Notes From The City: An Abundant Life - Love Will Save The Day

One evening a few weeks ago when I was at a party at one of the design center stores in SoHo, I met someone I thought I might have possibly known back in the days when I lived around the corner from where the party was. To both of our recollections, we had never met, but through both of our recollections, we realized we'd been in and around the same places at around the same times over the course of several years. It's a wonderful feeling to meet someone who shares a love of the history of one of the places where you love the history, and meeting Jamie Rose was one of those wonderful experiences where you find the memories of so many people and places you once knew and loved come rushing all together in all their beautiful glory. I should add that Jamie knows infinitely more people than I do, and so some of his memories and collaborations were of people and places that I'd only heard about. When I asked him what he did and why he was a part of so many wonderful worlds, he said that he was a Creative Director, and I began to learn over time that he is much more than that. A musician, DJ, party coordinator, event planner, networking facilitator, celebrator of people and creativity, the list of titles that Jamie Rose carries could go on ad infinitum. Let me stop here for a moment to say that there is so much more to what he does that this article cannot hold the whole of him. And there is more too, because when I asked Jamie if I could meet with him to talk more and write about him in my blog, he invited me to a party, and said that there was someone there who I really should write about. That someone turned out to be Benjamin Oliver, and the party which was in the building he lives in, was right around an even closer corner from where I used to live. So on a night soon after meeting Jamie Rose, I found myself strolling back through my memories once again, walking through the neighborhood that I'd known and loved back when it was so different from what it is now. When I got to the building on the party invitation address, and started to walk up the stairs, I smiled deep down inside because this building, unlike so many others, was still the wonderful old SoHo that I'd known and loved for so long. I'd thought it was gone forever, but here it was again, and when I got to Benjamin Oliver's studio, I saw a sight that revived my spirit in a way that I'd thought would never happen again.

For those of us who have lived in New York City for a certain amount of time, the changes that have happened over the years have been a mixture of good and bittersweet. Places and spaces where we'd lived and loved and grew and changed and learned and survived often don't exist any more, and if they do, they look very different from back in the days when we first saw them. In some cases that's a very good thing - cleaner and safer streets and neighborhoods, subways that are more reliable - but in some cases there is something that has been lost that seems as if it could never return. The edginess and eclectic mix of people and architecture, art and artists, people of all walks of life and backgrounds meeting and greeting at parties and pubs and clubs - it seems sometimes when I walk down the streets that I'm the only one left from the days that are in memory now. But walking into Benjamin Oliver's apartment and out onto his roof deck, I felt the way I'd felt so many years ago. It took my breath away, and then gave it back, refreshed and renewed and revitalized.

After the party, on a lovely summer afternoon, I sat down with Benjamin and Jamie on the roof deck where the party had been. Still charming, though quieter now with just the three of us, we shared a pot of Ben's perfectly brewed PG Tips, a tea that always reminds me of some very special friends and some very special times we used to have together. It was the 5th of July, a day that always resonates with me because of a favorite play of that name written by Lanford Wilson who was the Playwright in Residence of the Circle Repertory Company, the theater company where I began my New York City creative life. Back in June I had attended reunion weekend at Sarah Lawrence College, and had the opportunity to walk into the Workshop Theatre Space there and spend some time with old friends who I hadn't seen in years. The minute I walked into that theater I was reminded in a very powerful way of the impact that space had had on my creative life ever after. And here I was sitting down on the 5th of July, around the corner from the apartment where I had started another part of my journey, talking to two people whose work and history I am in awe of, and who reminded me so much of all that I thought had been lost in the City that I've loved for so long.

Benjamin Oliver is a photographer, but like Jamie Rose, he is also many other things - an Architect, a Creative Director, party planner, creative force and artist to name a few. The purpose of the parties they are having is to bring people together, to help creative people find a space and place and other people where they can breathe freely and feel creative and rejuvenated and encouraged. Their combined histories span some of the most sought out venues and nightclubs in New York, London and Ibiza, and they have been a part of and have known and experienced some of the biggest and most explosive names in music, art and design from the early days when they were not yet names that were known the way they are today. As we spoke, Jamie mentioned a party he'd gone to in the earlier days when he began experiencing house music for the first time, and he talked about hearing something and experiencing a feeling that he'd never thought was possible. As he described the event and the music, he said, "The DJ was a fellow named Paul Oakenfold." Oh, how I wish I could have been there, but almost as wonderful is to hear about it from someone as expressive and excited about it as Jamie Rose was.

They call their parties Love Will Save The Day, because that is what they truly believe. I have written before in these pages about the importance and power of creativity to help enlighten and illuminate and strengthen and help us navigate through the difficult days in our country and our world, and adding Love into that mix is the perfect addition. The parties Benjamin Oliver and Jamie Rose are organizing are lifesavers - to be able to gather together with artists, designers, DJ's, musicians, photographers, actors, models, and craftspeople is to bring together creative minds and hearts. Creating is an act of the divine, and love is the ultimate outpouring of all that is divine in us. Love will save the day, and because Benjamin Oliver and Jamie Rose know it, they want to share it with the world.

Benjamin Oliver and Jamie Rose

Sharing A Pot Of PG Tips

Canal Street, New York City