Walking to the Pier and Back

Abstract

This article narrativizes a walking go-along interview I, a cis white queer man, completed with JS, a Black trans young woman, while walking to the Christopher Street Pier in the West Village of New York City. The narrative form of this piece works to think against white- and cis-normative senses of time-keeping and place-making by illuminating how our bodies and social positions were perceived in relationship to each other and the environs of the go-along. While the Pier has long been an important public and community space for trans and queer Black and Latinx communities, especially young people, it has concurrently faced waves of gentrification that have made this place inhospitable to these communities. Giving an account of this walking interview through this contested area attends to JS’s experience and perception of place, community, history, and safety, including the ways it aligns and is in tension with my own and others’ experiences and perceptions of the Pier and its surroundings.