By Aliza Billet, Arts and Culture Editor
Anyone who has walked down 5th Avenue has probably noticed the large marble building with the lions flanking its entrance. That is the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building of the New York Public Library (NYPL) system, a public research library, boasting “extraordinary historical collections” 56 million items great, as well as an epic gift shop in which book lovers are sure to get lost.
However, right across the street is the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library, a regular branch of the NYPL. If you step inside on Friday between the hours of 1:30 and 3:30 PM, you’ll stumble upon a hidden gem of the library that has become a mini highlight of my week: Friday Crafternoon.
The point of the event is simple: People come together to craft and socialize over their own individual projects. The library provides craft materials, like yarn with hooks and needles, markers and paper, fabric and thread for embroidery, stamps and stencils, and there is even a sewing machine. People can also bring their own projects; I’m currently working on a crochet sweater.
The specifics of my craft don’t matter, though. What I love about the event is the community. As a college student, I am on the younger end of the attendees, but I have spoken to fellow crafters who span from around my age to senior citizens. New York City is such a diverse place full of so many people, and sometimes I feel like my time in Yeshiva University is like a bubble within the vastness of the city. I know that the city is out there, but it feels out of reach when I am within the confines of the Beren campus. At Friday Crafternoon, I get to meet and converse with fellow New York residents and learn about their lives in this wonderful city we all call home.
I don’t even mind that I’ve been working on the same project for a couple months (sweaters are hard!), because the environment at the library is so calming and peaceful, with jazz music playing in the background and the sounds of strangers conversing while they work on their own projects. It’s a nice glimpse of a positive side of humanity, people coming together over a wholesome shared interest.
Clear friend groups have even formed during this craft hour. A group of older women greet each other every week with snacks they bring to share. Around Purim, a lady came in, boasting a container of hamantaschen and dumping out a big bag of candy “for Purim.” When she saw the woman sitting next to me, she said, “I haven’t seen you in so long! Let’s see pictures [of your grandson],” and reached over eagerly to examine the woman’s phone, exclaiming loudly how big the child had gotten since the last time she saw pictures.
From the conversations I overhear, these women don’t appear to be in touch outside of Friday Crafternoon, but there are still clear connections that have formed between them, and it is lovely to see.
By the way, the cliqueiness from high school does not go away, and it is so funny. One time I was talking to a grad student who recently moved here from China, and the older ladies kept coming over and doing that thing where they point at a chair, ask, “Is anyone sitting here,” and take the chair to sit with their friends. I was thrown back to high school, when students would do that with the empty seats my friends and I were sitting near.
Another thing I love about Friday Crafternoon is the diversity (in multiple senses of the word) of the attendees. Slaving over my stitches in the front corner of the library, I hear so many accents and voices talking about various topics. A lot of people have stories of how they ended up in New York City (either from another state or another country – I’ve spoken to people from South Korea and China, as well as from upstate New York and the midwest), or how they learned their particular craft (I bonded with an older woman about being taught crochet by our grandmothers – many years apart!). I spoke to someone who is a professor of playwriting at a SUNY university, and we bonded briefly over a shared love of theater. One time there was even a high school-aged-kid who was in New York for college visits, and I was able to reminisce with them about my own experience applying to universities.
It’s such a breath of fresh air, crossing paths with strangers momentarily. I always leave the library calmer than I was when I sat down, and maybe one day I’ll even finish my sweater.
Photo Caption: The New York Public Library
Photo Credit: Unsplash