jewell Parkway (in front of CVS), 3/31, 5pm Savannah—Forsyth Park -> City Hall & back, 3/31, 6pm

Hawaii: Honolulu—state Capitol building, 3/31, 3:30pm

Idaho: Boise—TBD Shelley—Shelley City Park, 3/31, 2pm

Illinois: Champaign—McKinley Foundation Church Chapel, University of Illinois, 3/31, 5:30pm Chicago—Grant Park, 3/31, 5pm Rockford—1005 5th Ave, 3/31, 5pm (link) Streamwood—7 Augusta Dr –> 7 S Sutton Rd, 3/31, 8am (link)

Indiana: Fort Wayne—Boone Street Playlot -> Allen County Courthouse, 3/23, 3pm (link) | Allen County Courthouse, 3/31, 5pm (link) Hanover—Hanover College Quad, 3/31, 1pm Indianapolis—433 N Capital Ave -> 1 Monument Circle, 3/31, 3pm Terre Haute—Terre Haute Courthouse, 3/31, 5pm

Iowa: Des Moines—state Capitol building (West Capitol Terrace Stage), 3/31, 6pm (link) Dubuque—Dubuque Courthouse -> Washington Park, 3/31, 4pm (link) Iowa City—Pentacrest -> Wesley Center, 3/31, 6pm (link)

Kansas: Lenexa—Lenexa Rec Center -> City Hall, 3/31, 5pm Topeka—state Capitol building entrance, 3/31, 5pm (link) Wichita—121 E Douglas Ave, 3/31, 4pm (link)

Kentucky: Frankfort—front of Annex Building, 3/29, 9:30am (link) | Kentucky State Capitol, 4/8, 1pm (link) Lawrenceburg—Anderson County Courthouse -> 44 Anna Mac Clarke Ave, 4/3, 3pm (link) Lexington—Robert F. Stephens Courthouse Plaza, 3/31, 4:30pm | Outside of the Old Fayette County Courthouse, 3/31, 6pm

Louisiana: Lake Charles—Prein Lake Park, 3/31, 12pm New Orleans—Washington Square Park 700 Elysian Fields Ave, 3/31, 5pm (link)

Maine: Bangor—West Market Square, 3/31, 6pm Portland—456 Congress St, 3/31, 6pm (link) Rockland—Intersection of Main Street and Park Street (near Walgreens and Maine Sport) –> Chapman Park, 3/31, 5:30pm

Maryland: Baltimore—400 E Biddle St, 3/31, 5pm Oakland—32 Oak St –> 305 E Oak St, 3/31, 3pm (link)

Massachusetts: Boston—state house, 3/18, 11am (link) | state house, 3/28, 10am (link) Sunderland—North Star, 45 Amherst Road, 3/31, 12pm

Michigan: Detroit—Woodward-Warren Park, 3/31, 5pm (link) Fenton—Rackham Park, 3/31, 6pm (link) Grand Rapids—Downtown, 3/31, 5pm Lansing—state Capitol building, 3/31, 11am

Minnesota: Saint Paul—state Capitol building, 3/31, 9am (link)

Mississippi:

Missouri: Columbia—701 East Broadway Blvd, 3/31, 5:30pm (link) | Uptown Columbia –> Downtown Columbia, 4/15, 9am Jefferson City—Missouri State Capitol, 3/29, 2pm (link) St Louis—11911 Dorsett Rd –> 715 NW Plz Dr, 4/27, 1pm

Montana: Missoula—Missoula Courthouse, 3/31, 5pm (link)

Nebraska: Lincoln—state Capitol building, 3/31, 5:30pm

Nevada: Las Vegas—Las Vegas TransPride Center -> The LGBTQ Center of Southern Nevada, 3/31, 11am (link)

New Hampshire: Keene—Keene State College Campus Main Entrance -> Center Square, 3/31, 5pm (link)

New Jersey: Flemington—Flemington Historic Courthouse -> Flemington DIY, 3/31, 3:45pm (link) Trenton—State House, 3/31, 3pm (link)

New Mexico: Albuquerque—Civic Plaza, 3/31, 5pm Santa Fe—State Capitol -> the Attorney General's office, 3/31, 11am

New York: Albany—Washington Square Park -> Capitol Park, 3/31, 1pm Canandaigua—7 Mill St, 3/31, 3pm Forest Hills—Forest Hills Station, 3/31, 2:30pm New Paltz—SUNY New Paltz Campus, 3/31, 3:30pm New York City—Union Square -> Washington Square Park, 3/31, 5pm (link) | Times Square, 3/31, 5pm Penn Yan—Yates County Courthouse, 3/31, 3pm (link) Plattsburgh—Hawkins Pond -> Samuel Champlain Monument Park, 3/23, 3pm Utica—Genesee-Parkway Intersection, 3/31, 5pm Westchester—SUNY Purchase College, 3/31, 5pm

North Carolina: Asheville—TBD Mooresville—Freedom Park -> Town Hall, 3/31, 2:30pm (link) Raleigh—John Chavis Memorial Park, 3/31, 1pm Wilmington—Historic Thalian Hall Steps, 3/31, 5pm (link)

North Dakota:

Ohio: Cleveland—Free Stamp @ Willard Park -> City Hall, 3/31, 4pm Cleveland Heights—City Hall, 3/31, 11am (link) Columbus—Goodale Park, 3/31, 5pm Dayton—Lily’s Dayton (329 E 5th St) –> Courthouse Square (23 N Main St), 3/31, 4pm Lakewood Park—Lakewood Park, 3/31, 4pm (link) Madison—Madison Village Square Park, 3/31, 4pm (link)

Oklahoma: Oklahoma City—Supreme Court of Oklahoma -> state Capitol building, 3/31, 5pm Tulsa—Central Library, 3/31, 4pm (link)

Oregon: Bend—Drake Park, 3/31, 5pm Hillsboro—Civic Center -> 145 NE 2nd Ave, 3/31, 5pm Medford—Vogel Plaza 200 E. Main Street, 3/31, 4pm Portland—Tom McCall Waterfront Park -> Pioneer Courthouse, 3/31, 2pm

Pennsylvania: Harrisburg—state Capitol building, 3/31, 1pm (link) Oil City—Oil City -> Franklin, 3/31, 8am Philadelphia—Temple University Bell Tower, 3/29, 1pm (link) | City Hall, 3/31, 6pm (link) Pittsburgh—City County Building, 3/31, 5pm (link)

Rhode Island: Providence—the Wheeler School -> state Capitol building, 3/31, 11:30am

South Carolina: Columbia—State House Grounds, 3/31, 2pm Greenville—300 S Main St, 3/31, 3pm (link)

South Dakota: Brookings—City Council Building, 3/31, 5pm (link) Rapid City—Main Street Square, 3/31, 5pm

Tennessee: Knoxville—Downtown Hilton, 3/31, 10:30am (link) | Gay Street & Market Square (where the water fountain markers are), 3/31, 2pm Memphis—Civic Center Plaza, 3/16, 4pm

Texas: Amarillo—Amarillo Chamber of Commerce -> Potter County Courthouse, 3/31, 5pm Austin—state Capitol building, 3/20, 9am (link) Dallas—Main St Garden Park 1902 Main St, 3/18, 12pm (link) | Pacific Plaza, 3/31, 3pm Houston—Discovery Green Park -> City Hall, 3/31, 11:30am Killeen—101 N College St -> 1114 N Fort Hood St, 3/31, 5:30pm Lubbock—Mahon Library parking lot -> county Courthouse, 3/31, 5pm San Antonio—San Antonio Courthouse, 3/31, 6:30pm (link)

Utah: Salt Lake City—state Capitol building, 3/31, 5pm (link)

Vermont: Montpelier—Montpelier State House, 3/31, 12pm (link)

Virginia: Richmond—Open High School -> state Capitol building, 3/31, 3pm

Washington: La Center—by the bridge into town, 3/31, 5pm Olympia—Heritage Park -> state Capitol building, 3/31, 3:30pm Seattle—SeaTac Airport Station, 3/31, 1pm | Volunteer Park -> Seattle Courthouse, 3/31, 4pm (link) Spokane—Cracker Building, 3/18, 12pm (link) Walla Walla—Pioneer Park -> Land Title Plaza, 3/31, 3:45pm (link) Wenatchee—Memorial Park, 3/31, 4pm

West Virginia: Charleston—3/31, 4:30pm

Wisconsin: Appleton—Houdini Plaza, 3/31, 10am (link) Janesville—Corner of East Court Street/Jackman Street -> Corner of West Court Street/South Locust Street, 3/31, 2pm Kenosha—Civic Center Park, 3/31, 12pm Madison—Library Mall, 3/18, 2:30pm (link) | 534 State St –> Wisconsin State Capitol, 3/31, 12pm Milwaukee—TBD

Wyoming:

CANADA: Toronto, Ontario 3/17, 3pm, US Consulate (link)

[obxhoe]

Leather and Lace || Rudy Pankow {1}

Lovers forever face to face My city your mountains Stay with me stay I need you to love me I need you today Give to me your leather Take from me my lace

(eek i’m nervous about this. hope y’all enjoy. message me if you wanna be on my taglist!)

CHAPTER ONE

ZOE’S POV:

Sophie’s alarm clock is blaring yet again after the third time she had snoozed it this morning. I can hear it in my bedroom… across the freaking hallway. I pad into her room,

“Soph.” No response. “Soph!” I whisper-yell. “Sophie!!!” She jolts up, ripping her eye mask off.

“I’m up. I’m up.” 

“I’m leaving in 20 minutes for class, I won’t be home until at least 11 tonight, I told Liv I would have dinner and a wine night at her place.”

“I’m probably sleeping at Aaron’s tonight so…” I raise an eyebrow at her. Aaron is this new guy she met over Bumble and the two of them have been seeing each other every day since their first date 3 weeks ago.

“Alright well have fun and try not to do anything dumb”

“You know I always do” I laugh and shut her door, walking to my vanity to quickly put on some makeup and grab my stuff. 

I’m about a quarter way through my senior year at NYU, and about a quarter away from an existential crisis. I’m not sure what I want to do with my life yet. Basically every single one of my friends have boyfriends and they talk about marriage and babies and all that shit. And it’s cute. But I’m fine on my own. My last boyfriend Peter always had me feeling suffocated. The constant “Babe” and “Baby”. The obligation of having to FaceTime someone all the time. Having to be around someone every minute of every day. I was exhausted all the time. Currently, I’m an international business major with a minor in accounting. Taking a full course load, and working a part time job in an accounting firm on top of that. I don’t exactly have time for anything else. 

I check the time and see that I’m running 5 minutes late. I slip on mom jeans, a giant t-shirt I stole from my dad years ago and run out the door. The walk to school is always my favorite part of the day. The West Village was my dream neighborhood to live in and once I saved up enough money from working throughout school, I finally was able to rent a tiny two bedroom apartment. I mindlessly scroll through social media as I speed walk to “campus”, it’s really just a few buildings in the city, there’s no open space or anything. Unless you count Washington Square Park. I pass the West 4th street subway station and my phone fumbles out of my hand as a result of someone walking straight into me.

“Fuck. fuck fuck fuck.” I say grabbing my phone and seeing the screen cracked. This is not exactly what I need at this moment.

“I am so sorry” I hear a voice above me, “I’m not from here, which I guess you can tell. Uh, I’m a little lost. I think? I’m not sure where I’m going or what uptown and downtown mean on the subways. Sorry, I’m rambling. Oh my god!” He sees my phone. “I’m so sorry. Shit. I can get you a new one.”

“Ok chill for a sec dude” I stand up brushing my hair out of my eyes. “At least buy a girl coffee before you offer up a phone.”

“Oh you’re not mad. I thought most people who live here have a stick up their ass all the time” He says, and I finally look up at his face. Those eyes, those fucking eyes. My breath catches in my throat as I realize I’m staring at him. Something about him looks or feels familiar but I can’t place my finger on it.

“Uh yeah most people are like that.”

“So are you not from here?” He asks “Cause ya know, you’re nice and stuff.” 

“Oh no I live here. I go to NYU, I’m actually on my way there now.” I look at my phone to check the time but I can barely see due to the cracked screen. 

“Uh it’s 9:0-”

“Oh you’ve got to be kidding me” I groan loudly, class started at 9.

“Late for class…?” he asks cautiously, not sure if he’s going to make it worse or not.

“Yes. I have to go, like right now.” I say starting to turn to walk away.

“Wait. Let me buy you that coffee so we can discuss the phone thing. Today isn’t great for me, how does tomorrow sound?” I nod and he hands me his phone. “Put in your number.” I quickly type in my information and hand him back the phone. “Well Zoe,” He says looking down at my contact, “I hope to see you later.”

“You too, I didn’t catch your name though.”

“Rudy. Rudy Pankow.”

“Well Rudy,” I look at him, flashing a small smirk “I’ll be looking forward to your text.” I turn and walk away as fast as I can. Of all the things that make me anxious, being late to class is pretty high up on the list. But I think the idea of meeting Rudy for coffee is consuming my mind more than the fact that I’m late is. I slip into the back of the lecture hall about 15 minutes late, luckily not drawing any attention to myself. I take out my notebook and try to take notes, but my mind is elsewhere.

RUDY’S POV:

I don’t know where the hell I am right now. Chase was completely wrong when he said the New York subway system would be easy to figure out. I have to go film a few interviews for Buzzfeed about season two and I’m lost. Totally lost. 

“West 4th street-Washington Square” The crackle comes over the speaker. 

“Fuck it” I mumble and get off. I can just take an Uber, so much for trying to get the whole experience. I walk up the stairs trying to order an Uber, getting more and more frustrated by the minute. All of a sudden I slam into what I can only hope is another tourist, the last thing I need is someone yelling at me for looking at my phone. 

“Fuck. fuck fuck fuck.” I hear a voice from next to me mutter.

“I am so sorry” Fuck. She’s beautiful, and I’m just straight up dumb. “I’m not from here, which I guess you can tell. Uh, I’m a little lost. I think? I’m not sure where I’m going or what uptown and downtown mean on the subways. Sorry, I’m rambling.” For fucks sake Rudy shut the fuck up. I look to her hand and see that I shattered her entire phone and my stomach drops. “Oh my god! I’m so sorry. Shit. I can get you a new one.” Yes good job. Just offer up an entirely new phone, that’ll help. I mentally smack my forehead. 

“Ok chill for a sec dude” She stands up, locking her eyes with mine. My eyes can’t decide where to look. Her eyes? her lips? She’s stunning. “At least buy a girl coffee before you offer up a phone.” My face turns bright red. I’m a fucking idiot. She’s running late and I decide to just shoot my shot. I shove my phone at her offering up coffee. A smile breaks onto my face when she takes it and types in her contact info. Zoe. 

“Well Rudy, I’ll be looking forward to your text” She smirks at me. God dammit I have never seen anything like her before. She spins on her heel and rushes away. I slide into the nearest taxi, not getting the chance to order an Uber. What the hell just happened?

ZOE’S POV:

I can’t get him off my mind. This isn’t like me at all. Usually I turn random men on the street down, I mean who doesn’t? What if this guy is a serial killer. God Zoe what did you do. Ok but he seems nice enough right? Ugh. I stare at my glass of wine, mind wandering.

“Earth to Zoe” Liv waves her hand in front of my face. I blink and look up.

“Sorry I’m exhausted. Too many unhappy clients today.”

“Uh huh sure.” She rolls her eyes and my friend Katie laughs next to her.

“What?!” I say, a little too defensively.

“Who’s the guy? You only ever act like this, all out of it and daydreamy when there’s a guy”

“There’s no gu-” I get cut off.

“Oh don’t even try. Who is he.” Katie slides next to me and pours more wine in my glass.

“It’s really no one. I met him on the street, he sort of smashed my phone. Well I guess I did. When he ran into me. And then he offered to buy me a new phone just like that. I was like well at least buy me a coffee first, you know, jokingly. But then he actually made a date for tomorrow to get coffee. He said he’d text me, but it’s been hours so I doubt it’ll actually happen. Probably is just being nice.” I mumble the last sentence. 

“A guy on the street?” Liv raises her voice.

“Are you crazy?” Katie says, setting her wine glass down a little too hard.

“I know I know. But something about him just felt familiar. Like I had seen him before or something. He seems our age, he had these insane blue eyes. I couldn’t stop staring.” I look down at the table. “I probably won’t even go, it’s a dumb idea.” 

“Dude, you’ll find someone. I promise. It just takes time” I look over to Liv.

“That’s the thing though. I don’t even want someone, I’m fine on my own right now. If I started seeing a guy, I wouldn’t have time for him, the two of you, work and school. I would literally have a mental breakdown.” I laugh. Part of me knows I’m lying. I don’t want a boyfriend, that part is true. But if that boyfriend was Rudy, I would have to reconsider. That’s crazy right? I’m definitely going crazy. I don’t even know this guy.

“Ok well let’s get drunk and watch hot boys on TV. There’s a show Liv and I wanted to watch on Netflix called Outer Banks. Have you seen it yet?” Katie asks me as she goes to the couch.

“I don’t have the time for that.” I plop down next to her.

“So that’s a no” She grabs the remote.

“I’m so fucking excited. I keep seeing stuff about the show everywhere, season two is coming out next week.” Liv squeals. Katie starts the show and I start chugging my wine so I can get a new glass. I choke on my wine and spit it out all over the ivory rug.

“Zoe! What the Fuck?!” Liv yells, obviously pissed I just ruined her rug. But I can’t stop coughing. I look back to the TV to make sure I’m not seeing things. It’s him, I could never forget those eyes.

“That’s him” I choke out, “That’s the guy who I ran into today.”

“Rudy Pankow? The guy on the TV right now? Are you sure?” Katie looks at me.

“There’s no way.” Liv shakes her head.

“I’m dead serious. That’s the guy.” My phone vibrates from across the room and we all look at each other. I run over to look at it.

Meet me at Think Coffee in SoHo tomorrow at 3pm. Apple Store right next door ;) -Rudy

“No. Fucking. Way”

Taglist: @pink-meringues​ @x-lulu​ @perkeusjackson​

[poetryofjacobmoses]

Two Paths (Metro)(poem)

Photo by Charles Parker on Pexels.com Two Paths (Metro) by Jack M. Freedman “This is a Brooklyn-bound F Local Train. The next stop is…West 4th Street-Washington Square. Stand clear of the closing doors please.” Sixteen stops between 14th Street and Ditmas Avenue Is it a coincidence that the 14th Street Station on 6th Avenue showcases the letters F-M-L proving also that fuckery is as…

[route22ny]

The West 4th Street/Washington Square station of the NYC subway system

Photo taken August 1978, from the collection of the New York Transit Museum

[nyc-urbanism]

#MapMondays – Rebecca Solnit's City of Women, reimagining New York City's iconic subway map, with each of the 472 stations renamed for notable women tied to locations across the metropolis. Names include Emma Lazarus at South Ferry, Jane Jacobs at West 4th, Lady Gaga at Bedford Ave, Aaliyah at Myrtle Ave, Sonia Sotomayor at Soundview, Susan B. Anthony at Canal and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at Hunts Point. Solnit explained her reaction to the city's gendered geography and inspiration to create the map: “How does it impact our imaginations that so many places in so many cities are named after men and so few after women? What kind of landscape do we move through when streets and parks and statues and bridges and even rivers are gendered— Astor Place, Lafayette Street, Madison Avenue, Lincoln Center, Washington Square, the Frick, Rockefeller Center, Penn Station, the Bronx, the Hudson—and it’s usually one gender, and not another? What kind of silence arises in places that so seldom speak of and to women? This map was made to sing the praises of the extraordinary women who have, since the beginning, been shapers and heroes of this city that has always been, secretly, a City of Women. And why not the subway? This is a history still emerging from underground, a reminder that it’s all connected, and that we get around.” #mapmonday #cartography #atlas #nonstopmetropolis #metropolis #nyc #midtown #thebronx #queensnyc #statenisland #subway #subwaymap #transitmap #publictransit #brooklyn #manhattan #midtown #cityofwomen #urbanism #nycurbanism (at New York Transit Museum) https://www.instagram.com/p/B4dUPHLHXTs/?igshid=kl7owzrezybh

[outweek30]

Unrest Continues in Tompkins Square Park

Echoing last summer's scorching August unrest, media attention is once again intensely focused on Tompkins Square Park in the East Village, as riot police and park officials continue to engage in a tug-of-war with the homeless and their supporters. Last year, a demonstration against a park curfew ended in a full-scale riot that left scores injured, as journalists captured police beating demonstrators on video tape.

Parks Department officials said that the trouble again began to brew early in June of this summer when a group of homeless living in Tompkins Square erected shelters in the south and west areas of the park. Reacting to this shantytown, and to others like it around the city, the Mayor's office put into effect a new city law which prohibits building structures in city parks. On July 4th [1989], approximately 5,000 people gathered in Washington Square Park, where the Homeless Clients Advisory Committee planned to burn the American flag to protest the plight of homeless people. This group clashed with a gang of skinheads who called the group "faggots and Communists" and chanted "burn the flag and we'll burn a fag." The police shut down the park at 6 p.m. and the two groups marched to Tompkins Square Park where they were peacefully dispersed. En route, however, skinheads reportedly trashed the offices of the Anarchist Switchboard on 9th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues.

On Wednesday night, July 5th [1989], in a torrential rainstorm, 10 policemen were hurt and 31 people were arrested as 100 police in riot gear swarmed Tompkins Square Park and razed the tattered village of wooden structures and cloth tents that Deputy Parks Commissioner Alan Moss called a "cover for drug dealing and prostitution." The strategic maneuver was extremely well planned, and relied heavily on plainclothed troops. "The police have more savvy, which is scary," protester Garance Ruta told OutWeek. "They shine spotlights into the eyes of the crowd, then two plainclothes cops grab someone and drag them behind the police line where they instantly disappear. No one can see who was arrested, who arrested them or what is happening to them next."

On Thursday, July 6th [1989] the riot police gathered again and swept the park of the structures that had been rebuilt. 200 to 300 angry and confused people were displaced from the area as parks workers tossed unattended possessions into garbage trucks. By Saturday, July 8th, in a seemingly unending circle of tear down, rebuild, tear down, tents once again bloomed in the park. Early in the afternoon, a group of 100 protesters gathered in front of the East Fifth Street police station before moving on to Tompkins Square. Then, shortly after 6:30 p.m., riot police and park workers appeared and pulled down the re-erected tents. Protesters scurried to erect several more tents which, at 9:00 p.m., officials promptly removed.

By Sunday, July 9th, the tents had reappeared. At 9:00 a.m., several dozen pol ice and park rangers shrieked a wake-up call on whistles rousing the 50 or so people sleeping in the park, and quickly removed their temporary structures. The police evacuated the park at 11:00 a.m. and soon thereafter, the structures reappeared. "We will keep it up ...until the message is out that you can't build structures in the park," said Deputy Chief Charles Reuther of Patrol Borough Manhattan South. Keith Thompson, a 32-year-old homeless man and park resident for the past year said, "It doesn't matter if they keep taking them down. We're just going to keep rebuilding them."

— Keith Miller, OutWeek Magazine No. 5, July 24, 1989, p. 24.

[creepykingdom]

VILLAINS Hits Theaters This Friday, September 20th

Synopsis:

Mickey and Jules are lovers on the run, headed southbound for a fresh start in the Sunshine State. When their car dies after a gas station robbery, they break into a nearby house looking for a new set of wheels. What they find instead is a dark secret and a sweet-as-pie pair of homeowners who will do anything to keep it from getting out.

Written & Directed by | Dan Berk & Robert Olsen

Starring | Bill Skarsgård, Maika Monroe, Jeffrey Donovan & Kyra Sedgwick

Co-Produced by | BRON Studios, Star Thrower Entertainment, Creative Wealth Media Finance & The Realm Films

Runtime:

89 Minutes

The film is Rated R by the MPAA

# # #

OPENING WEEKEND THEATERS

NEW YORK AREA

Essex Crossing (129 Delancey St, New York, NY 10002)

E-Walk Stadium 13 (247 W 42nd St, New York, NY 10001)

Sheepshead Bay 14 (3907 Shore Pkwy, Brooklyn, NY 11235)

Court Street (106 Court St, Brooklyn, NY 11201)

Kaufman Astoria Stadium 14 (35-30 38th St, Astoria, NY 11101)

Hadley Theatre Stadium (1000 Corporate Ct, South Plainfield, NJ 07080)

Commerce Center Stadium (2399 US-1, North Brunswick Township, NJ 08902)

Galleria Mall 16 (2001 South Rd, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601)

New Roc City Stadium 18 (33 Lecount Pl, New Rochelle, NY 10801)

Deer Park Stadium 16 (455 Commack Rd, Deer Park, NY 11729)

Westbury Stadium (7000 Brush Hollow Rd, Westbury, NY 11590)

Staten Island Stadium (2474 Forest Ave, Staten Island, NY 10303)

Lynbrook 13 (321 Merrick Rd, Lynbrook, NY 11563)

LOS ANGELES AREA

Foothill Towne Center Stadium 22 (26602 Towne Centre Dr, Foothill Ranch, CA 92610)

LA Live (1000 W Olympic Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90015)

Irvine Spectrum 21 (500 Spectrum Center Dr, Irvine, CA 92618)

University Town Center Irvine 6 (4245 Campus Dr, Irvine, CA 92612)

Aliso Viejo Stadium 20 (26701 Aliso Creek Rd, Aliso Viejo, CA 92656)

Garden Grove 16 (9741 Chapman Ave, Garden Grove, CA 92841)

Ontario Palace Palace (4900 E 4th St, Ontario, CA 91764)

Long Beach Stadium 26 (7501 Carson Blvd, Long Beach, CA 90808)

Edwards South Gate Stadium (8630 Garfield Ave, South Gate, CA 90280)

Brea Stadium 22 (255 W Birch St, Brea, CA 92821)

ATLANTA, GA AREA

Mall of Georgia Stadium (3333 Buford Dr #3000, Buford, GA 30519)

Hollywood Stadium 24 @ North I-85 (3265 Northeast Expy, Chamblee, GA 30341)

Perimeter Pointe (1155 Mount Vernon Hwy NE, Atlanta, GA 30338)

AUSTIN, TX AREA

Westgate Stadium 11 (4477 S Lamar Blvd, Austin, TX 78745)

BALTIMORE, MD AREA

Waugh Chapel Stadium (1419 S Main Chapel Way, Gambrills, MD 21054)

UA Snowden Square Stadium 14 (9161 Commerce Center Dr, Columbia, MD 21046)

BOSTON, MA AREA

Independence Mall 14 (101 Kingston Collection Way, Kingston, MA 02364)

Solomon Pond 15 (591 Donald Lynch Blvd, Marlborough, MA 01752)

Fox Run Stadium 15 (45 Gosling Rd, Newington, NH 03801)

Fenway Stadium (201 Brookline Ave, Boston, MA 02215)

BUFFALO, NY AREA

Transit Center 19 (6707 Transit Rd, Williamsville, NY 14221)

CHARLOTTE, NC AREA

Stonecrest At Piper Glen Stadium 22 (7824 Rea Rd, Charlotte, NC 28277)

Starlight Stadium (11240 N Tryon St, Charlotte, NC 28262)

CHICAGO, IL AREA

Lincolnshire Stadium 15 (300 Parkway Dr, Lincolnshire, IL 60069)

Cantera Stadium 17 (3835, 28250 Diehl Rd, Warrenville, IL 60555)

City North Stadium 14 (2600 N Western Ave, Chicago, IL 60647)

Webster Place 11 (1471 W Webster Ave, Chicago, IL 60614)

DALLAS, TX AREA

Galaxy Theatre Stadium (11801 McCree Rd, Dallas, TX 75238)

Fossil Creek Stadium (6100 N Fwy, Fort Worth, TX 76137)

DENVER, CO AREA

Continental 10 (3635 S Monaco Pkwy, Denver, CO 80222)

Meadows 12 (5313, 9355 Park Meadows Dr, Littleton, CO 80124)

Colorado Mills 16 (14500 W Colfax Ave, Lakewood, CO 80401)

West Village Stm 12 (14225 W Colfax Ave, Golden, CO 80401)

FRESNO, CA AREA

Fresno Stadium 22 (250 Paseo Del Centro, Fresno, CA 93720)

HOUSTON, TX AREA

Greenway Grand Palace Stadium 24 (3839 Weslayan St, Houston, TX 77027)

Houston Marq*e Stadium 22 (7620 Katy Fwy, Houston, TX 77024)

Lone Star 19 (24720 Tomball Pkwy, Tomball, TX 77375)

INDIANAPOLIS, IN AREA

Circle Center 9 (49 W Maryland St, Indianapolis, IN 46204)

Regal Cinemas Greenwood (461 Greenwood Park Dr S, Greenwood, IN 46142)

KNOXVILLE, TN AREA

Regal Pinnacle (11240 Parkside Dr, Knoxville, TN 37934)

LAS VEGAS, NV AREA

Red Rock Stm 16 (11011 W Charleston Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89135)

MIAMI, FL AREA

Oakwood 18 (2800 Oakwood Blvd, Hollywood, FL 33020)

South Beach Stadium 18 (1120 Lincoln Rd, Miami Beach, FL 33139)

Cypress Creek Station 16 (6415 N Andrews Ave, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309)

NASHVILLE, TN AREA

Green Hills Stadium 16 (3815 Green Hills Village Dr, Nashville, TN 37215)

Opry Mills Stadium 20 (570 Opry Mills Dr, Nashville, TN 37214)

NEW ORLEANS, LA AREA

Grand Esplanade 14 (1401 W Esplanade Ave, Kenner, LA 70065)

NORFOLK, VA AREA

Macarthur Center Stm 18 (300 Monticello Ave, Norfolk, VA 23510)

ORLANDO, FL AREA

The Loop Stadium (3232 N John Young Pkwy, Kissimmee, FL 34741)

Winter Park Village Stadium 20 (510 Orlando Ave, Winter Park, FL 32789)

Waterford Lakes Stadium 20 (541 N Alafaya Trail, Orlando, FL 32828)

Pointe Orlando Stadium (9101 International Dr, Orlando, FL 32819)

PHILADELPHIA, PA AREA

Warrington Crossing Stadium 22 (140 Easton Rd, Warrington, PA 18976)

Riverview Plaza Stadium 17 (1400 S Christopher Columbus Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19147)

Oxford Valley Theater Stadium 14 (403 Middletown Blvd, Langhorne, PA 19047)

King of Prussia Stadium (300 Goddard Blvd, King of Prussia, PA 19406)

PORTLAND, OR AREA

Bridgeport 17 (7329 SW Bridgeport Rd, Tigard, OR 97224)

Movies on TV 16 (2929 SW 234th Ave, Hillsboro, OR 97123)

Cascade Stadium (1101 SE 160th Ave, Vancouver, WA 98683)

Santium Stadium (365 Lancaster Dr SE, Salem, OR 97301)

Fox Tower Stadium 10 (846 SW Park Ave, Portland, OR 97205)

RALEIGH / DURHAM, NC AREA

White Oak Stadium (1205 Timber Drive East, Garner, NC 27529)

North Hills Stadium (4150 Main at North Hills St, Raleigh, NC 27609)

Crossroads Stadium 20 (501 Caitboo Ave, Cary, NC 27518)

RICHMOND / PETERSBURG, VA AREA

Commonwealth 20 (5001 Commonwealth Centre Pkwy, Midlothian, VA 23112)

SACRAMENTO, CA AREA

Natomas Marketplace Stadium 16 (3561 Truxel Rd, Sacramento, CA 95834)

Laguna Village 12 (8755 Center Pkwy, Sacramento, CA 95823)

SAN ANTONIO, TX AREA

Huebner Oaks Stm 14 (11075 I-10, San Antonio, TX 78230)

SAN DIEGO, CA AREA

San Marcos Stadium 18 (1180 W San Marcos Blvd, San Marcos, CA 92069)

Mira Mesa Stadium 17 (10733 Westview Pkwy, San Diego, CA 92126)

SAN FRANCISCO, CA AREA

Hacienda Crossings Stadium 20 (5000 Dublin Blvd, Dublin, CA 94568)

Berkeley 7 (2274 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA 94704)

SEATTLE, WA AREA

Everett Mall Stadium 16 (1402 SE Everett Mall Way, Everett, WA 98208)

Auburn Stadium 17 Theatres (1101 Outlet Collection Way, Auburn, WA 98001)

Barkley Village Stadium 16 (3005 Cinema Pl, Bellingham, WA 98226)

Meridian 16 (1501 7th Ave, Seattle, WA 98101)

Thornton Place Stadium (316 NE Thornton Pl, Seattle, WA 98125)

SYRACUSE, NY AREA

Destiny USA Stadium 19 (9586 Destiny USA Dr, Syracuse, NY 13204)

TAMPA, FL AREA

Hollywood Stadium (1993 Main St, Sarasota, FL 34236)

Citrus Park Stadium 20 (7999 Citrus Park Town Center Mall, Tampa, FL 33625)

Park Place Stadium 16 (7200 US Hwy 19 N, Pinellas Park, FL 33781)

WASHINGTON DC AREA

Ballston Quarter Stadium (Ballston Quarter, 671 N Glebe Rd, Arlington, VA 22203)

Springfield Town Center (6859 Springfield Mall, Springfield, VA 22150)

Gallery Place Stadium 14 (701 7th St NW, Washington, DC 20001)

Virginia Gateway Stadium (8001 Gateway Promenade Pl, Gainesville, VA 20155)

Majestic Stadium 20 (900 Ellsworth Dr, Silver Spring, MD 20910)

Westview Stadium 16 (5243 Buckeystown Pike, Frederick, MD 21704)

[caitsith810]

168th Street bound R179 C train at West 4th Street. #nyc #newyork #newyorkcity #manhattan #west4thstreet #greenwichvillage #washingtonsquare #mta #mtabus #nycbus #nyctransit #ctrain #r179 #train #trains #subway #station #transit #transportation #icapture_nyc #nyc_explorers #ig_nyc #ig_nycity #ilovenewyork #iloveny #unlimitednewyork #thebeautyofny #newyork_instagram #newyork_ig #oneplus #oneplus6 #masstransit #publictransit #PublicTransport (at West Fourth Street – Washington Square (New York City Subway)) https://www.instagram.com/p/BsShapDHu0L/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1ik0tjphovdr2

[wanderingnewyork]

The upper level platforms of the #West_4th_Street_Washington_Square_Station the 6th and 8th Avenue lines, #Manhattan.

[h4rr3h]

Harry and Evan were as platonic as platonic could be. Living together does that. You see their unlivable quirks; like how they always leave the toilet seat up, or how they never rinse their dishes, or how they never fully close the chip bag so they end up stale. And after six years of living together, Harry and Evan knew each other’s quirks well. The pair were long gone from their college days and fully immersed in the confusing reality of adulthood. Navigating your twenties is hard, but with your best friend by your side, it makes the whole disarray just that much easier. But, Harry has a secret, one that he’s been hiding from his best friend since the day they met, and she’s about to find out. Especially now that Niall spilled about the “Ohio Incident”. A lesson on facing your fears, being too old for college parties, cronuts (are those even still a thing?) and finding things out just a bit too late.

ohio is for lovers, chapter one evan bosco and the greatest one night stand that never happened

Since they day they met, Harry Styles knew Evan Bosco would take him on the ride of his life.

Sunday, March 25, 2018

185 Bleecker Street, Apartment 11A, New York, NY

Since they day they met, Harry Styles knew Evan Bosco would take him on the ride of his life.

 “Get up! Get up!” She hollers, jumping on the edge of his bed.

 It’s eight o’clock on a Sunday morning. Harry is hoping for another hour of sleep, Evan is hoping for Harry’s homemade pancakes.

 “I want breakfast!” She grumbles, like a child.

 Harry knows he won’t say no. God, he could never say no to this girl, “make them yourself.” He groans, pushing his face into his pillow.

 Evan jumps closer, and Harry grabs her ankle and wiggles her around a bit. She stumbles but puts her palm against the ceiling to stable her balance. She’s wearing one of his jumpers with a pair of pajama shorts underneath. He pretends that he can’t see the eggplant shaped birthmark on her inner thigh. That’s not his territory.

 “Let gooooo - “

 Harry tugs on her leg, pulling her onto him. Evan laughs in protest but wraps her arms around him, hugging him close, throwing a leg over his lap, “Pancakes?” She jets her bottom lip out and he gives in.

 “Pancakes.”

Thursday, August 23, 2012 Washington Square Diner

150 West 4th Street, New York, NY

Harry Styles is not a fan of decaf coffee. But it’s three in the morning and he was about to round his thirtieth hour of no sleep and he reckoned if he had another drip of caffeine he would surely die of a heart attack at the age of eighteen. The chemical always heightened his senses. He was all too aware of the bored waitress sweeping behind the counter of empty display cases that in just a few hours time will hold bagels and pastries galore. Her rhythm is off key when she moves to the left, it’s a sweep, sweeeeep instead of a short quick sweep sweep.

 There are four other people in Washington Square Diner with him; an old man sitting on the furthest inside seat of counter, a punk looking couple, and a simple girl. The old geezer is leaned up so gingerly against the brick facade wall that Harry worries that the slightest gust of wind from an incoming customer might knock him over. He’s clearly asleep, or drunk, or dead. The couple are picking at the paper placemats laid in front of them despite a table full of hot, greasy food. And finally the girl, that damn girl.

 Sweep, Sweeeeep.

 Evan Bosco sits at the other end Washington Square Diner, earbuds in, but nothing playing. People leave you alone when they think you’re listening to music. She picks at her stack of pancakes, so soaked with syrup that they’re sticky and too sickly sweet for the common human. But that was how she liked them. Evan pretends not to notice the red eyed boy staring wide eyed at the scene around him.

 He must be a tourist, she thinks.

 She listens to the peaceful pattern of sweeps from the lonely waitress behind the counter. Another mouthful of pancakes washed down by her cup of black coffee and she’s counted twice now since the boy with bloodshot eyes has caught her sightline again. Old Man Figgins snorts in his sleep and Evan attempts to hide her bemusement. Mitch and Hannah in the front and center booth are high on Molly or X or whatever fad drug they were doing this week. Evan catches Harry’s eye again. Only she doesn’t know him as Harry, at least not yet. For now, he was the zombie boy who caught her gaze in between staring into his untouched mug of coffee and looking around him like he was hiding from something.

 Harry’s shoulders ache. He supposes it’s his bad posture, or at least that what his mother would tell him. He shifts his weight in the booth, the squeak of the fake leather seat whining as he makes a feeble attempt to stretch his sore muscles.

 Sweep, Sweeeeep.

 The air smells sweet like maple syrup and powdered sugar. The scent almost makes him nauseous. He glares down at the room temperature cup of decaf coffee and lets out a little sob to himself. Harry winces before the taste even hits his lips.

 Fucking decaf, he complains to himself.

 He can’t tell if the girl with honey hair sitting on the other side of the Diner is looking at him on purpose or not. Her hair is pulled back in a low bun, strands still falling in her face. She hides almond eyes behind a pair of oversized wire rimmed glasses that look like they belong to the elderly man asleep (or dead) at the counter instead of a young woman. There’s a crinkle in her forehead when he catches her looking again.

 It’s then that he notices the sweeping has stopped.

 Evan rises from her seat, but not without shoving another bite of pancake into her mouth. She licks her sticky lips and crosses the Diner in thirteen strides to the back corner booth where the boy is sitting. He looks even worse for wear up close. His greenish (although they look dull under the pale Diner lighting) eyes are bloodshot to hell and, along with red rimmed eyes, he has bags so dark Evan wondered for a moment if he’d been recently socked in the face. She notices he’d put far too much creamer in his coffee, it sits so beige and stagnant in the white mug with roadmap-like hairpin cracks along the edge of its mouth.

 Something like this wasn’t rash for Evan Bosco. She was used to flighty strangers in the night, whether she was at the park or the Diner, or the Subway station. New York really was the city that never slept, in the sense that the people who inhabited it were walking talking zombies who drank expensive coffee and ate fad pastries instead of brains, just shuffling and grunting onto their next stop. It was these strange hours of the night a few times a month that Evan stepped away from the hustle and bustle of simply existing in such an exhausting city and took some time to pause.

 She met some interesting people along the way, like Hannah and Mitch who would sometimes pay for her pancakes if they were feeling up to it and offered her drugs she’d never take. Or Old Man Figgins, who smelled faintly of cat pee thanks to the dozen or so cats he had collected in his studio apartment around the corner on MacDougal Street.

 Why was she coming towards him? Harry thinks, She’s probably coming to tell me to fuck off.

 But she doesn’t, and Evan slides gracefully into his booth and it takes him a moment to resonate that the girl he’d been staring at for the better part of forty-five minutes is staring back him from across the table.

 And she smells like maple syrup.

 Neither of them speak when she sits, Harry looks into his mug like he’s waiting for it to tell him its greatest secrets.

 “I’ve never seen someone look so somberly at a mug of coffee.” Evan states.

 Harry blinks once, “it’s decaf.”

 That explains it, she thinks. Also, nice accent.

 “Why’re you drinking that?” She questions.

 He shrugs, What an odd question.

 Odd question for an odd girl.

 He rips open a sugar packet and dumps it in, hoping it will mask the flavor (it won’t), “too much caffeine. Been up too long. Need to sleep sometime I suppose.”

 Evan nods her head, “so why do you keep staring at me? Do I have something in my teeth?”

 She curls her lips up and bares a white smile to Harry. He tries his best not to smile too much back at her. He pulls his coffee mug to his mouth to try and hide it.

 “Just wonderin’ what you were doing here,” he mutters, lips pressed to the edge of the porcelain mug.

 Evan rips tiny tears into the edges of the paper placemat, “could ask you the same thing.”

 “This is the city that never sleeps, am I right?”

 She rolls her eyes, what a cliche tourist thing to say.

 “I guess,” she huffs, “this is really the only place around here that’s open twenty-four hours. I come here when I need to think.”

 Harry rolls his eyes, what a cliche teenage girl thing to say.

 “And what do you think about?” He quizzes.

 By now Evan has made it three quarters of the way around her placemat and she’s mentally scanning the rest of the table for things to occupy her fingertips; the napkins, sugar packets, a dollar store miniature coloring book with three waxy crayons in red, yellow and blue.

 She shrugs, how terribly invasive, she thinks to herself. Although it’s exciting. She’s spent most of her time in and out of this city. Between dad’s work and travels she’s seen the inside of airport terminals so often she thought she ought to have a punch card for the JFK airport. There’s something fuzzy growing in her stomach and it makes her want to throw up, but in the most exhilarating way possible. She can be anyone tonight. Anyone to this person. She’s not her father’s daughter who shares the same bright eyes and sense of adventure and terrible nail biting habit. And she’s definitely not the girl that Jacob Huckabee just dumped twelve hours ago in a Starbucks on Bleecker Street.

 “I think about the color blue, and the way that the sky looks right before the sun rises,” Evan plucks out a crayon from the little cardboard box and flips her edge torn paper placemat to the blank white side, “I think about this city and how, despite us being constantly surrounded by other people that we never actually touch them,” she draws a cluster of stick figures inside of a box below a deep blue crayon sky, “sure, we may bump into them on the sidewalk or the subway but we don’t interact with more than a mumble of a sorry or barely even that. All these damn people and then they bump into other people and it just keeps going on and on-,” Evan drags the circle around the box a few times, “for seemingly forever. One-point-six million people just bumping into each other, day in and day out.”

 Harry raises an eyebrow. He pulls the red crayon from the box and turns the paper around to him, scribbling hair and smiley faces  on two of the stick figures standing side by side before presenting it back to her, “and then there’s us.”

 “You never answered my question,” Evan replies, “about what you’re doing here. I’ve never seen you here before tonight.”

 Harry doesn’t like questions, mostly because he never really has an answer. He was at the Washington Square Diner and three thirty in the morning because he was wired on caffeine, jet lagged, stressing about his upcoming first year at university, and well, hungry.

 “You’ve met all one point six million people in this city?” He raises an eyebrow. Evan folds her arms and he caves. “And I was hungry.”

 There’s a wrinkle of questioning between Evan’s eyes that causes her glasses to slip ever so slightly, “you don’t have any food.”

 Harry shrugs.

 Evan reaches for the last crayon, the yellow one, and draws a door that leads out of the stick figure clustered box and past the circle of repetition and to the blank part of the placemat.

 “Want to get out of here?” She asks.

 Harry isn’t sure what this girl is asking. Is she trying to sleep with me? He thinks. Not that it would be the worst way this night (morning?) could end.

 “Sure.”

 Evan smiles and damn near pulls him straight from the booth. Harry grabs the paper placemat with the torn edges and their drawing and folds it neatly, “in case we get lost we’ll always know where to find each other,” he says before tucking it into his back pocket.

 Old man Figgins wakes up when the front door of Washington Square Diner slams shut. It’s a fairly warm night. There’s no wind and the air is stagnant with summer’s leftovers. A slight lick of humidity fills the air; it’s stale, old, recycled. Just like this damn city. It’s a smell that Harry can’t place and one that Evan just calls “that city smell”. It’s mechanical, but still manages to smell like greasy chinese food after its sat out for too long, mixed with the slight wet dog smell of this evening’s rainstorm.

 Harry and Evan run down the sidewalk of West 4th Street towards Washington Square Park. Evan’s not much of a runner, especially with a stomach full of sticky pancakes and black coffee.

 Harry isn’t sure why they’re running. Is it a race? No, she’s not running fast enough for that. Is she running away from him? No, she’s smiling every time he looks at her to check her pace. She grabs his hand and drags him further, her hand is soft in his.

 Evan isn’t quite sure why she’s running. Overtired? Maybe, she should’ve been in bed hours ago. Craziness? Probably, she’s felt every emotion crammed into a half day and still lived to tell about it.

 They enter the park at the corner of Macdougal and Washington Square South.

 With heavy breaths, they fall to the ground in a fit of laughter, two strangers in the middle of the night. If this were a romantic comedy, Harry probably would’ve kissed her. But all he could notice in this moment was the way that the sidewalk lamp posts glowed in the reflection of her glasses and that her blue eyes looked so bright he thought he could’ve fallen in love right there on the spot.

 Harry didn’t really believe in love at first sight or even really love at all for that matter. It was a thing for saps and Hallmark cards. But, by God, he swore he saw the rest of his life with this girl flash in front of his eyes when she shut hers and placed her hand over his.

 “So what’s the plan?” He asks, when his breath finally catches up to him.

 Evan lets out a breathy laugh, “that’s one thing you’ll learn about me, I never have a plan.”

 Sunday, March 25, 2018

185 Bleecker Street, Apartment 11A, New York, NY

 It’s like a dance routine, the way that Harry and Evan work around their tiny apartment kitchen. They’ve mastered the art of passing by the other to get a utensil from the opposite end of the counter. Harry knows to dip slightly to the left when Evan reaches above his head for the mixing bowls; all her weight rested on her right foot, her left one extended backwards behind her. It’s choreographed teamwork.

 “Shit, we’re out of chocolate chips,” Evan groans as she digs through the cupboard.

 Harry’s got his Kiss the Cook apron on, mixing bowl full of raw pancake batter cradled in one arm and whisk in the other, “when did we run out?”

 “I made those cookies for Poll’s party a couple weeks ago.”

 “You didn’t write it in on the shopping list,” Harry tuts.

 Evan glares over the tops of her glasses, “shut up,” she say, kicking him swiftly on the ass.

 He does that cocky little smirk that causes the crease of his dimples to indent even more. Evan swears she’s detested  it since the day she met him, but that’s only because it causes one single butterfly in her lower stomach to flutter for just a fraction of a moment that happens so quickly, the first few times it happened she could’ve sworn she was imagining things.

 “So what’s on the agenda today?” Harry asks.

 Evan shrugs, shaking away the butterfly, “Huck had something he wants to do later. He was scarce on the details.”

 “Isn’t he always?” Harry quips.

 Evan hates when her best friend takes jabs at her boyfriend. Sure, Harry and Huck get along as well as they probably ever could, but there’s those backhanded compliments and little quips between comments that they fire at one another that makes her think one of them is bound to get sucker punched one of these days.

 It’s the second time in the course of sixty seconds that Evan tells Harry to shut up, but this time it’s with a little more fervor and he takes the hint. At least for now.

 “Maybe it’s a surprise,” Harry wiggles his fingers dramatically.

 “Eh,” Evan starts, “he’s not really one for surprises,” she acts nonchalant but her head swirls with ideas.

 They spin together to swap sides of the kitchen, pressed chest to chest for the briefest moment. Evan chuckles to herself at the sight of Harry’s tattoo-laden bare chest under his apron. A sizzling sound sparks in the air when Harry pours the batter into the hot pan, tiny bubbles forming up. Two steps to the left and Evan is pulling out more milk for their coffee that’s been steeping in the French press. They cheers with their matching monogrammed mugs that Harry still insists drinking out of even though his has a chip on the lip.

 “I can’t wait for the day you cut your mouth open on that mug so I can dance around the apartment screaming ‘told ya so!’”

 Harry winks and takes a sip from the side with the chip and the mug rubs against slightly rough spot on the inside of his upper lip where it’s cut him over and over in the past but this time there’s no metallic taste of blood mixed with his coffee.

 Outside the front door of apartment 11A, Jake Huckabee can smell the sweet scent of pancakes outside of his girlfriend’s apartment. While he much preferred waffles, after pulling an all nighter studying for Monday’s exam, pancakes would just have to do right now. He knocks four times in rapid succession and can hear the gentle pat pat of Evan’s feet against the hardwood floors.

 “Baby, you look so tired,” Evan groans to her boyfriend, holding her hands on either side of his face.

 She slides them down to his shoulders, giving them a single squeeze before wrapping her arms around his neck. Jake presses his forehead into her collarbone and peppers kisses along her neck. Evan giggles and pulls him into the apartment, kicking the door shut behind him.

 Harry tries not to stare at their spectacle and finishes up the first round of pancakes, “have a fresh batch ready to go!” Harry says a little too loudly, his voice cracking a bit at the end.

 Evan laces her fingers with Huck and pulls him to the kitchen. The dance is disturbed now by Huck standing like an awkward fucking giant in the middle of the kitchen. Evan bumps into him with a hot pan of cooked bacon and he winces and rubs the rapidly forming burn on his arm, Harry steps on his big toe while backing up to get the syrup from the cupboard.

 “Hey Huck, can you put this stuff on the table?” Harry asks, slightly annoyed, but mostly just to get him out of the fucking way.

 “Sure, man,” he replies, giving Evan a kiss on the forehead before putting the plate of fresh pancakes on the tiny dining table in what was supposed to be the other half of the living room.

 Living in a New York City apartment, especially when you’re barely able to cover rent and food, is like playing a real life game of tetris. The buildings are full of right angles and corners and straight lines, and the rooms take on multiple uses. The living room becomes a dining room on Sunday morning but a dance hall on Saturday nights. The weird corner in the kitchen that’s too small for a table but too big for a bar cart becomes a place for Harry and Evan’s ‘his and hers’ cats to perch and catch some morning rays. The bedrooms double as therapist offices and gymnasiums. And so on, and so forth.

 The threesome settles at the dining table and it’s a symphony of scraping forks and Huck’s cow chewing because of a deviated septum from a broken nose as a kid. They’ve had many a morning like this. Harry would be stupid to act like this didn’t happen every goddamn Sunday morning and now especially since Evan and Huck saw less of each other because of his spastic medical school schedule, time was precious.

 “So how goes Ye Olde Med School?” Harry asks, letting his fork scrape against his teeth for a second or two too long.

 Huck rubs his tired eyes. The classes are exhausting and seemingly never ending, the course load is enough to make anyone’s goddamn head explode, he sleeps an average of four hours a night, and he spends so much time in the library he can’t remember what day of the week it is most of the time.

 “It’s good,” he says simply.

 Thursday, August 23, 2012

Washington Square Park, New York, NY

 “So what are you thinking about now?” He asks.

 “Are you a therapist?” Evan questions in a dry tone.

 She opens her eyes and rolls her head over to face him, she can feel the soft tickle of the grass on her cheek. It’s quiet, and that’s saying something for the city. There’s the ever present sirens in the distance and honks and the other white noise static she’s become accustomed to. After all the places in the world that her father had taken her on his work trips, she detested the fact that he had to settle on New York City when it came time to take the promotion and settle down. Now he was the Editor-in-Chief of Travel Lately; one of those boujee travel magazines that showcased resorts and accommodations only the one-percent could afford. It was a modest upbringing when her father was just a measly travel writer carting his daughter around the world. But he was amazing at what he did and made good connections, and well, things changed. Now he spent 9-5 in an office building surrounded by glass walls and computer monitors the size of big screen televisions.

 “I’m interested in what you have to say,” Harry says, plainly. He’s turned his head over too and Evan can feel his breath feather across her face. He smells of coffee and mint.

 Is he trying to sleep with me? She thinks. Men are all the same.

 Evan rolls onto her side, propping her face up on her palm and surveys Harry. He’s laying on his back, hands folded on his stomach. His breathing is light and steady in perfect rhythm. His heart is racing, and she can hear. Even his heart beat is in sync with his breathing and she wondered how in the Hell anyone could be so in tune. Harry’s eyes are more green than she noticed in the diner; they looked more hazel under the fluorescents and she spots a pair of swallow tattoos just below his collar bone poking out from above his shirt. She reaches out to trace one.

 “I already told you what I think about, and what I was doing in the Diner. How about you answer some questions, buddy?” She finishes dragging her finger across his skin, his body emitting shivers under her touch.

 Harry takes a deep breath to try and recover himself, he wonders if she can hear how fast his heart is racing, “do you want the long or short version?”

 “Long,” she smiles, “we’ve got another couple hours until sunrise.”

 Evan listens intently while he speaks, “well, I got here this afternoon, from England, if you couldn’t tell.”

 She could.

 “I’m starting University on Tuesday and I’m scared shitless. I already hate this city. It’s so loud and lonely despite the fact you are never actually alone anywhere...ever,” he continues, “you have to wait twenty minutes for a seven dollar cup of coffee that takes less time to drink than it took for you to get it. It’s so goddamn loud. I don’t think I’ve heard a second of silence since I’ve gotten here. And there’s tourists, like, everywhere. It’s exhausting.”

 “Shit, I’d hate to see what you’ll be like after a month,” Evan quips.

 “Dead, hopefully.”

 There’s a playful smirk on his face and it makes Evan feel things she shouldn’t feel about a complete stranger, “Where are you going to school?”

 “NYU-”

 “Wait are you shitting me?” Evan sits up, clutching her chest.

 Harry is confused, “no?”

 “I’m going there too! That’s so cool! Small world, huh?” She jabs his ribs, “so what made you decide to cross the world to come to school?”

 He lets out a stream of breath, it comes out as a low whistle, “...my best friend talked me into it. Wanted something different, I suppose. If I stayed home I’d probably be working in my parent’s little pub. Sold me into the whole big city thing and here I am.”

 “So where’s he?” Evan asks.

 Harry shrugs, “probably at home.”

 “What’s his name?”

 “You ask a lot of questions,” Harry tuts.

 Evan rolls her eyes, “so says the guy who wants to know what I’m thinking because he’s sooo interested in what I have to say,” she proclaims with faux drama.

 “Fair enough,” Harry starts, “his name is Louis. We met really young. He’s a couple years older, already in school. His family lived next door to my parents growing up. Parents split and his dad stayed in England so he’d spend summers with him and the rest of the year here with his Mum. We just stayed in touch over the years.”

 “So you just dropped everything to move to the states and be with your best friend?”

 Harry thinks about it. That wasn’t really the full reason why. It was just his easiest way out of a drone life of working the pub and then it would eventually be passed on to him like it was his to his Mum and surely onto his children after he grew too old to care for it. It wouldn’t have been a bad life. It’d be comfortable, he’d marry the girl next door and she’d work in a shop up the block from the pub and they’d have a comfortable and familiar existence together and maybe pop out a few kids and go on a couple vacations. But Harry had known from a very young age that that was not what he wanted for himself. So the easiest way out was taking Lou’s advice and getting the fuck out of dodge.

 “I guess, in a way. It’s complicated back home but entirely not at the same time. I needed to get away from the constant sameness of the day to day. I needed something more for myself than what life back home could offer me and he offered to help me out and here I am.”

 Evan clutches her chest again and finds the whole thing so goddamn endearing she may burst. She wants to ask him about home and the best friend that she can thank for bringing him here and about a thousand other things but she doesn’t.

 “That’s so bromantic!”

 Harry rolls his eyes, “does that adequately answer your question?”

 She adjusts herself so that her head is resting on his chest. His heart is racing so fast Evan can feel it thump gently against her and Harry flushes and prays she doesn’t notice.

 She does.

 “For now.”

 She lets her fingers tiptoe on the grass around her. A silence has fallen between them (if you’re not counting Harry’s furiously beating heart) and Evan musters up the courage to ask what she’s about to, “so where are you staying tonight?”

 Harry fumbles with his answer, “uh just some like cruddy hotel until uh I move into the dorms. Louis’ mum’s apartment is cramped enough as it is without me there. W-why do you ask?”

 “Can I see it?”

 He chokes on air. Holy shit she really is trying to sleep with me. He blinks once, “uhm sure, I guess.”

 Sunday, March 25, 2018

185 Bleecker Street, Apartment 11A, New York, NY

 “Does this mean you’ve finally grown a pair of balls?” Niall asks, sipping his beer,  feet resting on the edge of the coffee table.

 Harry pushes his legs off his goddamn coffee table and leans back in his seat, taking a last sip of his drink before slamming the bottle on the table, “no, I’m just going to start being honest. I can’t stand seeing her with that human Valium.”

 “They’ve been together longer than you’ve known her, mate. I think you need to just keep your mouth shut and accept the fact that it’s never going to happen,” Louis chimes in, always the voice of reason.

 “If you tell her does that mean you’re going to stop bringing up your overdone sad sap trope every time she’s not around and you’ve had more than two drinks?” Niall pips casually.

 Louis tries his best not to chuckle, “yeah man, it’s kind of getting old. Either move on or tell her. And personally, I vote don’t tell her. Not after this long, and you live together…it’s just kind of sad and entirely too creepy.”

 “Thanks,” Harry seethes, finishing his beer and getting up for another.

 “Where is she anyways?” Niall asks.

 “Out with the Valium,” Harry sneers. He’s four beers in and feeling brave.

 “Bitter, table of one.” Niall mumbles into his beer.

 Louis rolls his eyes and mentally adds another tick to his count of how many times he has to smooth over something Niall says for Harry’s benefit. Just a normal side effect of having one friend with no filter and another who takes everything much too personally.

 “How’s Jordan?” Louis asks, changing the subject.

 Oh, right, my girlfriend. Harry thinks. Well, at least this week.

 “She’s good. We’re supposed to be going on a weekend trip up north to see her parents in a couple weeks. That should be interesting.”

 “You’ve met her parents like four dozen times, what’s so different this time?” Louis inquires.

 Mr. and Mrs. Charles Meyers of Troy, New York wanted nothing more than for their first born daughter to marry the man of her dreams. Harry was not this man. They were old fashioned, made Harry and Jordan sleep in separate bedrooms whenever they spent a night at their McMansion upstate. But a little after midnight Jordan would sneak into the guest room and snuggle up to Harry for a cuddle or a fuck or whatever they were feeling at that particular time. There’s just something about that boy, they always thought. He was smart, well put together, made good conversation, was respectful to their daughter, but Mr. and Mrs. Meyers knew that Harry Styles was not the man their daughter would marry.

 “It’s their like thirtieth wedding anniversary or some bullshit. So everyone is making a big deal about it and Jordan is asking too many questions about ‘the next step’.”

 “...you mean like normal couples do?” Louis fails to see the clear annoyance in Harry’s tone.

 He groans and puts his face in his hands, “she’s just - I don’t know how to describe it. She’s all over me all the time and then I’ll say something she doesn’t agree with and she’ll dump me for two weeks and then just show up at my door like she hasn’t been cursing my existence for the last fourteen days.”

 Niall pushes his glasses up his nose, “poor Harry, can’t get the girl he wants, can’t get rid of the one he doesn’t. Life is so cruel.”

 “Remind me again why we keep you around?” Harry snickers.

 Niall grins, “for the amazing commentary and real life wisdom.”

 “Yeah,” Harry snorts, “that’s it.”

 Thursday, August 23, 2012

St. Marks Hotel

2 St Marks Pl, New York, NY

 Harry wipes his sweaty palms against his jeans and paces the length of the tiny hotel room four times by the time Evan is done in the bathroom. He’d never had a one night stand before, unless you counted the time he lost his virginity to his first girlfriend who then promptly dumped him the next day. Harry liked to think there was no correlation, but he was just a lousy kisser and an even worse lay at age sixteen.

 He sits at the edge of the bed and it let out a squeaking groan in protest. Whoever was staying next door was surely in for a (loud) treat. He ponders briefly if he should play some music to help set the mood or dim the lights or shut them off completely. The blanket he’s sitting on is scratchy and he swears he can feel it through the fabric of his jeans. Finally, he hears the click of the bathroom door opening and approximately five thoughts process through his head at once;

 One, her hair is down, swung over one shoulder. It’s precise without looking like she did it on purpose (she did). Harry notices a small globe tattoo at the very top of her shoulder.

 Two, she’s taller than he thought, standing in front of him as he’s seated on the edge of the bed frozen with fear. He’s eye level with her bust and now he can hear her heart too.

 Three, her skin is a lot warmer than Harry expected. His hand cups her hip, his thumb toying with the bottom hem of her loose fitting tee shirt.

 Four, she smells like a mixture of seasalt and French vanilla coffee.

 Five, he can’t fucking go through with this.

 “I - I’m sorry, I can’t.”

 Harry stands and backs himself into a corner, biting at his thumbnail, shoulders hunched over. Evan takes a step towards him and he flinches backwards.

 “Have I done something wrong?” She asks. She’s on the verge of tears, mostly from the embarrassment of flinging herself at a total stranger she’d picked up at a fucking Diner, and partially because she misses her boyfriend, well, ex now.

 “No, no. You’re fine. I just can’t sleep with you. You’re great, honestly. I just...can’t do it.”

 “Oh my God,” Evan gasps, “are you gay? I’m so sorry, I just assumed - “

 “No! No I’m not gay,” Harry corrects, “not that there’s anything wrong with that. I’m just, not. I know I’ll regret all of this in the morning and quite possibly the rest of my life -”

 Evan laughs, loud and breathy. It’s more of a relief than anything. She really didn’t want to sleep with Harry either. Although he was quite attractive and interesting and all that but in a way she thought that sleeping with him would cheapen the night. Having sex with him would’ve given the whole spontaneity of everything less meaning and it took him forcing himself into a corner like a terrified puppy for her to realize that.

 “Come here,” she says, sitting down and patting the space of mattress next to her.

 Harry hesitates, his heart still racing as if she were underneath him.

 “I just got dumped,” Evan starts, and he isn’t quite sure why she’s telling him this, “he said that while we were great together, he had to focus on school and his career and I just didn’t fit into that. So I cried, and went to the Diner, ate my weight in pancakes and now I’m here, with you.”

 “I think he’s an idiot,” Harry consoles, holding her hand in his.

 Evan swallows the lump in her throat, “thanks.”

 “No problem.”

 Silence again, and it’s truly quiet for the first time since Harry had arrived in the City. He sighs and savors what he’s sure are going to be far and few in between moments. Evan yawns and rubs her eyes, it’s been a while since she’s been this tired. She’s been tired since she got to the Diner and the night’s ups and downs just added to her exhaustion.

 “You can sleep here if you want,” Harry offers, “or I can call you a cab if you’re not comfortable with that.”

 Evan smiles, “I think I’ll stay here.”

 Sunday, March 25, 2018

185 Bleecker Street, Apartment 11A, New York, NY

 “Where the fuck is Evan?!” Polly hollers from the hallway between apartments 11A and 11B.

 It’s half past seven and the boy’s show at the bar up the street starts in a half hour. Evan never misses show nights on Sundays and Polly is impatient.

 “Relax, maybe she got stuck in traffic,” Louis rubs her lower back, trying to calm down his girlfriend.

 Polly stomps and puts her hands on her hips, “well then she should’ve called! This is so disrespectful. She knows how important - “

 Louis covers her mouth with his palm, “Polls, it’s fine. I’m going to round up Harry and Niall and we’re going to go across the street to get set up. Meet us there in ten?”

 She nods, her stature loosening a bit when he removes his hand, “sorry, I’m PMS-ing,” she defends, folding her arms across her chest.

 “Yeah, I know,” Lou teases before giving her a kiss on the forehead, “I’ll order us a round and you can get nice and blitzed tonight.”

 She chuckles and smacks him on the bum, “go! You’ll be late!”

 Louis goes back into 11A and Polly can hear the faint sounds of him hollering at the other two to hurry up. Pounding footsteps make their way up the hallway and Polly is half pissed, half relieved to finally see her cousin.

 “Finally! I didn’t think you were going to make it,” Polly snapped.

 Evan didn’t respond and just pulled her into the apartment.

 “Everyone to the living room!” She yells excitedly and Polly rolls her eyes and wonders what the hell she’s doing.

 The three boys come rushing into the living room. Huck isn’t far behind and lets himself into the apartment. Evan steps away from her cousin and clutches onto her boyfriend, excitedly biting her lip.

 “What?!” The four friends chime in unison.

 “We’re engaged!” And she holds up her left hand and shiny diamond ring to prove it.

 Niall stifles a laugh into a cough and Harry plans on getting very, very drunk.

 Sunday, August 26, 2012

Goddard Hall

79 Washington Square East, New York, NY

 It had been three days since Evan parted ways with Harry. They hadn’t so much as shared their names with each other, nor phone numbers nor anything else. They fell asleep halfway into an episode of Friends and Evan left when the dawn of morning came. When Harry finally woke up in the early afternoon, he thought maybe she’d been a dream; a toxic combination of too much coffee, not enough sleep and a brand new city. But when he heard a crinkle from his back pocket and pulled out the tattered paper placemat with her drawing, he knew she had, in fact, been for real.

 He couldn’t wait to tell Louis.

 Move in day at Goddard Hall was going smoothly for Evan and her father, Evan Bosco Sr. After believing for months that their daughter was a son due to faulty ultrasound equipment in Cambodia, Mr. and Mrs. Bosco couldn’t decide on a name for their daughter, so they just settled on naming her what they had intended on naming their son.

 “I think that’s the last of it,” Evan Sr. says, dropping the last tote of belongs on the floor of his daughter’s new dorm room, “want me to help you unpack?”

 “Nah,” Evan replies, “I’ll probably just do the essentials tonight, get a pizza and watch some Netflix.”

 Evan Sr. had a swollen heart, watching his only daughter, his only child leave home for college. Even if she really wasn’t all that far from home. The apartment would be quieter, he’d miss their morning cups of coffee while they split the paper; crosswords and the business section for him, current affairs and comics for her. He’d miss (although he’d never admit it) when he’d have to remind her to pick up her dishes or clean up her room. He’d miss having his partner in crime with him.

 “Alright, if you need anything, just call me and I’ll be here.”

 “Yes dad,” Evan groans.

 “I’m not far. Even if you need to get away from your new roommate -”

 “I’m sure the twelve minute subway ride to get home will really be a daunting when I want to shower in private.”

 He laughs, “where is this roommate anyways?”

 “No clue,” Evan shrugs, “maybe I’ll get lucky and end up with a room to myself. Then you’ll really never see me.”

 “Hey,” Evan Sr. turns the rolling chair from the desk and sits in it, “how about once a week, no matter what, we do something? Whether it’s dinner, lunch, shopping, a movie, doesn’t matter. Deal?”

 “Dad,” she starts, she can see the corners of her father’s eyes twinkling like they do right before he cries, “I’m not moving to a different country, just a different neighborhood. You’ll be too busy living up the bachelor lifestyle in your newly empty apartment that you won’t have time to miss me.”

 Evan Sr. stands and pulls his daughter into a hug. He squeezes her tight and plants a kiss on the top of her head before letting her go and heading for the door, “okay, I’ll let you get to it.”

 “Love you, Dad.” She says.

 Her father waves and yells, “Love you too, my little snickerdoodle!” Down the crowded hallway back at her.

 Evan laughs and closes the door, turning to her empty dorm room. She sighs once and lays down on the uncomfortable twin bed and instantly regrets fighting her father to let her live on campus.

 Somewhere in the middle of the third season of Arrested Development, Evan falls asleep, curled into a ball on her unmade bed. It’s dark in the room when she wakes up a couple hours later with still no sign of her roommate. Maybe I did get lucky and end up alone. She thinks. She plugs in her microwave and whips up some cup noodles and settles back into bed. Another hour passes before there’s a the sound of keys jingling outside the dorm door. After a couple of hushed swears the door pops open and it takes a few seconds for Evan’s eyes to adjust from the brightness of her laptop screen to the darkness of the room.

 When the light flicks on she can’t seem to find the words she wants to say so instead, stares with her mouth agape at the sight of Diner boy standing in front of her. He looks at the piece of paper in his hand, “Evan?”

 “Yeah?”

 Evan scrambles to the move in slip on her bedside table with the name of her roommate listed on it, “I assumed Harry was short for Harriet.”

 Harry bursts out laughing, falling onto his bed across from Evan’s.

 Since they day they met, Harry Styles knew Evan Bosco would take him on the ride of his life.

FIRST AND FOREMOST THANK YOU FOR ALL THE LOVE ON THE PROLOGUE. Holy crap. And all the lovely messages too! I’m so excited to go on this journey with you guys and share all of the shenanigans that this gang is going to get into. 

Until next time!

[poetryofjacobmoses]

Two Paths (Metro)

by Jack M. Freedman

“This is a Brooklyn-bound F Local Train. The next stop is...West 4th Street-Washington Square. Stand clear of the closing doors please.”

Sixteen stops between

14th Street and Ditmas Avenue

Is it a coincidence

that the 14th Street Station

on 6th Avenue

showcases the letters F-M-L

proving also that fuckery

is as easy as 1-2-3?

It reminds me of how

Delancey Street-Essex Street

prominently features my initials

J-M-F with the occasional ability to catch Z’s

Every subway ride has a story

Mine is a track with two paths

Empath and sociopath

Two distinct personalities

ride on opposite sides

of a mind going off the rails

They make me wonder

If I’ll ever take the B

to Brighton Beach on a whim

just to be somewhere far away

even for an hour

Or whether I’ll bypass Ditmas on the F

and find Coney Island in places

far more sophisticated than

aspects of my psyche

Or whether catching

a Manhattan-bound Q

at Sheepshead Bay

lets me find words

within alphabetic avenues

scattered through Midwood

Or whether I will still

be embraced by the R

whether bound for MetroTech

or Union Square

Or whether the first five cars on the 1

would trap me in a maze of dyscalculia

Or whether I would take the 7 somewhere

other than Main Street and Roosevelt Avenue

Or whether I would take the 6

and travel back to City Island

Or whether the L will connect me

to my favorite artist congregations of Brooklyn:

Williamsburg

Greenpoint

Bushwick

Park Slope

Or whether I have a job

requiring me to take the

R-A-G to Brooklyn Navy Yard

Or whether I’ll ever see a dinosaur skeleton

after a long ride on the C

Or whether I’ll once again

take the D to Central Park

Or whether I’ll visit Briarwood

taking the E from Ground Zero

like my mother and father once before

Or whether Bay Ridge

still welcomes me

after a long ride on the N

Or whether I’ll ever see

controversial art exhibits

getting off the 2 or 3

at the Brooklyn Museum

Or whether Bowling Green Station

will make me feel less claustrophobic

before I catch the 4 or 5

Or whether the W

is the best train to take

after leaving South Ferry

I’ve ridden every train but the M

for no destination I’ve reached

relied on that letter

M is the first letter in “me”

and I wonder

when I will

embark on that journey

where I get to focus

on me

I’m still asleep

when the Z runs

It’s still a mystery

if I ever rode any of the Shuttles

Subways are transitions

which alter consciousness

with every transfer

Lines come full circle

and there are diamonds

buried within round trips

Just as I’ve experimented

with altering my state of mind

with plants and fungi containing rainbows

Such has been the case

with the subway

This poem is an alchemy of adversity

expressed in verses I will cross-reference

in MLA, 8th Edition some other time

I am actively taking my trauma

and transmuting it into precious memories

I am finally in a place where I am affirmed

the love between me and New York

is one that is mutual

And whether or not

the alphanumeric spotlights

come in various colors

I am hoping that my role

as a grey wizard

isn’t a haze for rays

And though I was diagnosed as bipolar

I am grateful to exist between dichotomies

Baruch HaShem Bli Ayin Hara

I am grateful

Allow me to reach a middle path

and let me continue to

infuse justice

in the words I

continue to express

May my split personalities

merge in a place where

I can explore myself

with a split-infinitive

To boldly go

anywhere

I can find peace

[jonathandesverneyusanews]

Group Of 6 Wanted In Suspected Hate Crime, Attack On Woman Not Wearing Mask On Subway, NYPD Says – CBS New York

Group Of 6 Wanted In Suspected Hate Crime, Attack On Woman Not Wearing Mask On Subway, NYPD Says – CBS New York

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Police released new surveillance pictures of suspects wanted in a hate crime investigation after a woman was allegedly attacked for not wearing a mask on the subway. The suspects allegedly made anti-Asian comments related to COVID-19 to the woman during the attack, police said. It happened on an A train near the West 4th Street – Washington Square station on Dec.…

[wanderingnewyork]

From 2019: An A train enters the #West_4th_Street_Washington_Square_Station, #Manhattan.

[automaticvr]

In this world, the sense of eyesight does not exist…It is completely dark, and you must make your way through space using just your hearing… Darkness VR is a Virtual Reality experience where there are actually no visuals to rely upon - players are not given the affordance of sight, and they have to use just audio to wayfind their way through the darkness to their destination. The piece begins by the user hearing sounds that they are on a New York City subway approaching the West 4th Street Station. They must then focus upon the spatial and localized audio implemented to realize how to navigate the space off the train onto a subway station platform, call and take an elevator to street level, find a street corner, listen for when it is safe to cross the street, and ultimately find their destination next to the fountain in Washington Square Park. The piece centers around specified sound cues and directions that the player must hone in on to wayfind. Created in collaboration with Nick Tanic. Designed in Unity, and built for the Oculus Rift S.

[cameronhampton]

West 4th Street-Washington Square Subway Station, NYC

.•

#NYC #NewYork #subway #travel #streetphotography #photojournalism #blackandwhite #newyorksubway #blackandwhitephotography #art #travelphotography #newyorknewyork #humans #karma #washingtonsquare #city #citylife #urban