Homofactus Press making history one book at a time

Sylvia’s Place, Part Two

Published on 27/12/07
by Sassafras

Sylvia’s Place street

The shelter opened about fifteen minutes late on Wednesday. Huddled away from the rain, in the doorway of the building the youth smoked cigarettes and stamped their feet to keep warm against the December cold. Sylvia’s place is physically housed as part of an MCC church in mid-Manhattan. At eight o’clock a swarm of folks made their way out of the Church building, marking the end of the gay men’s AA meeting. I stood outside, and tattoos and piercings, bundled up in my partner’s old leather jacket and didn’t look much different than most of the youth waiting to get into the shelter. It was fascinating to watch as person after person walked past me and the youth without smiling, other men scowled in our direction, grabbing their bags tightly and walking hurriedly away – two blocks from the shelter is one of the most popular shopping destinations in the city, with tourists flocking to the original Macy’s location and any number of other high-end retailers. There were others from the meeting, who handed the youth their sobriety birthday cakes before walking off but as staff arrived to open Sylvia’s Place I was saddened by the lack of compassion and outward hostility these members of our community seem to have towards LGBTQ youth.

When we got into the space the youth all hurried about fixing food and socializing while I began to set up for the workshop. There were quite a few youth at the shelter that evening, and I was hoping that I’d be able to get a fair number of them to be interested in writing. I was initially rather disappointed when only two youth made their way through the commission of blaring rap music, and discussions of housing and relationship drama to come and sit at the table. Within a matter of minutes I realized how misguided my initial disappointment had been, as sitting next to me were two of the most incredible people I’d ever met. Both of these individuals were ready and eager to poor out their souls, and tell people about what it’s really like to be queer and young and homeless. Despite perpetual distraction of other youth coming and going, the volume on the radio whose speakers were only feet away from us being turned up, for the better part of an hour these youth wrote thoughtful, and heartfelt responses to various writing prompts I had prepared. They spoke of pain, abuse, disappointment in families who did not want them, the system which has failed them, going to college, and so much more. The morning after the workshop I was telling Jay about how it went and he confirmed what I already been feeling; I would rather have had been given the opportunity to work with two youth who really wanted to be there, who wanted to tell their stories, and who believed in the importance of Kicked Out than ten youth who would have rather been doing something else. Working with these youth was an incredible experience for me personally because although our stories were so very different we were able to bond over our common experience of being kicked out.

As I walked away from the shelter that night after the workshop, over the freeway and back into midtown Manhattan to the subway which would take me to my warm apartment, and created family I thought a lot about where I had come from, and about all the things that many in the LGBTQ community take for granted (myself included). I thought about those men leaving the AA meeting, and their obvious disgust at young members of their community, It’s my hope that the stories of the youth I worked with, and the rest of the anthologies contributors will result in people thinking twice about the stereotypes and prejudices they hold about youth, and especially homeless youth.

That's it. What Next?

Please leave your comment so we know what you think about this article. Trackback URL: Sylvia’s Place, Part Two.