West Side (Assignment)

The class field-trip to The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts wasn't conducted as a class. Unlike previous outings, our Composition I professor, Dr. Smith, didn't meet with us there. Instead, he gave us the option of visiting the library at our leisure, so long as we went before the next week's class.

Despite my insistence to my fellow group members, Zina and Ana, that we visit the library last Wednesday (we had a day off from class), they argued that it would be wiser to let the rest of our classmates go ahead of us, so that our tour of the facility could be more intimate. I acquiesced, and we all agreed to go on the following Monday.

Ironically, the weather that Wednesday was sunny and pleasant, whereas the conditions outside on Monday were absolutely treacherous. It was cold, breezy, and wet.

Our arrival at the library was met with collective pangs of hunger. So, before beginning our tour we ate lunch, first.

Two containers of Chinese take-out (Singapore Mai-Fun and Vegetable Lo Mein) and a couple bags of Kosher-friendly snack foods later, we stepped inside The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts; located at Lincoln Center.

Admittedly, none of us had researched the library's website in advance, to preview its extensive music and video collections, so we were quite the happy wanderers, as we meandered through the first two floors.

The 1st floor contained an extensive VHS, DVD, and CD collection. We spent the majority of our time there browsing the video titles, as my partners and I didn't really care to explore the music shelves. Most of the copies of the films we saw there were familiar titles: Chinatown, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Inherit the Wind, etc. There were also some lesser known classics, like the original Robert Wise version of The Haunting and I Never Sang for My Father (starring my favorite actor, Gene Hackman). There were also some documentary films like End of the Century: The Story of The Ramones and Half Past Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon Parks.

The vast collection of film and drama books on the 2nd floor was arguably the most enthralling.

As detailed in her blog, I spent a good 10 minutes or so giving Ana a crash-course on the history of James Bond, via author Steven Jay Rubin's James Bond: The Complete Movie Encyclopedia. In addition, I browsed titles about actors Marlon Brando and Sean Connery, director Stanley Kubrick, and the history of comic book superheroes.

Many of the books I read were heavy as I held them in my arms while standing in-between the shelves, and my bee-line earlier to the movie-book shelves made me oblivious to the fact that there were tables just beyond them. So I sat down for a moment to restore the circulation in my legs before continuing on to the 3rd floor.

Apparently I wasn't the only one feeling fatigued, as Ana expressed her desire to return to the first floor to wait for Zina and me, while the two of us browsed the sound collection on the 3rd floor. Personally, I think the security checkpoint outside the archive room didn't sit too well with her.

To our dismay, one of the librarians on the floor informed Zina and me that the stacks there were closed and non-circulating, so we left shortly after our arrival. I did, however, take notice of the fact that there were some selections of theatre performances that had aired on WNET. Coincidentally, while on my way home later that afternoon, I bumped into my best friend's wife at our local supermarket, and shared the details of my visit to the Performing Arts library with her. A performance artist herself, she revealed that a recording of a Classical Theatre of Harlem production of Melvin Van Peebles' Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death (which she was cast-member of) is stored on the library's 3rd floor.

While it wasn't nearly as aesthetically pleasing as AMNH and NYPL, the Performing Arts library proved itself to be no less enjoyable. My comrades and I were quite taken by the seemingly limitless wealth of information pertaining to movies that it contained. Much to its credit, unlike both AMNH and NYPL, the greater accessibility of the materials housed there made for a truly engaging experience.