“NEW YORK, NEW YORK!”
Caroline and I are back in Decatur after a two week trip to Baltimore, Providence, and New York. Our daughter Susan drove us all around the Northeast, as we celebrated granddaughter Emma’s graduation from Brown and then went to visit New York City. We were blessed to stay with Nancy Regalado Horwitz, sister of Margery Freeman. Nancy’s apartment is in Greenwich Village, and she was such a gracious host, fixing us scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast each morning before we went out on our adventures for the day. On Tuesday evening we rode the subway from 14th Street to 231st Street to eat supper with Margery and David Billings at their home in the Bronx. The subway was full of different kinds of people, all heading home from work. It was good to be with David and Margery again, especially since David and I had first experienced New York City in the summer of 1966. We were grateful to see them each of our three days in New York.
Our first foray into the city took us into Brooklyn, where we had taken a Lyft to see Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, the church that changed the lives of David and me. Caroline, Susan, and I were greeted by LAPC’S administrative assistant Harriet Bodner – the pastor Emily Brewer was on vacation. As we entered the building through the South Oxford Street entrance, I was flooded by so many memories of the place that changed my heart and my mind. We went into the sanctuary, which is currently not being used because some of the ceiling has fallen in. The church will soon launch a capital campaign to do repairs to the sanctuary. The sanctuary has many Tiffany stained glass windows, but in 1978, a powerful, fluid mural was added to the sanctuary walls and ceiling. It is called “Cloud of Witnesses,” and it was painted by Hank Prussing, who was around when David and I were summer staff members. It is a collage of the people of the Fort Greene in which LAPC is located.
As we walked through the sanctuary and some of the rest of the building, I felt the pangs and the possibilities of urban ministry that Caroline and I had experienced in our pastorate at Oakhurst. Like Oakhurst, LAPC is an old building, constantly in need of repair but also with a center of a vibrant spiritual and social justice ministry. It is the urban church at its best and at its neediest – congregations are shrinking, but funding is always needed. Before I get in too lofty a space, we also went into the Jarvie Room, which was a gathering place for the summer staff in 1966 and 1967. It was also the place where I had my first real romantic kiss – a young Black woman named Deirdre Jordan and I began a summer romance that at the time I hoped would last longer, but time and distance diminished our fervor. Yet, it. was stunning and great at the time!
We left LAPC, ate lunch at a local diner, then took the subway back to 14th Street, where we went to Strand Books, which advertises itself as having 18 miles of books. It was indeed overwhelming, but I managed to get out with only some postcards. That night we ate supper at Nancy’s apartment with David and Margery and daughter Stella coming over – we had not seen Stella in many years. It was great to catch up, and also to hear of Nancy’s impending birthday party – she will be 90 this month!
On Thursday we met Margery at the Guggenheim Museum in the Central Park, and we saw a powerful exhibit by Rashid Johnson called “A Poem for Deep Thinkers.” It wound all around the spirals of the Guggenheim structure, and it is many kinds of media, with its emphasis being the glory and the struggles of being Black in American culture – look him up and check it out if you can’t get there in person. Since Caroline had never been to Central Park, we took a quick walk through there, before taking a bus back to Nancy’s apartment in the Village, a long but relatively quick trek through late afternoon New York traffic.
That night we had a fine finish to our New York trip by joining David and Margery at the Majestic Theater in the Broadway district to see Audra McDonald star in the reprise of the play “Gypsy.” She gave a stunning performance as the mother who seeks to drive her daughters into stardom, with one of them – Louise – becoming Gypsy Rose Lee. Ms. McDonald has been nominated for a Tony Award for this performance, and though I have not seen any other performers, it is hard to imagine one better than hers. After the play, we went to John’s Pizzeria with David and Margery to discuss the play and to reluctantly say good-bye to our good and longtime friends. Susan suggested that we take a cab back to Nancy’s, so that we could experience all of NYC’s modes of transportation – subway, train, bus, rideshare, and personal car.
New York City was a magical place to me in the summers of 1966 and 1967, and as I have written before, it changed my life forever. Though some of the magic has dimmed over the years, in this visit, I still felt its call and its vision for a multicultural life seeking to move towards equity and justice. I am grateful to Caroline and Susan, who suggested that we take a short trip into NYC on the way back from Providence. It was good to be back in the Big City, the greatest in the world, according to many.