NYU is cool afterall

I dare to say I might have found NYU´s best kept gem. The perfect mix between history, coolness, New Yorkness and most of all, uniqueness, is located on the third floor of Bobst, NYU´s library, at the Fales Special Collection. The collection, donated to NYU in 1957 by DeCoursey Fales in honor of his father, Haliburton Fales, contains around 200,000 volumes and manuscripts in its majority raw footage and original materials. My journalism class and I had the chance to tour Downtown Collection. Post-modern art material from the 19th and 20th century from downtown Manhattan was shown to us by Marvin Taylor, the collections curator.

“I was a punk kid…obviously,” Marvin said. Somewhat sarcastic, somewhat self-centered, overall very passionate about the collection, that he described as his baby. Wearing black converse to work, his graying goatee and openly dissing The Beatles (that was a first time for me), Marvin was as unique as the collection he was presenting. His alternative vibe and his I-don’t-care-what-anyone-thinks-about-me attitude hold true to what I deem definitive of NYU: a bunch of people trying to be different and stand out one way or another. Hey, I play my Latin card as often as I can.

In the Downtown collection, Punk New York was personalized with Patti Smith´s personal journal as display. AIDS New York was epitomized by David Wojnarowicz´s photographs of his HIV infected partner in his death bed. Was it gory? Absolutely. But Marvin saw it as art, and somehow he managed to convince me that it was artistic. Wojnarowicz´s “Magic Box” containing the most interesting artifacts thought to have inspired his art, including a monkey´s skull dyed in blue paint were a good example of experimental art New York. Marvin held the skull up as one would hold up the cure for a terminal disease, proudly and unsure of what it means to have access to it. He´s gleaming eyes really surprised me; who knew that working in a library could be so entertaining?