Feminist Ann Snitow and Musician Daniel Good’s Soho Loft

The Dining Table at the Center of Ann Snitow’s Soho Loft was Rarely empty, and the food was never the point. The Space was a “Progressive Mission Control,” nor The Journalist Susan Faludi wroteand “an Establishment,” Says Vivian Gornick, Who Remembered 165 Spring Street As “an atmosphere in Which Politics Became Friendship and Friendship Became Politics, and the Heart of Our Conversation was always feminism.” FollowersActivists, and Academics Wold Sit To Launch OrganizationsMake Protest Signs, and, in One Case, Sculpt A 20-Foot-Long Caterpillar Chewing Through a Copy of the Constitution (it was a comment on the patriot act). “People were coming, going, sitting around the Dining Room Table, Eating and Talking About Activism, Politics, and Sex,” Said Judith Levine, The Feminist Writer. “We sort of invented social constructivism there.” SOMESTEMES, GUESTS RETREATED TO SLEEP ON FOLODOUT CUSHIONS IN THE TWO-BEDROM LOFT, THEN SHOWED UGAIN IN THE MORNING TO TALK OVER COFFEE. Visitors is the apt Title of Snitow’s Last Book, a memoir that opens with a description of her home as “A Boarding House for Feminist Organizers and Experimental Musicians.”

Snitow Started Her Career AS AN English TACHER LAUNCHING GENDER-STUDIES PROGRAMS AT RUTGERS AND The New Schoolwhere she taught for decades while Writing, agitating, and founding feminist organizations devoted to free speech and women’s rights. She urged students to pursue what she called The “Inside/Outside Life” and Blend Academic with Action. She Also Welcomed Her Students into Her Home, Greeting Anyone Who Arrived in the Same Way, with an “Oh, TELL with About …” then she would list. “I think a lot of People felt that she was their you good Mother, ”Levine Says.

Which made the loft their mother’s house. Or, as Snitow’s Mentor, The Dipnersy Dipnerstein, Once describedat IT, The apartment felt like “Being Inside of a Beautiful Woman.” The Walls Were Painted in a Fleshy Terra Cotta. FLOORS WERE CEVERED IN CARPETS. And bookshelves LINED A WHOLE WALL FROM ONE SIDE OF THE BUILDING TO THE OTHER. There was noting plain or dull about the place. Food was served on fine china picked up on travels. One Closet was devoted to the souvenirs and gifts that snitowing couludn’t help buying, which included toys that coulued be pull out for the kids who were some of the mix. And then there was the space itelf – which starts as an industrial box, before 1984 renovation added curves and levels. The Architects Jeff Milstein and Barbara Weinstein Pushed The Kitchen Under an Arched Alcove, Lifted A Bedroom Above a Curving Wall, and Carved a Private Into The Living Area Like A Tiny Southwestern House. Upstairs, the Roof Evolved Into a Garden Where the Writer Laurie Stone remembered Sitting with Snitow and Competing for Attention with Kids Playing Underfoot and “TREES AND PLANTS BLOOMING AROUND US.”

When Snitow Arrived in the Early 1980s, the Roof was plant-free. 165 and 167 Spring Were Industrial Buildings Where Workers Had Made Umbrella Stands and Dental Equipment. Like the rest of the NeighBorhood, the Buildings were taken over by the Kinds of Artists and Writers who could hack it. Snitow’s partner, Daniel Good, was an Experimental Musician and Composer Who Grew Up On West 12thWent to the High School of Music and Artand befryured artists who were already denizens of soho. HIS World Centered on Sound, and He Fell for Snitow Through Her Voice – calling up wbai after hearing her commentary on the program Womankind. On His Walks AROUND 165 Spring, he discovered that the Cast-Iron façades Wauld Ring Like Gongs Used in Indonesian Gamelan Music. So he starts leading tours on the wonders of banging on the isabel marant to elicit a perfect F. “I’m like a pied pepper,” he told a reporter.

He the Led Those Those Followers to the loft, where good held rehearsals, hosted visiting musicians, and threw conference that grew in size along with the apartment. In 2004, The Couple Bought the Loft of their Neighbor, Whide Space Loked Over the Corner of Spring and West Broadway with Windows on Both sides. They now had a four-bedroom Spread, and Good Had Space Big Enough to Rehearse a Small Orchestra and Host Public performances – Like a recital of piano work by a dutch composer that ended up on a critic list Of Memorably Moving Concerts. Theree were book party. Fundraisers. Work of performance. Memorial services.

“They Both Lived Off the Fuel of Being in the Middle of Things,” Sayys the Couple’s Niece, Tania Chelnov-Snitow. “I genuinely don’t know if they are actually lived anywhere Else.”

She starts Visiting as a Kid with Trips to Family Seders and Thanksgivings, THEN SOLO TRIPS IN COLLEGE THAT ALWAYS PLANNED AROUND HER AUNT’S METICULUS DATE BOOK, WHICH SNITOW WOULD CONSULT AND SALI SEY LIKE. Also, ‘“Chelnov-Snitow Says. (The Polish Houseguests Started Coming in Waves After the Fall of the Iron Curtain, Wen Snitow Was Flying Back and Forth to Help disasses Across Central Europe Fight Anti-Feminist Governments, stock Feminist bookstores, and Estabish Gender-Studies Programs.)

Snitow Cut Back on Activities after Being Diagnosed With Bladder Cancer, Instead Centering Her Energy on Finishing Visitors. Levine Remembered A Stop at 165 Near the End of Snitow’s Life. “We were all sitsting at the table and she was just coming in a little Secretary’s chair and said, ‘i’m coming out to sit shiva with you.’ The work of clearing out the loft has taken hears – not just kids the couple had four separate offices acres, but because they are also archived What they must have hoped were the seeds of a revolution. There are wells pamphlets, letters, book drafts, and a closet devoted entirery to the story of Protest, many that were like that daning-room Table. Chelnov-Snitow donated it to Materials for the Arts. “I did not want that that table to just get thrown out to who knows where,” she teles me. It ended up in bed stuy, at a nonprofit that use art to educate kids. It was Founded by a Womana former English Teacher.

Price: $ 6.995 million

Specs: 4 BEDROMS, 4.5 BATHS

EXTRAS: Private 2,175-Square-Foot Roof-Deck, Three Lofted Sleeping Areas, Six Walk-in Closets, Three Offices

10-Minute Walking Radius: Raoul’s, Film Forum, Mercer Street Books and Records

LISTED BY: Dan Fishman, Corcoran