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It takes in a Village; Society awards span the community’s spectrum

Pam Pier, owner of the East Village’s Dinosaur Hill toy store, was feeling bouncy as she made a point with a kangaroo puppet at the Village Awards. Photos by Rainer Turim

BY RAINER TURIM | Theater, food…more food…activism, a longtime local merchant, a librarian, a historic renovation project and the new NYC AIDS memorial were among the winners at the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation’s 27th Annual Village Awards on Tues., June 6.

This year’s recipients spanned the spectrum, including The Public Theater, B & H Dairy, GOLES (Good Old Lower East Side), Dinosaur Hill toy store, Patisserie Claude and Jefferson Market Library’s Frank Collerius. 

In addition to the Village Awards, G.V.S.H.P. awarded the Regina Kellerman Award jointly to the NYC AIDS Memorial, St. Vincent’s Triangle Park and the former O’Toole Building, now the Lenox Health Greenwich Village comprehensive care center. The audience was packed with local East Village and Greenwich Village residents, plus Councilmember Corey Johnson.

Before the awards began, the society held its annual meeting. Art Levin, president of the board of trustees, began and closed the meeting, with Mary Ann Arisman, co-chairperson of the Village Awards Nominating Committee, speaking in between.

In his introduction to the awards, Andrew Berman, the society’s executive director, highlighted the progress and accomplishments by G.V.S.H.P. this year. Among other things, the society helped get more than 40 buildings designated as landmarks and helped “Mosaic Man” Jim Power renovate his tile-encrusted lampposts along Astor Place, plus increased education about landmarking and prevented building demolitions.

Andrew Berman, G.V.S.H.P. director, above right, with the owners of B & H Dairy, a Village Award winner for 2017.

“Despite the growing number of challenges,” Berman said, in closing, “I’m hopeful that, with the people and supporters behind G.V.S.H.P., the society will continue to thrive in its accomplishments.”

Levin introduced the awards presenter, poet Bob Holman. Before announcing the honorees, Holman read his poem “Village,” about legendary writer and activist Jane Jacobs. A new documentary about Jacobs, “Citizen Jane: Battle for the City,” is currently enjoying an extended run at the IFC Center on Sixth Ave.

Holman introduced each local store, eatery and institution with a careful historical description. He touched on some recent hardships the neighborhood has suffered, including the loss of the Stage restaurant after the Second Ave. gas explosion in March 2015.

Fawzy Abelwahed, a co-owner of B & H Dairy, which was also impacted by the explosion, said he was honored to receive the award.

“Everybody gets to know each other, and the neighbors support the neighbors, and be apart of the community,” he said. “We have an appreciation from the Village Society. We’re honored. It’s a great feeling.”

G.V.S.H.P.’s Andrew Berman, left, with Frank Collerius, manager of the Jefferson Market Library, another Village Award honoree.

Damaris Reyes, executive director of GOLES, said, in accepting the society’s award, “It’s a great night when a wonderful organization like G.V.S.H.P., which does such amazing work, takes time out to recognize all of the other parts of the community that makes a difference, too.”

Architect Rick Parisi, accepting the Regina Kellerman Award for the St. Vincent’s Triangle Park, said he was impressed by the variety of the winners.

“It was really interesting to have restaurants, to have food establishments that have been here, that I’ve gone to for 30 years,” he said. “It’s really interesting to have such a diverse collection of awards. That’s what I think the Village is about — diversity.”

As Holman said earlier in his poem, “I live in the Village, not just any village, not just every village, where the city becomes a village, that’s my Village.”