BY SCOTT STIFFLER | A number of neighbors based on or near the 400 block of West 21st Street have a gift for coming up with grand gestures that galvanize. Long known for their groovy, ghoulish (and winning) entries in the area’s annual Outdoor Halloween Decorating Contest, the affable, action-minded residents were also instrumental in bringing The Longest Table to Chelsea.”

West 21st Street’s Jim Saylor traces The Longest Table’s origin back to the pandemic era, when his block “was selected by the city to be part of the Open Streets program. Conversation and morning coffee with neighbors began,” said Saylor, who recalled those events in our coverage of last year’s Longest Table (click here for access). Saylor soon befriended Maryam Banikarim. It was she, he said who first floated the notion of , “ one long table where the community would share a meal together.”

The idea quickly took hold and, thanks to a core group of volunteers, made its debut in the material world on October 16, 2022—and in 2023, its sophomore outing was filled to capacity. A street permit application for the next one has already been submitted. As such, event organizers expect the first weekend in rapidly approaching October to see West 21st between Ninth and 10th once again host a very long table, at which people from near and far will gather to break bread, strengthen existing bonds, and forge new connections.

But you don’t have to wait—or bring a covered dish—to walk 21st Street’s West 400 block and dine out on the celebratory nature of its residents. As an affirming act that recognizes June’s LGBTQ+ PRIDE Month, the block’s stoops and fencing have been adorned with rainbow-hued bunting as far as the eye can see—the outcome of what happens when you “Pride the Block.”

It’s no big surprise that the project first came about after a free-association-type brainstorming session at last year’s The Longest Table. “We love to decorate for Halloween,” noted Saylor, “and we said, ‘We should do something another time during the year, just for fun, something happy, and we thought, well, a rainbow is festive—and PRIDE is coming this June.’ ”

After many additional months of refining the idea and securing the support of residents all along the 400 patch of West 21st Street, the flyer seen directly below began to circulate, detailing plans for Pride the Block.

And so, at 1pm on Saturday, June 1, the power of self-fulfilling prophecy once again played out on West 21st Street, as a considerable number of block residents and allies (including NYS Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal and NYC Council Member Erik Bottcher) gathered to send a message of support, by affixing PRIDE-themed bunting to buildings on the block’s crosstown-facing right hand side (on the left are the walled and fenced properties of the General Theological Seminary). The net effect of the bunting—which curves its way around the corner to the first part of 10th Avenue) is that with each footstep taken between Ninth and 10, somebody residing just beyond the bunting has your back.

That message was reinforced throughout the day, when West 21 got the jump on Pride Month by gathering at a Hospitality Table to eat a steady supply of awesome, homemade tacos and guac, drink (generously mixed margaritas, for those who chose to imbibe), and rainbow-hued, love-invoking heart stickers that served as effective icebreakers for the many passersby who hadn’t a clue as to why West 21st suddenly transformed into the Yellow Brick Road of PRIDE (well, with vertical bunting instead of path-laid bricks… Friends of Dorothy will get the reference).

In the end, said Saylor, “dozens of people of all ages came by,” voicing vocal, near-universal, support. So where does one go from here? Taking a page from The Longest Table, Saylor said he sees one clear path for June’s Pride the Block: “Make it a tradition, and have other blocks join us.”

For anyone who wants to know more about The Longest Table, joing the event’s mailing list when visiting www.longesttablenyc.com.

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