It's true-- sometimes living in New York City can be ravenous, you can often feel like you're being preyed on by vultures and vampires at every turn. Or worse, that you're simply ignored by the hustling masses.
However, there is so much altruism thrumming beneath the ground of our grand and shining city. There are so many good people who get up every day motivated by a singular goal: to make the world a better place, in whatever way their passion leads them.
These people refuse to give up on the hope for a better future, and they're working hard to make the world a better place right here in NYC.
Here are 12 wonderful things that'll give you hope about the future and make you feel amazing about living in this city, where so many people work so hard to make the world a better place.
1. PEN America
Do you think free speech should be an elemental human right? So does PEN.
Located in Soho on the corner of Houston and Broadway, PEN's staff work tirelessly all day long to advocate for all the writers throughout the world who are in jail for their words.
Did you know writing is the number one crime for which people are incarcerated in the world?
At PEN, they're working to end the practice of seeing words as crimes. Promoting literature and defending free expression, they also put out a literary journal with fiction, poetry, and essays that celebrates the free speech that we're fortunate enough to have in America.
2. Seeds of Peace
At Seeds of Peace, the principal is celebrating the love that can form between any two humans, regardless of their demographics or learned beliefs.
The thing about war is that you typically don't ever see your “enemy,” you just hear a ton of dehumanizing jargon about them.
SoP fosters the crossing of these barriers by bringing together children of conflict at a summer camp in Maine. That way, the kids from countries that are at war, kids who would otherwise hate each other without ever having met, eat their cereal, sleep in the same bunks, and play basketball together.
Their headquarters is here in New York City, and it's a pretty beautiful organization.
3. Cave Canem
Located at 20 Jay Street in Brooklyn, Cave Canem is committed solely to cultivating the growth of African American poets.
Started in 1996 by Toi Derricotte and Corenlius Eady, CC is dedicated to providing African American poets with a place to call their own, giving them the space and support to write about the truth, and to participate in the parade of revelations inherent in literature.
In the past sixteen years of Cave Canem's existence, emerging poets have found a home for their most true and shining work, two book prizes with prestigious presses, the publication of three anthologies, and nationally based readings and panels.
If anything should give you hope about the vitality of art and literature in NYC, it's Cave Canem.
4. Yoga to the People
Don't have $30 to drop on a pretentious yoga class that'll make you feel bad about yourself for not being able to balance on your head? Yeah. Me neither.
At Yoga to the People, they do sometimes ask you to balance on your head, but it's all about your practice. So they make it very clear that if you have to chill out in Child's Pose for a little while, that's okay.
At the beginning of every class, they ask you to release judgement and just let yourself be. To abandon your idea of perfection. Which, compared to the daily stressors and pressures of NYC, is actually a pretty big gulp of relief ... like stepping onto the heated subway car after being outside in the frigid winter air.
Oh, also, did I mention that it's either $5, $10, or pay what you will? And they have a bunch of locations throughout NYC, in Brooklyn, St. Mark's, and Midtown.
5. LGBT Center
America has been making huge strides in the department of Civil Rights for gay people (like, we're finally starting to acquire equal marriage rights!).
Nestled near Union Square is New York City's LGBT Center, a place devoted solely to empowering the LGBT community; especially youth, and celebrating all people for who they are. Because of the alarmingly high suicide rate for LGBT youth, having a place for them to come and be not just appreciated, but celebrated for being exactly who they are is pretty integral to their self confidence and for a healthy society as a whole.
In addition to health and wellness programs, arts, entertainment and cultural events, the LGBT Center also provides parenthood and family support services for families coming to terms with their children's sexuality, which is a pretty important service.
Advocating for justice and opportunity for an LGBT community that's been largely ignored and subjugated by society is another service capable of inducing tears of relief in all of us who believe that everyone is entitled to a full experience of love, and should definitely provide hope to all of us in NYC.
6. Free activities
From kayaking on the Hudson River to free yoga classes in Washington Square Park, the fact that there are plenty of wonderful, giving people who are willing to volunteer their time to improve community life in NYC is heartwarming, to say the least, and completely and gut-wrenchingly inspiring, to say the most.
The fact that during the summer months anyone can, without paying a single dollar, receive access to kayaking on the Hudson River or taking a dance, yoga, or exercise class in Bryant Park says a lot about the symbiotic nature of the NYC community.
,7. Free concerts
From Rockwood Music Hall to Supply House on weeknights, to lots of free concerts in Central Park during the summer, to free concerts on Saturday nights at BAM Cafe, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, to Bowery Electric, to the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center, there is no reason you need to be shelling out upwards of $100 to Live Nation to see concerts at Madison Square Garden.
There are plenty of venues, people, and musicians in NYC who believe in equitable access to music.
Which should give you hope, because music should not be an elitist activity, only afforded to people who can afford to pay $80 to attend a concert.
8. RED
Their goal is to produce the first AIDS-free generation.
At RED, love collides with commerce: this creative company braided their philanthropic aids with consumerism, and partnered with hard-hitters like Apple, Starbucks, and Coca-Cola, who in turn raise money and awareness for their global fund.
In 2002, over 1,500 babies a day were born with HIV. Today, in 2015, that number's been whittled down to 650. RED is working hard to get that number to zero. Several cases of HIV have already been cured, and the future looks extremely bright in this particular department because of the urgency and action of RED, health organizations, and RED's partners who give up part of their profits in the fight against AIDS.
9. charity: water
Stressed about the fact that a lot of people in the world don't have access to clean water? Well, there are people in NYC who spend all day, every day doing something about it.
At charity: water, their mission is to bring clean, safe drinking water to those in need.
They keep themselves inspired by plastering their office with the faces of ecstatic people splashing water into their mouths, people who wouldn't have had that water without charity: water.
They use 100% of their donations to fund water projects in developing countries and their headquarters are right here in Manhattan.
10. TED
Ever seen a TED Talk and had your life completely, irrevocably altered? I definitely have.
Their mission is to promote ideas worth spreading, by finding exceptional people and providing them a high-profile platform to spread their message.
Whatever it is you want to learn about, chances are there's a highly articulate, inspiring, life-altering talk about it on TED's website. Want to learn about the brain? About what it's like at the bottom of the ocean? About the effects of body language on self-confidence? Poetry, math, language, human behavior, it's all there, and it's all available for large-scale dissemination, thanks to TED's belief in the spreading of information.
Oh, also, TED's located in NYC. Surprise, surprise!
11. Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding
Located in Midtown, this phenomenal non-profit is devoted to providing programs that allow corporations to bridge religious differences in the workplace.
Their core belief is that you shouldn't have to conform to any sort of ideal when you get to work-- you should be able to be yourself in your work and school environment.
They also work to promote mutual respect among humans, and to combat prejudice in schools, workplaces, healthcare settings, and areas of armed conflict. They do this by spending time with schools, businesses, and other organizations in workshops to help promote understanding and diversity.
12. People who give up their subway seats
Isn't it so nice to witness this on the subway?
It's the sort of interaction that floods your heart with hope and the belief in a better future. And it happens more often than you'd think.
I see people giving up their subway seats to other people multiple times a day, and it never ceases to reinvigorate my hope in humankind. Sometimes, it floods my heart with a warm, tidal wave of emotion, such that I'm left blinking back tears, pelted with a spring shower of hope.
This is particularly the case when I'm the one that gives up my seat, because doing nice things for people feels amazing.
If you enjoyed this article, check out City of Dreams: 15 Simple Reasons You’ll Fall in Love with NYC, Over and Over Again!