Judson Visit: Where Is Yoko Ono?, And So On....

Judson Memorial Church’s outtake on its front yard, Washington Square Park, is best summed up as “A place where people can be alone together,” and if it were up to the church, that’s just how its members would choose to keep the communal grounds. In fact, that statement truly expresses the unique traits of WSP’s surrounding neighborhood – a united set of independents.

Listening to the Judson representatives who were candid, if not blunt (commenting on how annoying NYU gentrification can be, and so on), provided what I think was the best insight on the park renovation issue all semester. The 100-something-year-old church provides an interesting contrast in its liberalness and of course, religiousness, but it is the fight to save creative freedom that is most unexpected. I was amazed by the church’s role as a speaker for the Village people (note, lowercase ‘p’), and defender of diversity and informality.

I was also curious about the minister’s explanation that the renovation plans are going to develop a space that is architecturally unwelcoming, which will send a new message to local artists, protesters, musicians, readers, dog-walkers, and homeless people. Again, this offered new perspective because I think I had been sort of brainwashed into assuming that although construction is annoying if not altogether unnecessary, at least in the end life in the park could resume. And yet now I’ve learned from a close, old friend of the park, Judson Memorial Church, that it really will never be the same again, and has transitioned into a gentrified, sterile, overly designed park, removing most signs of uniqueness, culture and history.

By the way, I picked up a pamphlet that listed Yoko Ono as an honorary chairperson at Judson. It seemed quite fitting, but where is she in this fight? Oh right, living the rockstar life…. I guess it really is up to the Village’s little guys to defend diversity.