JAY TOOLE’S WALKING TOUR of QUEER GREENWICH VILLAGE

March 25, 2017

JAY TOOLE’S WALKING TOUR OF QUEER GREENWICH VILLAGE lead audiences and community members on a exploration of the historic West Village in New York, highlighting the significant places along the way while sharing personal stories, tangled into historical moments and community memories. The tour was lead by writer, storyteller, and queer legend Jay Toole who shared about the neighborhood through stories about historic lesbian bars, the Women’s House of D (Detention), homelessness in Washington Square park, the mafia's connection to local gay bars and much more. This two hour walking tour was filled with the essential stories of queer lives and community and the role they played in shaping historical locations (some still present some long gone) and pivotal events of the last 4 decades. Jay Toole is an activist and storyteller with over fifteen years of experience organizing around LGBT homelessness issues, and forty years of experience navigating homelessness herself in NYC. From 2002 - 2012, Jay was a co-founder and Shelter Director at Queers for Economic Justice (QEJ), which became the first LGBT organization to facilitate support groups for queer individuals within the NYC shelter system.