On May 31, 2025, I gave three hourlong cultural walking tours of the East Village to help raise some money for the Tompkins Square branch of the NYPL (and just to celebrate the history of the neighborhood!). The fantastic Book Club Bar generously donated swag. The tours were so much fun, with 30 library patrons per tour, many of them longtime residents of the East Village. Someone yelled from a window, "Go back to Connecticut!" which we all (especially those of us who'd been here for half a century) found HILARIOUS. A bunch of people brought books for me to sign. There were entertaining debates about the best bagels in the city. And I'm so grateful everyone chipped in to help the library do some work on their community space. The tours filled up fast, with long waitlists, so I'll try to do more in the future!