Second Week In

Back from my Friday in the city. It was a winter wonderland etc. from my window this morning and until I had to go out into it. The rest of the day the wonder had lost it's credibility. This was (I think) my first time into the city with snow. I would have just stayed in bed if I didn't have work. Sarah Lawrence College closed today due to the snow, which hadn't even started until 1am.

I headed into the city a bit later, the walk to the station being a bit more difficult with snow on the sidewalks. The streets were well paved, and there was little to no traffic, so I spent some of my walk on the road. I caught the 1:57pm train into the city by a hair, having to buy a new ten-trip ticket just before boarding. While this train was semi-express, it still got me into the city too late to walk to Poets House, so I took the 5 and 6 trains to Bleecker and ended up 10 minutes early.

There isn't much to say about what I did today. I folded flyers into thirds all day: multi-colored invitations to be sent by mail with staples on the corners to close them and an address label. Poets House has about 2300 people on their mailing list; we got about half that (1100) printed out and almost completed today. We may end up finishing them tomorrow. The event is the upcoming Harlem Renaissance Revisited reading. Though it takes place on a Tuesday (March 4th), I would love to make it. For those not familiar, the Harlem Renaissance was a huge movement in African American social freedom in the 1920s. The movement had the most effect on freedom of expression through art. We read Gwendolyn Brooks a few weeks back in my poetry workshop, and Brooks revives a good deal of spirit from the movement, coming a bit later and being at the height of her popularity around 1950.
I say 'we' above because I thankfully did not manage all of these flyers by myself. Zack and Stellan were also tasked this job. For a while the two assistants, Jennifer and Krista (the latter I just met officially today) were also helping out. Mike was playing a nice range of pre-punk rock, experimental indie, blues and beat folk throughout our congregation. Christa requested some Stringsteen, so we listened to that for a while too. Krista also played for all of us a song her boyfriend wrote her for valentines day. It was ironic and punk rock and cute. The sssistants, who have worked there for a while now, gave the tedium a relaxed tone with jokes and inside stories. The environment is very low key and everyone there is kind and respectful. This sort of thing is a rare picture in New York City. With the bottles of Izze and the recycling bins everywhere, it almost feels like home.

I got to see a few other people roaming the offices today, though I didn't actually meet all of them. One of the more important people (I say that because the important people have their own offices) introduced herself as Jane, and due to the fact that she was a very outgoing individual I guessed she was in charge of relations. Only half true, Jane is the managing director, the person responsible for keeping track of the company's various assets and other statistics. I'd be interested to find out from her how exactly one manages non-profit; it must be a headache.

I hear tomorrow I'll be working with a bunch of people I have not yet met. A couple of them are interns/volunteers like me. We'll get those flyers out in no time.