Spring cleaning to revitalize Root Cellar
Club hopes clean floors lead to respect for space
By J.p. Lawrence
The door to the Root Cellar is always unlocked. Inside is a kitchen, a space for concerts, and a massive independent magazine library—all available for student use.
The door is kept unlocked out of a sense of trust, says junior Maddy Strassler, one of the co-heads of the Root Cellar Collective.
“It stems from the idea that as students, we are responsible and we can definitely run a space of our own, without having the authority of the school breathing down our necks the whole time,” Strassler said.
This trusting attitude, though, doesn’t always pay off.
Junior Rory Hamovit, one of Strassler’s co-heads in the Root Cellar Collective, says that he has seen people trash the space, take stuff and not treat it well. “People don’t really respect the space,” Hamovit said.
“We want the Root Cellar to be open at all times,” Stassler said, “but people end up abusing the thing we have.”
Strassler has been involved with the Root Cellar for three years. She says she was drawn to the Root Cellar’s ideals of student independence, radical politics and punk rock music. The Root Cellar, along with SMOG, is one of only two student-run spaces at Bard. It claims to be a space by students, for students.
“It’s really nice to enter a space that you know is being taken care of by your fellow students,” Strassler said. “I know a lot of people feel a lot better at the Root Cellar than they do at the Campus Center or at the library.”
Four clubs currently use the space for meetings, says Hamovit, and the club’s spring calendar is full of readings and concerts.
One such upcoming spring event is Punk Rock Prom. Punk Rock Prom has hosted student punk rock cover bands at the end of each spring semester for a decade.
Punk Rock Prom usually takes place on the quad outside the Root Cellar. Last year, however, problems at the event got the Root Cellar Collective, as hosts, in trouble.
“A lot of people were being really rowdy and really drunk—throwing bottles and stuff,” Strassler says. “We were told we couldn’t have it on the quad this year.”
The space takes a lot of damage during concerts, Strassler says. During her first Punk Rock Prom, someone kicked a hole in the wall. The hole is still there, next to the toilet.
The kitchen, too, has seen better days. The refrigerators and the drawers are both empty, and the hot water heaters and coffee makers have either been broken or stolen.
The kitchen once served as a vegan café that served cookies and tea. Strassler says she and a few of her friends tried to bring the café back her sophomore year, but thieves made off with both food and money.
“With any kind of student-run space, people are like, ‘Oh yeah, there’s no authority, we can just, like wreck shit,’” Strassler said, “and I would like to have more faith in the student body.”
Strassler hopes the space can include a café again one day.
Currently, the Root Cellar Collective is in the middle of spring cleaning. Residents from Robbins Addition have been helping out as part of the community restitution they’re doing for a recent spate of vandalism in Robbins.
“It really needed a cleaning,” said sophomore Lucas Duffy-Tumasz, who has spent several weekends organizing, sweeping and mopping. “I wanted to help out.”
Strassler hopes that by cleaning up the space, students will realize that it’s a place for them to hang out, do homework, or make a sandwich. The hope is that students can walk in through that unlocked door and hold a club meeting, or perhaps browse its independent magazine collection, one of the one of the Northeast’s largest.
The Root Cellar Collective hopes that students will respect the space, Hamovit said. The Collective believes that the only way for that hope to be fulfilled is for people to come to the Root Cellar and find out what the big deal is.
“I’d love for more people to just hang out here, spend time here, enjoy the concerts and use the free kitchen,” Hamovit said. “Just use the space.”
“Stop by whenever,” Strassler said. “We leave it unlocked.”