East Village, New York, 2017
"Yuna being exposed to Jewish culture, which is a part of who she is, has been very special for us. Learning about one’s spirituality, and how one connects and see oneself in the world is invaluable. We are so fortunate to have this resource - the 14th Street Y is taking care of our most prized possession, our treasure."
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East Village, New York, 2017
"As a retired teacher, I thought it would be neat to work with kids in the nursery. Many of the kids who come to the 14th Street Y are from other countries and don’t have much family here. They don’t have a bubba or a zeda, or a grandma or a grandpa. So I said, “I can be a grandma; I am a grandma!” Then I thought, “Oh, what are they going to call me, Mrs. Abrams?” It just didn’t feel right, so Bubba Jo became my name, since “Jo” is my nickname. I became Bubba Jo and I love it. It’s really nice walking in the street and hearing someone yell “Bubba Jo!” and come over to you. I get to watch them grow."
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East Village, New York, 2017
"I like helping kids see the potential that lies in everyone. As a child, I always wanted to be a superhero. I know I can’t run fast, you know, I’m not the Flash. I can’t fly, and I can’t save the world, but I can help save someone’s world. I can help them feel loved or help them feel a part of the community. That’s where a lot of my passion comes from in the work that I do."
East Village, New York, 2017
"When I first came here I was so scared, but after I was here for a couple weeks, I just fit in perfectly. One of my After School counselors, her name is Miss Marion, she can make you fit in somewhere perfectly, and you barely even have to know her that well. She taught me a lesson, which was 'never judge a book by it’s cover,' and, 'Never look at someone from the outside, always look at them on the inside.' She can make someone laugh really well."
East Village, New York, 2017
"I first joined the 14th Street Y sometime around 2015 after I graduated high school. It was before my second X-games appearance. I started snowboarding when I was nine, and I’ve been doing it for twelve years. When I was watching the 2006 winter games before turning 10, I saw Shawn White, and he inspired me. My thirteenth season is coming around the corner, and I’m going to be back on the X-Games this January in Aspen, Colorado. I hope to surprise everyone with what I’m about to do."
East Village, New York, 2017
"I’m the person that will call everyone ‘sweetie’ because everyone’s sweet to me. I love to hear people call my name and tell me how I made their day. It’s not about boasting, it’s about being. It’s about being there for them. I love to listen and hear things that people need to be heard. That’s what makes the 14th Street Y home, because if you have something to tell me I’m going to listen to you. We’re going to solve it the best way we can and you’re going to leave with a smile. So home will always be here, because everyone here is joyful. They come here to be stress-less, because they’re loved."
East Village, New York, 2017
”Community is a place that’s kind and welcoming for people who just started off. Somebody would probably take you under their wing if you were new. People will always be there for you. I find community in the community room at the 14th Street Y. I was in Kindergarten and I was coming from my school to After School and I was new, and this counselor Matt was really nice to me. That’s my first memory here. All of the counselors are nice and friendly. I love the last day of After School. We always have a water party and it’s really fun, and we get to squirt counselors with water.”
East Village, New York, 2017
"I actually got married here on the set of a play I wrote, to my husband, who was in the play. He and I had been artists in this building for four years and we exchanged our vows on that set in front of our friends and community. We chose the Theater at the 14th Street Y before I was working here, because it had provided us a home as artists for several years."
East Village, New York, 2017
"I’ve lived in Stuy Town for 50 years. I know everybody there; they call me the Mayor of Stuy Town. I actually just got inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Brooklyn. I coached professionally – a lot of professional basketball players in the Summer leagues. Doctor J is one of the greatest players ever, and I coached him. The coaching was volunteer, the therapy paid the bills. I coached over 75 MBA players, and I worked with over 5,000 substance abusers in my career as a therapist."
Union Square, New York, 2017
"I was ostracized by kids my age and I found such comfort in the special programs that my parents put me in. I did theater programs and art programs, and those were the places that I really found solace because everybody was a little bit of a weirdo too. I’ve always loved children but I’ve definitely always had a soft place in my heart for kids who just need a little bit of extra support. For me, that’s where my passion for working with children with special needs came from."
East Village, New York, 2017
"I’ve had instability in my life in many ways, but the 14th Street Y has always kind of been the constant. I feel very lucky that, in all of the craziness, I’ve had a place – and a group of people, more importantly – that has just been that baseline."
East Village, New York, 2017
"He taught me everything I know about juggling and circus arts. We met in a coffee shop having breakfast one block east of the 14th Street Y. We started talking, and the waitress was particularly funny and outrageous that day so we started laughing at her and talking, then we started going out. I’ve been living at this apartment on East 10th Street for over 40 years, and we’ve been married 32. He was just two blocks away when we met, so the East Village has been our neighborhood for a long time."
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East Village, New York, 2017
"I had a girl last week who is in kindergarten and she was working on a collage of a house at night and she asked ‘where do the clouds go at night?’ I started thinking about that, as if they would just disappear and come back in the morning when you wake up. And I thought, that’s poetry – that’s why I like being with children because you get to live with these questions, like where do the clouds go at night? It’s sometimes really nice to be distracted by all the children. When there’s good times, it just adds to it, but when there’s bad times, you just spend your time with the kids and you can’t have another thought in your head."
Zimmerman Architects Office, New York, 2018
”I grew up in Stuyvesant Town. The 14th Street Y was a haven in the wintertime when we were locked in our homes and it was bad weather. Going there to play soccer or swim in the pool during the winter, I thought I died and went to heaven. I always remembered that. I lived in Stuyvesant Town for the first 27 years of my life. I couldn’t wait to get out. We all have our migratory paths. I wanted to migrate out of there and find myself, but I found my way home.”
East Village, New York, 2017
"I always felt like I was maybe a bit more American than English. Although I visited the states a lot, it was really when I came to New York that I felt this boom of excitement and energy. I couldn’t think of anywhere in the world more exciting to be, so when I was 29, I thought “no time like the present,” and moved here! New York just inspires people to be the best that they want to be. All of things that you wanted to do, New York is the place to do them — and everyone you meet will encourage you, because life's too short."
Colson Patisserie, Brooklyn, 2017
"The 14th Street Y, for my family, has been a lot of different things. My youngest daughter now goes to the preschool. I think the 14th Street Y symbolizes what a great community space can really be, how it can serve a large group of different people in so many different ways. We need communities – we need spaces that can bring people together and open them up to new possibilities and things that they would not have been exposed to if they had not walked through the doors of that place."
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14th Street Y, East Village, New York, 2018
”My personal story began in Brazil where I was raised Catholic. When I moved to the US, I began considering Judaism as a better fit for my religious beliefs. After getting married and having four Jewish children, I am even more excited about the impact Judaism has on our family and our life. For me, it is important to have something that our family can believe in that is bigger than ourselves. It provides hope and inspiration and I think demonstrates the positivity that religion can have on our life. I believe different backgrounds, cultures, and interests united into one is a family.”
14th Street Y, East Village, New York, 2018
”I am the son of Polish immigrants who came to this country and, like so many others like them, came to the Lower East Side, because that’s where people spoke Yiddish and Polish – and maybe they already had some relatives that had been living there. The LES, even to this day, is the centerpiece of Jewish life for a certain generation. It means a lot to have a community with some Jewish energy and spirit to it. This building is appealing to not only the Jewish community, but to everybody. There’s this old Levy’s bread commercial that said ‘You don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s,’ and you don’t have to be Jewish to love this building.”
14th Street Y, East Village, New York, 2017
"I came to the United States from Japan, where I was born, with my husband who wanted to be a professional pianist – now he is a professional pianist! I was a music teacher in Japan. I love working with children. I now have a class for children who have a background or have the opportunity to communicate in Japanese at home. I’m trying to help them learn the Japanese language and culture, for them to really cherish their roots. Of course there are many challenges, but I take them as an opportunity to learn something from them and for me to grow. I’m hoping that it’s working that way."
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14th Street Y, East Village, New York, 2017
”My mom is originally from the city, but she was in the military so she moved around. Then she met my father and they moved to his hometown in Arkansas. Every summer we would visit NYC to see my grandma; we would go to downtown manhattan, to the park, the world trade center, everywhere. Growing up in a small town, I was always picked on. By high school I started owning who I was, and embracing it. Then, all of the sudden, people started wanting to be my friend. They started to actually respect me because I started to own who I was as a person and individual. Here in NYC, individuality is celebrated on a major scale.
East Village, New York, 2017
"It’s more than just basketball, and more than just a gym. There are people from all walks of life: lawyers, doctors, artists, models, actors, writers. That’s what’s really cool about the 14th Street Y – there’s a sense of creativity and a sense of just being. "
East Village, New York, 2017
"I think studying with the LABA fellows becomes a very special time in our daily life to have a place to meet artists who inspire you. When you study together, you’re removed from your daily actions. You have time to reconnect to inspiration."
East Village, New York, 2017
"The East Village is really a unique place – it has something for everyone. You can dress any way you want and look any way you want. You can go one block and experience probably nine different cultural types of food. I didn’t discover the East Village until my teen years when my grandmother, who came from the Ukraine, took us out to a Ukrainian Restaurant. There aren’t many of those restaurants left, but I do go to Veselka quite often."
14th Street Y, East Village, New York, 2017
”I’ve been coming to the 14th Street Y for 100,000,000 years. My favorite things about the 14th Street Y Preschool are the Legos, and dramatic play.”
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14th Street Y, East Village, New York, 2017
”I run the After School + Youth Sports Programs. I make sure kids are safe and happy, and learning the right things – things they might not learn in school, like how to be a good person. I like working with the kids who are labeled as ‘bad kids.’ When a kid who doesn’t usually deal with authority very well comes in at the end of the day and makes sure to say goodbye to me before they leave, that feels good. I get to go home and feel like maybe I affected someone's life in some way. Even on a bad day, I still feel like we’ve accomplished something positive. Working here also allows me the freedom to do comedy at night. Comedy has gotten me through my whole life. I think you get more respect from kids and adults alike if you’re able to laugh at yourself. That’s why this job is so easy, because I’m very much still a kid.”
14th Street Y, East Village, New York, 2017
”My favorite thing about the 14th Street Y is playing with blocks.”
14th Street Y, East Village, New York, 2017
”I moved to New York to go back to school and to be with my wife. I was looking all around for a job and found this one. I grew up in the JCC movement, so I feel like it’s in my blood. It felt like home from day one here, and ten years later I’m still here and loving it. I love that when you walk in this door, you feel like you’re part of this greater, amazing community. Every floor has its own unique kind of flair going on. There’s a big crossover of communal interaction, from the first floor where you’re being greeted in the morning, to the roof being this controlled chaotic ball of energy. I find community on every single floor of the 14th Street Y, and in the third floor with the children and families. This is my tenth year here and I’ve grown to love our community here as well as the external community of the east village.”
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Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 2017
"After the election, we were all sitting in Shira’s office and it was kind of the first moment I got to know my co-workers beyond the typical conversations you have with each other. That was a moment when I felt like we all let our guards down and really started to find community within one another. For me, that was really important. It had been a really intense year for me, in a lot of ways, and being able to be that vulnerable at work was amazing. Community is the people who lift you up, but also the people that you lift up. It’s a network and a two-way street when you’re able to be there for people and also know that you have this group of people to lean on and really rely on in those moments when you thought you didn’t have someone. I think that has been a really amazing part of the Y. Seeing the way that my coworkers lift each other up, and seeing the relationship between co-workers and staff has been really beautiful. I think that the 14th Street Y has been a home base for a lot of us, especially the younger staff, as we’re growing and changing in our careers and our lives. I think about the first day that I walked through the doors… I think I’m a totally different person from that day until now. "
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East Village, New York, 2017
"Grey has Mowat-Wilson syndrome, which affects his speech and motor skills. He uses his talker to make words, because he’s not able to use sign language. We work a lot together to model his needs so that he can better learn how to say what he needs, and how to ask for help. We program all of the words he might need in there, including the names of his friends and teachers. He’s such a beautiful spirit, and so bright. He’s already come such a long way, and he’s making friends. He’s really starting to develop a lot of relationships in school. His first couple of months were just sheer delight in being here. He was so excited, he would just walk in and squeal!"
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Brooklyn, New York, 2017
"We feel very lucky that we stumbled upon the Y and continue to maintain a very strong relationship, despite not living as close as we used to. It really combines everything we love, with community, arts, a warm Jewish community, and just community at large. A wonderful place for our kids to be nurtured in their early years, and also for us as adults. We met 10 years ago and got married 7 years ago. Over that time, we have built a family of our own with two beautiful kids. We believe in embracing love in our family, and growth and experience and kindness and fun. We traveled all over the world and we were excited about starting our own family and exposing them to everything that New York and the world has to offer. The Y has been a very integral part of that experience for our family. New York can feel like such a big, vast place. It’s sort of funny, but you know that Cheers thing? ‘Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name.’ The Y feels like that for us. Our family has really grown up there."
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Downtown Manhattan, New York, 2018
”Community, to me, is a space – whether that be a physical or mental space, or a place of comfort that people are drawn to. It can be for a number of reasons, because they want to socialize, want to use the gym, learn more about new subjects, or it could just be a sense of needing to connect – with all of the technology we have now that can sometimes tend to make us more antisocial than we’ve been in the past. So community is really where you bridge all of those things and make people feel like they have a home that’s outside of their specific home – the 14th Street Y is a perfect example of that. We’re in this corner of Manhattan that’s one of the best melting pots of all these different communities coming together.”
14th Street Y, East Village, New York, 2017
”I love the counselors at After School because they’re nice and sweet. I love everything at After School. I don’t like doing my homework… but everything else is fun. I’m thankful that I can be here. Community means working together and having fun together; It’s the 14th Street Y: playing together as a community, working together as counselors, working on your computer as a community, like Patrick in his office – but mostly having fun.”
East Village, New York, 2017
”I moved to New York for NYU; I wanted to move here since 4th grade. I first came on a trip with my mom and I saw Thoroughly Modern Millie. This is where I’ve wanted to live and I don’t want to go anywhere else. It’s really hard on my body, mind, spirit, and wallet; but I’ve gained friendships, connections, and learned things about myself here that I wouldn’t anywhere else. If I had stayed in Texas I would have been a completely different person. I don’t think I would have given up my dream, but I think I would have pushed them to the side. Now I feel like all we have is our dreams.”
East Village, New York, 2017
”Community for me is where I can show up and be the most legitimate form of myself and feel comfortable and feel celebrated. Your New York friends know your deepest darkest sides and they still like you. I mean where else are you going to find that? I really like doing the Jewish programming here because it includes meeting people where they’re at. It’s how I was taught as a kid. We serve a community that isn’t all the way Jewish. It’s really rewarding when I can make Judaim accessible for people.”
East Village, New York, 2017
"Community is the opportunity to engage with the locals in your area, seeing each other for who they are and trying to be there for each other. Allowing for people to come together and share their differences and their lives, being able to find the love outside of your home that you wouldn’t find anywhere else."
East Village, New York, 2017
"We’re actually moving soon, and the kids were so anxious about losing their friends and their counselors and teachers here, but we’re actually going to keep bringing them to the 14th Street Y when we move out to Queens."
East Village, New York, 2017
"Being new in the community, I thought I would be so isolated. I’m so happy that I found a lot of friends. I feel so welcome. Now I feel like I know everybody here, and I don’t feel alone. Everyone is willing to help you, and then we do the same. When someone is bringing one child upstairs, we all step up to help take care of the other child downstairs. We all take care of each other here.”"
14th Street Y, East Village, New York, 2017
"The first time I came to After School, I felt really nervous because it’s so big and I had only been to preschool before. Then I met my best friend Wendy and I realized it wasn’t scary. I met the counselors and found out that they were really welcoming. You get to make friends here, and it’s like another home. It’s a really big and fun community. Community means having people that care about you, who are welcoming and nice to you."
East Village, New York, 2017
"He’s been practicing Aikido for more than 30 years. We met in martial arts school, so exercising together is really an extension of that. We practiced martial arts together for many, many years. We got married in a martial arts school! Really, only because it was a nice location and the instructor was legally allowed to marry us. It wasn’t for religious reasons."
14th Street Y, East Village, New York, 2017
"This was where we fell for each other — mostly on the bus to and from camp that summer. We really got to know each other and we would grab a drink sometimes after camp. It got more romantic. It was the Gowanus Canal bus – that’s why I proposed to Jenni on the Gowanus Canal. Ever the romantic. The 14th Street Y played a big role in my life. It was my first employer in New York, it was where I met Jenni, I feel very attached to the 14th street Y. It was the first time I got on the L train. It was where I got my start in New York."
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East Village, New York, 2017
”Being from a quaint, suburban town in Massachusetts and growing up in a first generation, immigrant-Bengali family is like growing up in two colliding worlds. One world is studded with Bollywood movies, 6 minute musical interludes, bright bold beautiful clothing, and spices that leave your taste buds excited, confused, and tingling all once. It also comes with a lot of baggage. My parents, at my age now, left everyone and everything behind with the expectation that their child, yet to be born, would go on to do bigger and better things; that’s a lot of pressure to put on a tiny human. In the other world, all I wanted was to fit in — I was ready to swap out my curry chicken and rice for mac and cheese, replace all my sari’s with Abercrombie and Fitch, and load my boombox with CD’s by Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and N’Sync instead of traditional Bengali music. Over the years, I have learned that I will never fit perfectly into either world. But, I’d like to think that I am the result of two great worlds crashing together. The friends I have made here at the Y remind me of that every single day. Although we all come from different places and experiences, we have all somehow found our way to this community center, each with big hearts and bright ideas. I am emboldened every day to be the best, happiest, smartest version of myself by the people around me.”
East Village, New York, 2017
"I find community from connection. Community can be as small one person– it can be as large as 10, 30, 40 people–but it's about the quality of the relationship. That’s community to me. When I’m in my gym classes, and we’re all invested in each other’s lives outside these four walls, and we’re asking about our families and my living situation and travel plans."
East Village, New York, 2017
"Basically everybody at the 14th Street Y, whether they’re members, or they work here, they’re always welcoming and they know me. There’s this familiarity and sense of belonging and being welcomed, as a neighbor and a member."
East Village, New York, 2017
"I run a supper club in the east village, which means that I run sort of an underground restaurant out of my house. I get to create a menu and bring in people who may or may not know each other to sit around and eat a four-course meal with me. We all talk about whatever we want, laugh, and sometimes argue, and have really wonderful conversation."
14th Street Y, East Village, New York, 2017
"As an artist I'm attracted to intimate spaces, and liminal spaces. I’m interested in transition and moments that seem tense or fraught. I’m also passionate about art for all ages and believe that theater is a place where anyone can come to build community. I’m really passionate about arts education and theater for young audiences. I think everyone has a story and should have a platform to tell it."
14th Street Y, East Village, New York, 2017
"Everybody here is very relaxed and easy going, which makes it special. I meet a lot of people here that are so friendly. Everybody knows my name. That’s really big. That’s something you don’t really find in the city. I lived in midtown before and I didn’t even know my neighbors. Here, everybody says ‘good morning’ to you and knows you by name. I’m surrounded by community. I wouldn’t move anywhere else. The East Village has so many families, restaurants, and small businesses. It still has this ‘old fashioned’ NYC vibe."
East Village, New York, 2017
"I teach a senior class called Silver Sneakers, a postpartum pilates class with these wonderful babies and their moms, a lunch-crunch pilates class, and a strength class. I used to be a lawyer, and then I went back to school to study psychoanalysis, which I do now. Here, I feel like I want to be part of the community. It’s all about the people here, really. The people who work here, members, all of it – they’re great."
14th Street Y, East Village, New York, 2017
"I helped produce a dance show in the theater, and that was initially how I came in to the 14th Street Y and started building a relationship with this organization. After getting hired in 2016, I’ve developed so many great relationships across all departments with people that have become a family in a lot of ways. The Y has the potential to be a really amazing place for people of all walks of life to come and feel like they can attach themselves to something. No matter who you are, you can come here and you can feel like you belong."
East Village, New York, 2017
"I’ve found happiness in both my life and my work with physical activity. It’s what a teach at the 14th Street Y and what I go there to do. I’m an introvert. I need a physical stimulus in everything that I do. I don’t really like going to bars or being on the spot. Since I was in high school, I’ve always liked going to rock shows. Just jumping around at a show is a very stress-reducing experience, and everyone else is there to enjoy the same music, so it creates a really great energy."
14th Street Y, East Village, New York, 2017
"My favorite thing about the 14th Street Y is that the counselors here are very nice and they let me hug them whenever I want. I like school, so that’s why I like after school. It’s because After School is school, but it’s after your regular school. I’ve been coming to the 14th Street Y, I think, since first grade. Actually, I have no idea when! Maybe since kindergarten! To me, community is sort of hard to explain. It’s a group of people who like each other and are nice to each other. I love Shabbat Players–it’s a group of people and on Shabbat they skits and they’re always based on something Jewish. I’m half Jewish and half Christian, cause my mom is Christian and my dad is Jewish. I do celebrate Hanukkah and all the other Jewish holidays. Friday is my favorite date of the week because I get to see Emma and I get to be in a skit in Shabbat Players.
East Village, New York, 2017
"When I started coming to the 14th Street Y, I started swimming. I had a knee injury at the time and felt it was the best kind of exercise I could do without having impact on my injury. I was kind of floored by all of the people who go to the pool, it’s a lot of women and old locals who have been in the east village. One thing I love about older people is they have so many stories to tell. I would go to the pool, ready to mingle, just to talk to these older ladies."
14th Street Y, East Village, New York, 2017
”My granddaughter, Trinity, she was able to come to the camp program here, the Y helped me with the financial part of it. My daughter needed childcare for my granddaughter. Traditionally in the family, we take care of one another, it would have been me who took care of my granddaughter. When I presented this situation to my supervisor, she said we needed to figure out what we can do, how we needed to help me find something because they wanted to have me here. So Trinity was able to come to the camp here, which she loved.”
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14th Street Y, East Village, New York, 2017
"I teach Pilates and a class called Box, Tone, and Stretch. I always say that if I won the lottery, I would still teach here. Everyone knows each other, and we’re all friends. We laugh a lot together, and we’re all here for each other."
14th Street Y, East Village, New York, 2017
”My favorite thing about the 14th Street Y is drawing, legos, and treasure. We used to go to Rory’s class. There are a lot of classes.”
14th Street Y, East Village, New York, 2017
”What I've discovered is that people usually come to the 14th Street Y with one agenda – it might be going to the gym, or it might be a quality preschool for their children – but as they become part of these activities, they discover the other members and people who are part of this. They realize that this is a special place: a place of the community and for the community. We have folks in our program, who are now parents, who came to the 14Y as young children for swim programs! They still not only have a special connection to this place for themselves, but they want to share that with their children who are now 2, 3, or 4 year olds, so they have that as part of their memory of this neighborhood. We take our kids swimming twice a week. For many of the transitions, we find that having a song to go along with the activity helps the transition go better. While the children were waiting for the elevator, they were singing their swim song. Denise–who was the security guard at the time–has a delightful voice and loves singing, so she started singing as well. She started a call and response, singing and dancing with the children as they were singing and dancing along with her. To have people–whether they are security guards, teachers, or directors–who see every encounter as magical, is part of what makes this such a special place.”
14th Street Y, East Village, New York, 2017
"When I was growing up, I always knew I wanted to be an actor. But I thought I only had three options: Gene Hackman, Gene Wilder, or Gene Kelley. I could be serious, I could be funny, or I could sing and dance. Then I got to school, I went to Tisch at NYU, and I was in the Experimental Theatre Wing. Here I was exposed to clowning, miming, African dance, all different forms of storytelling and performance. I feel in love with the idea of devised theatre and theatre as an experimental platform for other people’s stories. Stories that can move and inspire. I started playing, I started writing my own plays, with friends in communities around the country. One thing led to the other and I started more seriously finding a process and methodology that allows me to try new things everywhere I go, but also gives me structure with what I attempt to do and the kind of projects I work on. And over the years I was able to collect a team of partners and collaborators so I wouldn't be doing it alone but doing it with people who pushed me, and trusted me, and whom I could trust."
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East Village, New York, 2017
”My original connection to the 14th Street Y was LABA, and Ronit. We found a way to collaborate, which was to have me DJ the Gala in 2012. I’ve been the DJ at the Gala since, from clowns to gowns, from the gym to all kinds of magic. I’ve built so many relationships with so many amazing artists from meeting them at the Y”
East Village, New York, 2017
”The best experience for me is to have my daughter here while I’m working here. It’s the most I could ask for. I’m able to see her throughout the day and check on her. My daughter is very lucky, because I work here, and everyone knows me. I’m very nice to everyone, so everyone is very nice to Maya. She gets a lot of great attention from a lot of the staff here. The 14th Street Y is not like any other facility that I’ve worked for. It’s so tight-knit here, and that’s what makes it so different. It’s like a family.”
East Village, New York, 2017
"I’ve lived in New York all my life, except for 2 years when I lived in Israel. Basically, I started coming here myself since I was 65, because I had never really exercised in my life. I never had to, I never wanted to. I realized that if I didn’t start, I would become a very creaky old lady."
East Village, New York, 2017
”I came to the 14th Street Y almost 20 years ago by way of moving into Stuy-town. I walked down the street to 14th; I walked by the building and thought ‘this is really cool, I’d like to work out here and be a part of what’s happening.”’Shortly after that, I became an instructor and personal trainer there. Punk Rope started in 2004. It was a little bit of a crap shoot. We weren’t really sure if it was going to fly. There were a lot of older people at the Y and we weren’t sure if they would want to jump rope. We decided to give it a chance and see what happened. I grew up on punk rock. I came of age when The Clash and the Sex Pistols were all the rage. I think that kind of music works really well with jump rope – it’s the right energy, the right tempo. The attitude of the class is very DIY, not mainstream at all, but it works great for the East Village. For me, I am all about creating community, and that was a really big part of Punk Rope, and any other program I’ve ever created or led. It’s all about inclusivity and making people feel comfortable, then taking it beyond the gym and into the neighborhood. I found community by creating community, and I think the Y played a huge role in that, because it gave me the venue where I could meet all of these amazing people and get them together. Now we’re looking at many, many, many, years later, and a lot of them are still hanging out. That’s a rarity in New York, and probably anywhere at this point. It’s very special.”
Upper East Side, New York, 2018
”The history of the Jewish base downtown is so special to us – all those street names that we read about in stories and books. We’ve spent a fair amount of time walking into old synagogues and to us it’s just fascinating. We wonder what it was like 100 years ago, we’ll say to each other, ‘can you imagine living in that building back then?’ We find that very interesting. We love the UES – it’s our home base, but there’s no Jewish history up here. Downtown there is something that’s just so important to Jewish history in New York.”
Lower East Side, New York, 2017
"I worked in mental health and I started doing yoga to help with my own stress. I decided to do a yoga training, then I dropped out of graduate school, and I started teaching yoga to my patients. I ended up deciding I couldn’t do that job anymore, so I got a job teaching."
14th Street Y, East Village, New York, 2017
”The 14th Street Y is a school.”
14th Street Y, East Village, New York, 2017
"My passions have changed over the years. I’ve been passionate about dance and choreography, and I’ve had the chance to do that here. I’ve been passionate about teaching, and I still am, and I get to do that here as well. I’m now feeling interested in social work, and I get to learn from the whole Educational Alliance. Relationships, family, school, education, kids… I’ve gotten to have my family here! I just feel like, because of the life-cycle of the place, that I’ve gotten to really ‘dig in’ to each phase of my life here. New York is so hard, I think, and this place makes it possible for me to feel comfortable and make a life here. I started teaching here when I was 30. I actually still teach that class – it was “aqua boot camp.” I was with a lot of older people, and It made me feel like I was with my grandparents. It was such a warm feeling. Then, as I started teaching more, I was working with mamas and babies, and I had that sense of family. I grew up with a big family, and it made me feel that way. People love you so much when you’re their teacher. There’s such a loving feeling here at the 14th Street Y. There’s nothing like this."
Read more: 14Y Blog | Instagram
Video created to introduce the campaign on social channels
Opening Reception of "Portraits of the 14th Street Y"
14th Street Y Gallery, New York, 2017
Opening Reception of "Portraits of the 14th Street Y"
14th Street Y Gallery, New York, 2017