Photo by Stacie Joy
Spotted today on Avene A near 11th Street — a mushroom-masked being.
Art, she said.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
6 posts from September
• Line tensions boil over: East Village bookseller Bonnie Slotnick arrested outside Harry Styles pop-up on 2nd Street (Sept. 20)
• Exclusive: New proposal calls for replacing Meltzer Tower (Sept. 18)
• A plea for help along the 14th Street and 1st Avenue corridor (Sept. 14)
• "Locals Only" captures growing up in New York City (Sept. 9)
• A break-in, an arrest and questions about the system: An East Village resident shares her harrowing story (Sept. 3)
• Mayor Mamdani joins Lower East Side tribute to Chino Garcia at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery (Sept. 1)
The East Village of the 1980s, in living color
Interview by EVG
Photos courtesy of Peter Bennett
In 2022, we featured the work of photographer Peter Bennett, whose color images captured the East Village and Lower East Side in the 1980s — from storefronts and street life to rubble-strewn blocks.
We talked with Bennett, who now lives in Los Angeles, about finally bringing the photographs together, shooting the neighborhood in the 1980s, what has changed — and what he hopes people who weren't here then will see in them.
"Vibrant Chaos — NYC’s East Village and Lower East Side" runs 158 pages and features mostly Kodachrome color images Bennett shot in the neighborhood during the 1980s. The self-published book is now available for preorder here, with shipping expected to begin in early October. Bennett will also be back in the East Village this month and hopes to find a few neighborhood shops to carry the book.
Bennett, a New York native who lived in the East Village from 1979 to 1988, has now collected those images in a self-published book, "Vibrant Chaos — NYC’s East Village and Lower East Side."
Many of the photographs were shot on Kodachrome, preserving a neighborhood more often remembered in black-and-white in vivid color. Bennett recently had 19 prints acquired for the Museum of the City of New York's permanent collection, while another 30 are going into the Village Preservation archive.
The book gave Bennett (seen below in a 1980s self-portrait) a chance to reconsider not only what he photographed, but how he views that era today. As he notes, it’s easy to romanticize the old East Village while overlooking the poverty and difficult conditions that were also part of everyday life.
What prompted you to turn these photographs into a book now?
I've been wanting to do this book for years, and last spring I had a publisher and was ready to go forward, but they pulled out at the last minute. Then things fell into place to self-publish, and it all kind of happened pretty quickly.
For years, I knew I had these photos. They had been scattered around in my archive and some other agencies. When I pulled them all together, I was kind of amazed at what I had. I think what makes them unique is that most of them were photographed in color on Kodachrome film, which literally looks as good as the day they were taken.
I recently had 19 prints acquired by the Museum of the City of New York for its permanent photo collection, as well as 30 photos going into the archive of Village Preservation.
For me, that was really when I knew that I had captured a bit of history and it needed to be out there.
How did you decide which images belonged in the book, and what did you have to leave out?
Self-editing for a photographer can be rough. We form emotional attachments to our photos, and of course we want to show as much as possible. But we risk diluting the story when we put in too many, so you have to be kind of brutal with your work if you want it to be regarded well.
I had in my mind how I wanted to organize the chapters, so from there, it was just curating it and culling it down to the best images that told the best story about each chapter.
You lived in the East Village from 1979 to 1988. At the time, did you see yourself documenting a neighborhood in transition, or were you simply photographing daily life around you?
I grew up next to Washington Square Park on West Fourth Street, but spent my teens hanging out on St. Mark's Place, at the Fillmore East and in other areas. I spent a few years in California in the 1970s, and then moved back to the East Village in 1979.
I was bartending at night and was just beginning my photo career when I was approached by a photo agency around 1984 to take photos of the "up-and-coming" East Village, things like trendy cafés and shops and so forth.
The East Village was getting a lot of attention, especially overseas, and I think they wanted to sell some stories.
I wasn't really interested in any of that, but I agreed to take pictures and just shot what I wanted to.
I don't know if they used the term street photography back then, but I was just taking pictures of my neighborhood. In the end, nothing I shot got published, which was fine because I think I ended up with far more interesting photos than they would've wanted.
What drew your attention when you walked the neighborhood with your camera?
Needless to say, it was a very colorful place and time, and just walking along St. Mark's Place, you were sure to see some interesting things and characters. But you can't depend on "the decisive moment," as Cartier-Bresson calls it, to just pop up when you need it.
So I would often see or find a place I wanted to photograph. Maybe it was an interesting location like a café or a storefront, or it was just the way the light hit the street, and I would wait patiently for a person or something to enter the frame and make the photo more dynamic.
I looked for gestures or facial expressions if they were visible, anything to complete the photo so that it's not just a two-dimensional picture of a building.
This way you're anticipating the decisive moment, as opposed to hoping it will just appear in front of you.
Photographing Alphabet City was a little tricky. I didn't feel comfortable walking around with expensive gear and attracting attention, so I would ride my bike around and look for things to photograph. I never had any problems, but I felt a little safer that way and could actually cover more territory.
The scenes of rubble and decaying buildings were overwhelming. Sometimes I would shoot candids of people down there if I felt I was unobtrusive enough, but often I would ask my subjects if it was OK to photograph them and try to be respectful.
Have any photographs in the book taken on a different meaning for you over the years?
It's an interesting question. Yes, the photographs I took in Alphabet City, especially ones where it was obvious that the people there weren't living their best lives. There was a tremendous amount of poverty and struggle, and I think I understand that better than I did at the time.
For instance, there's a photo of two women sitting on an old fridge or something on Fifth Street and Avenue C, with a Dead End sign next to them. I recognize now that's a pretty editorial photo, but obviously the juxtaposition struck me at the time and I took the picture.
Then there are also photos of kids playing in hydrants on 5th Street near Avenue D, and you can literally see the rubble and abandoned buildings all around them. In one sense, these were just kids having fun like kids anywhere else in New York at the time on a hot summer afternoon. But then I'd see them playing in the rubble and realize that is not like other kids in other parts of the city.
I walk through the streets now and see them tree-lined, with better housing, playgrounds with fences, and nice facilities.
And while it's easy to romanticize the past, it's heartening to see the changes on some of those streets from what they were.
Your images preserve many storefronts, street scenes and neighborhood characters that have since disappeared. What details do you think today's viewers will find most surprising?
That life was in color back then, hah. That's kind of a joke, but not really. I think so many people see a lot of black-and-white photos of the East Village in the 1980s, and it can make it look like ancient history. It's like when I looked at pictures of New York in the 1940s and thought the same thing.
I hope the photos convey the vibrant life that many of us were living back then. It was a neighborhood. It was a community. It was vital, and there was so much going on creatively and otherwise. It was also pretty crazy and changeable, and that made it exciting.
Obviously, I named my book "Vibrant Chaos" because I think that kind of describes things well. It was an affordable neighborhood, one of the last in Manhattan, and I think that allowed anybody who wanted to be there to be there.
That was always an important part of New York history until recent years, and I think it's a shame because communities are more fragmented now simply because of affordability.
When you return to the neighborhood now, are there any places where you still recognize something of the East Village you photographed?
I moved away from New York about 25 years ago because I was getting so bitter about all the changes I saw where I grew up in both the East and West Village. I didn't want to see that.
Now I go back and I cherish all the things that made the neighborhood what it is.
Yes, there are a lot of imposing new buildings, mostly around 3rd Avenue and a few other places, but for the most part, the streets and the neighborhood still look the same.
The storefronts change, the cafés come and go, but that's the history of New York. It always changes, and it can make you nuts if you let it.
When I walk around the East Village, I feel like I'm home. I love it there. Maybe I had to wait until all the places that replaced the ones I cherished were replaced, too. I needed at least two generations of replacement to feel OK again.
There is a laundromat on First Avenue near Ninth Street that was across the street from my old apartment. I used to look out my window and see all the crazy goings-on in front of it. That's still there, and so is Veselka. And my good friend Delenee still has her store, Cobblestones, on Ninth Street. She's a real OG of the neighborhood, and I'm glad she is still there.
What do you hope longtime residents — and people who never experienced the neighborhood in that era — take away from the book?
I think it's easy to look back at a special place and time you may have lived through in a neighborhood like the East Village in the 1980s. There's a tendency to think you own it because that's when it was good and better or whatever. And I know I have often felt that way and can mourn it and judge how things are now.
The fact is, the East Village has been around since the late 1950s, and before that it was part of the Lower East Side. These neighborhoods have existed for a long, long time and hopefully will exist for many years to come.
I think doing the book made me see the context of history. When you're young, you think where you are and what you're doing will exist forever. It's impossible to see how things will change.
I think I captured a small period of history in the East Village, and in many ways I see the book as a historical book as well as a photo book.
But the point is, the East Village and Lower East Side are still vibrant neighborhoods.
Looking at all these photos, as much as it makes me miss those days and yearn for some of those good times, also makes me realize how important the present is.
I saw your interview with Irene Mok a few weeks ago, who recorded and wrote a book about her life growing up in Lower Manhattan, and I thought, what an amazing young woman to have the foresight to do that.
I tell my photography students to photograph things as if they won't exist because they may not. They may have historical value and interest for the future.
I think the EV Grieve blog will be an important historical document for the future.
So what I hope people take away from the book is an appreciation for what was, but also for what is. And whether they were there then or not, there's always time to go there now.
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New details emerge in Most Holy Redeemer break-in
Photo and reporting by Stacie Joy
Photo from yesterday when the doors were open for an interior repair
New details have emerged about the Sept. 2 break-in at Most Holy Redeemer Church on Third Street.
According to a source familiar with the church's security footage, the suspect jumped the fence, damaged a door and entered the church, where he spent only a few minutes taking selfies and other photos — including images with the church organ and in front of the altar.
The source said the man did not steal or otherwise disturb anything inside the church before leaving the same way he entered. He then covered his face and went west on Third Street to Avenue A.
The account provides more detail about an incident that initially prompted a large NYPD response, including Emergency Service Unit officers and K-9 teams. Police later said there was no bomb or active-shooter threat and that nothing appeared to have been taken.
The NYPD subsequently released an image of the suspect, who remains at large.
Fluff Club getting unleashed on Avenue B
Photo by Stacie Joy
ICYMI: Signage is up for Fluff Club at 9 Avenue B between Houston and Second Street.
Fluff Club is a dog-themed apparel brand for humans built around the slogan "Your Dog Is The Boss." Its hoodies, sweatshirts and T-shirts pair illustrations of specific dog breeds with mock corporate titles such as "Chief Fluff Officer" and "Director of Home Operations."
The brand features dozens of breeds and mixed breeds, along with personalized items.
No word yet on an opening date for the Avenue B shop.
The space previously housed 2B&2C: The Ken Cro-Ken Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit community arts organization and gallery.
Tuesday, September 29, 2026
Tuesday's parting shot
Photo by Stacie Joy
The artist is the New Zealand-based Owen Dippie.
At the time of his death in 1988, Basquiat lived two buildings to the west at 57 Great Jones St.
ICYMI: Starbucks has left Avenue A and St. Mark’s Place
As of today, the windows are covered and the Starbucks signage has been removed.
No "For Rent" sign is up at the prime corner space yet.
The outpost opened in August 2017, arriving to some neighborhood opposition — including a "Not Another Starbucks" rally.
For now, the waiting game begins for what's next...
The closing post on the EVG Instagram account has yielded nearly 250 comments.
East Village author Maureen Johnson finds mystery close to home
Photos and interview by Stacie Joy
Maureen Johnson has lived in the East Village since 2009, long enough to notice the neighborhood rhythms that can be easy to overlook — the smell of pizza on a cold day, bodega cats, disappearing businesses and, lately, an abundance of vintage shops.
Those details turn up in "The Velvet Knife," the bestselling young adult author's latest Stevie Bell mystery, out today.
Parts of the book are set in the East Village and even include Boris & Horton on Avenue A — where Johnson worked on edits and adopted her dog, Dexy.
We recently met Johnson at Boris & Horton — at the same table where she adopted Dexy — to talk about writing her own neighborhood, cults, dogs and the state of reading in the age of screens.
How does living in the East Village shape the specific sights, smells and spots that made it into "The Velvet Knife"?
I’ve only written about New York twice before, and this is, I think, my 20th book.
Usually I research a place, go around, and come in as an outsider. As an outsider, you notice the smells, the feel, the weather, the patterns. But this is writing about a place I'm very familiar with.
And you risk not registering the things around you: the permeating smell of garbage in the summer. The fact that there will be a certain number of rats. The fact that every time you turn a corner, you'll be like, 'Oh, that business wasn't there two days ago. Oh, look, we have three new vintage shops. Oh look, that's a new coffee place. Or, that place shut down. That's something new.' Or just people, and activities. The barber shop down the street has Frenchie puppies lining the doorway. The fact that the bodegas have cats, the weed stores have cats. And they love to sleep on the warm counters.
The smell of pizza! Especially on a cold winter's day. If I ever made a scented candle, it would smell like a New York pizzeria on a cold winter's day. It's the best smell that has ever existed. And it's intoxicating. It's magical. And it's very specific. And I think it needs to be cold for the smell to filter correctly.
Given that you adopted Dexy at Boris & Horton, right here at this specific table, and edited the book here, how naturally did the cafe and its dogs work their way into the narrative?
I don't usually include real places, but that's not entirely true. I sometimes include real places when I visit them. But I wouldn't have thought, when I started this, that I would include real places. But I'm such a dog person that it felt natural to maybe tell people there was a place you could go to hang out with your dog.
And especially with the times being what they are and everybody feeling kind of rough, you come here and a dog comes up to you, and they just have a way of reminding you and helping you regulate.
Like, 'Hey, I'm here! Let's go play. Let's just be together.' And that's a very good energy in this place. When it closed down temporarily, I was so sad. And then it came back alive, and I was so happy for it.
Have you always edited in public?
I usually work out of my home office. I was part of a group of writers that used to meet every single day at a cafe and work. It was John Green, Emily Jenkins (who writes under the name E. Lockhart), and me.
John Green also started one of the most famous YouTube channels of all time. He brought in his camera one day. He's like, 'I'm going to start making these videos every day.' And I was thinking, 'OK. Seems dumb, but OK.' But he's a really famous guy now. He did "The Fault in Our Stars."
We would just meet every day at work. And then there was a bigger group of us. We used to meet at Dean & DeLuca. We met at wichcraft. We met kind of all over the place. But we did it for a long time. I'm one of the few still in New York permanently. Some people move to Los Angeles, but I'm still here.
How do you tune out the people and the dogs to focus?
I don't tune out dogs. Ever. I've never tuned out a dog in my life. Headphones, though…
What drew you to cult dynamics and high-charisma figures as the engine to this mystery?
I worked on the bigger arc of all these mysteries in advance. I'm very planned with them. But partly because when I was young, there were a lot of things on the news and in after-school specials about cults. The impression you got was that one was gonna get you, because there were so many.
I think a lot of people are interested for one core reason: You want to know why. Why would people who seem like they're quote-unquote normal and fine get involved with something where you follow this little dirty dweeb who tells you that you're going to live in a hole in the desert and you have to commit a bunch of murders?
How does that happen? How do you get involved with that little thumb of a man, Keith Raniere, and then suddenly he's controlling your life and starving you to death and branding you? He claimed to be the smartest man in the world and ran business seminars out of Holiday Inns. How does that happen?
The conditioning involved, that’s pretty standard. But cults, and I know it's a debated term, these high-control groups that have a charismatic leader, the steps are pretty well known. They always start with love, and there's a lot of rhetorical conditioning.
And right now, if there was ever a time to think about rhetorical conditioning and conditioning a large group of people to do and believe things that make no sense… If you want to look back at Jim Jones, sitting in self-imposed exile in Guyana, in Jonestown, popping speed and ranting into a microphone all day about how everyone has to obey him, how people are betraying him, how he's paranoid, and then annihilating everything when it all goes wrong.
If that's not something to think about right now, then I don't know what it is.
Young adult readers are constantly pulled toward screens. What do you think that "The Velvet Knife" offers them that a phone screen can't?
I don't necessarily think that they are. Young adult readers do a lot of reading on a screen, to be fair. One of the best, the New York Public Library, uses Libby. And Libby is really good on an iPhone, or any kind of phone screen.
I do commit the sin of reading on my phone a lot because Libby runs well on it. But it's a two-fold thing. A lot of people say, "Oh, reading's going down in some places, but certainly not in others."
The reading community is strong for many young people who are doing screen-free time on their own, trying to detox, or are really committed to reading on their own.
And now we have this new book bar literally on the corner over here? The first day I walked into Rabbit Books and Bar, it was full of people in the book community and writers, and there are silent reading groups that hundreds of people turn up to just to be together and read in silence.
The reading community is strong. If anything, they're getting stronger and louder.
Also, I am one of the New York leads on Authors Against Book Bans. And we're working to get freedom-to-read legislation passed here in New York. It is actually something to be aware of. The act is sitting on Gov. Hochul's desk unsigned. She could sign it at any time, and we would have basic freedom-to-read provisions in New York, because we don't have them now. It passed the Assembly and the Senate, and it is only waiting for her signature. It's pretty non-controversial stuff, but she hasn't signed it yet.
Anyway, I've been doing a lot of Zoom and remote interviews all week. So doing one in person near home, at my favorite place, isn't a hardship!
[Updated] Tipsy Tie Dye bringing some color to Avenue A
Photos by Stacie Joy
A little more color is coming to Avenue A later this fall.
No. 191 was most recently occupied by Stand-Up MRI.
Tipsy Tie Dye is opening an East Village outpost at 191 Avenue A at 12th Street.
The company currently operates locations in Hoboken and at the American Dream mall in East Rutherford, N.J.
The concept is a hands-on "sip and style" tie-dye studio. Guests choose from wearable items — including T-shirts, sweatshirts and bags — then select colors and create their own designs with guidance from staff. The studios also host birthdays, date nights, family sessions and private events.
Siblings Katie and Kevin Tague founded Tipsy Tie Dye in 2018, initially holding pop-ups around Hoboken and Jersey City before opening a permanent Hoboken studio.
The franchisee is East Village resident Amanda Rust (top pic). Rust spent the past seven years working in real estate and said the idea for opening Tipsy Tie Dye came after attending one of the company's events in Hoboken about three years ago.
She started working on bringing a location here more than a year ago and is now hoping to open in late fall or early winter.
The business has a beer-and-wine tavern license, and Rust also plans to offer kid-friendly activities during the day, including birthday parties and other events for ages 6 and up.
Here's a look at the interior renovation...
Monday, September 28, 2026
‘The Holes’ extends its East Village run
Photo by Stacie Joy
"The Holes," the new play by Max Wolf Friedlich, has extended its Off-Broadway run at the wild project, 195 E. Third St. between Avenue A and Avenue B.
After selling out its initial six-week engagement, the production will now continue through Nov. 15. The play, directed by Michael Herwitz, opened Sept. 22 and was named a New York Times Critic's Pick.
The dark comedy is set inside a decaying bar in a rapidly gentrifying upstate town, where a padlocked back room becomes part of a story exploring desire, tradition, progress and community.
Revisit our Q&A with playwright Max Wolf Friedlich and dramaturg-producer Hannah Getts (pictured above) here.
Remembering John Penley, photographer and activist of the East Village
Friends said Penley had been in declining health after being diagnosed with an abdominal tumor and suffering a stroke. He died in Lake Havasu, Ariz., where he had been living in recent years.
Penley was a familiar figure in the neighborhood's squatter and housing-rights movements and at protests in and around Tompkins Square Park.
He was both participant and documentarian — carrying a camera while taking part in many of the causes he photographed.
A former Navy servicemember, Penley began photographing demonstrations and political actions as a way of documenting the movements he was involved with, eventually working as a photojournalist.
His images appeared in The New York Times, Daily News, New York Post, Newsday, High Times, The Guardian, East Village Eye and other publications.
His photographs captured a period of enormous change in the East Village and Lower East Side, particularly the battles over housing, squatting and gentrification during the 1980s and 1990s. His work also documented AIDS and gay-rights activism and protests involving police brutality, the death penalty and racial discrimination.
In later years, he photographed Occupy Wall Street and demonstrations supporting Chelsea Manning and WikiLeaks.
Penley's archive — papers, photographs and negatives dating from roughly 1980 to 2013 — is housed at NYU's Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives. Penley began donating the collection in 2009, with additional material arriving in 2013.
His activism occasionally landed him on the other side of the camera — and in court. In 1982, he was arrested and sentenced for trespassing at the Savannah River nuclear power plant in South Carolina during an anti-nuclear protest.
Five years later, he was arrested at a rally he organized to register homeless New Yorkers to vote; his archive includes documents from his subsequent lawsuit against the NYPD and then-Mayor Ed Koch.
By the 2000s, Penley remained an unmistakable neighborhood presence, protesting development and displacement and inserting himself into local battles large and small. (EVG covered many of the events that he organized. Find a sampling here ... here ... and here ... among many others.)
He was known as much for his blunt opinions and colorful personality as for his activism.
His interests and activism extended far beyond the neighborhood. Friends remembered his involvement in struggles from Akwesasne to Oaxaca.
In his later years out West, he advocated for low-income residents affected by development in Las Vegas, including around the construction of the Sphere.
But much of what Penley saw through his camera remains here. Thousands of his images preserve an East Village and Lower East Side of protests, squats, artists, activists and street life — and the neighborhood fights in which he was rarely just an observer.
Photo by Paul DeRienzo via Facebook
LPC set to revisit new building proposed next to Merchant's House Museum
Tomorrow, the LPC is expected to review plans for a 9-story, 105-foot-tall building at 27 E. Fourth St., adjacent to the landmarked 19th-century house museum between Lafayette Street and the Bowery, according to Village Preservation.
The proposal previously came before the Commission in March, when it drew extensive public testimony in opposition. Commissioners did not discuss or vote on the application at that meeting.
Tuesday's session is expected to include discussion of the proposal, though no additional public testimony will be taken. The LPC may receive written comments in advance.
The Merchant's House, built in 1832 and designated a New York City landmark in 1965, has long raised concerns about construction on the neighboring property. The museum's exterior and interior are both landmarked, including its original ornamental plasterwork.
Village Preservation, which opposes the proposal, said the museum's experts believe construction next door could cause "extensive and irreversible damage" to the building despite safeguards proposed for the project.
For the past 15-plus years, Kalodop II Park Corp. has been trying to build a new development on the site of a one-level garage that stores food carts.
The developers need approval of a zoning text amendment and special permits to proceed with the project. In February, Community Board 2's Landmarks Committee disapproved the plan.
Preservationists and museum officials have argued that excavation, vibrations and other construction activity could threaten the historic structure.
Potenza Centrale has closed on Avenue B
Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
Potenza Centrale has closed at 38 Avenue B near Third Street after nearly three years in business.
Owner Luigi Iasilli confirmed the closure on Thursday.
He didn't offer a specific reason for closing and seemed philosophical about the decision, essentially saying it was time. He also said he's doing well.
Iasilli opened Potenza Centrale in November 2023, marking his return to Avenue B a decade after his well-liked Max restaurant closed at 51 Avenue B.
Named for the Southern Italian town where Iasilli was born and raised, Potenza Centrale specialized in square slices made with highly hydrated dough that underwent a lengthy fermentation process. The small shop also offered focaccia, housemade mozzarella and sauce, among other items.
When we first spoke with Iasilli about the project in September 2023, he described his return to Avenue B as "coming full circle."
And now that circle has come to a close...
Sunday, September 27, 2026
EV Grieve's East Village Week in Review
Posts this past week included (with a sign of fall at Tompkins via Stacie Joy)
• Line tensions boil over: East Village bookseller Bonnie Slotnick arrested outside Harry Styles pop-up on 2nd Street (Sept. 20) … Checking in with Bonnie Slotnick after Friday's arrest (Sept. 21) … East Village business owners discuss life alongside the Harry Styles pop-up (Sept. 23)
• Full power restored at the 9th Precinct (Sept. 22)
• The Starbucks on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place closes permanently (Sept. 25)
• Another Key Food is coming to the East Village (Sept. 23)
• Inside the inaugural Anti-Anemoia Festival at Webster Hall (Sept. 25)
• Fundraiser aims to help restore former CHARAS/El Bohio (Sept. 25)
• 16 Handles turns up the volume on its Fillmore East roots (Sept. 25)
• Revisiting Out and About in the East Village (Sept. 24)
• A novel approach to cocktails at Book Club Bar (Sept. 24)
• 20 years of the NYC Anarchist Book Fair on display at C-Squat (Sept. 22)
• New murals for Avenue A (Sept. 21) … "Loisaida Walls" ready to paint the Con Ed substation (Sept. 26)
• We shared the new Rebounder video (Sept. 25)
• Signage alert: Shawarma Central on Houston and Orchard (Sept. 22) … Masala East Village on 1st Avenue (Sept. 23) … Kéra on 2nd Avenue (Sept. 22)
• Holy Cow closes on 14th and B (Sept. 23)
• Down a dollar pizza joint on Avenue A (Sept. 22)
• Friday's sunset! (Sept. 25)
... and one more Friday sunset... from East River Park, courtesy of Kyle de Vre...
Happy 40th to Pangea
Pangea, the restaurant, bar and performance space at 178 Second Ave. between 11th Street and 12th Street, is marking its 40th anniversary on Tuesday. The festivities run from 6 to 10 p.m.
Forty years is an impressive run anywhere in New York City — and particularly in a neighborhood where longtime independent establishments continue to disappear.
Through the decades, Pangea has remained a wonderfully old-school East Village place: somewhere to have dinner or a drink ... or catch live music or cabaret. The venue still makes room for live music and alternative performers in its cabaret room and front lounge.
It's also the kind of neighborhood place worth embracing while it's still here — not just remembering after it's gone.
So, happy 40th to Pangea. Here's to many more.
Some history.
Saturday, September 26, 2026
No Tompkins Square Greenmarket tomorrow
‘Loisaida Walls’ ready to paint the Con Ed substation
Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
As we've documented through the years, the brick walls of the Con Edison substation along Avenue A have long served as a canvas for various tags and squiggles.
A more organized artistic treatment will have to wait another week.
Today's planned community painting day has been postponed because of the nor'easter and is now scheduled for next Saturday, Oct. 3, from noon to 5 p.m.
ArtBridge is bringing 10 street artists to the substation along Avenue A between Fifth Street and Sixth Street for "Loisaida Walls," a project paying homage to the East Village and Lower East Side's role in street art history and development.
The participating artists are TOOFLY, Andre Trenier, Indie184, Chino BYI, Cekis, Hiphopismyreligion, Jappy Agoncillo, Minha Fofa, Optimo NYC and Ski Mystress Therapy.
Each artist will work on a section of the Con Ed walls measuring roughly 25 feet by 10 feet. Several are already in progress...
ArtBridge, a nonprofit that produces public art projects across the five boroughs, is organizing the project, which is sponsored by Con Edison.
Nor'easter weekend
Photo by Cecil Scheib
From last evening... when the sunset seemed to throw a little bit of everything into the mix.
And as you likely know, a nor'easter is expected to bring heavy rain, strong winds and coastal flooding to the area this weekend.
Per Accuweather:
Conditions around New York City, much of the upper mid-Atlantic and southern New England regions will fluctuate during the storm, and there is the potential of becoming complacent. Because of tidal cycles, coastal flooding will vary from hour to hour. However, where winds flip more to the east later Saturday night to Sunday, water levels could surge to their highest levels of the entire storm...
FYI...
If you had an outdoor event planned, assume it was canceled... for instance: All Harvest Arts Festival events scheduled for today and tomorrow are canceled, with some activities being moved to next weekend. The CBGB Festival at Under The K Bridge Park was canceled today (payback to Morrissey?). The Anarchist Book Fair set for La Plaza is now headed to Brooklyn.NYC may experience wind gusts of 40-55 mph on 9/26 & 9/27. Winds can cause downed trees, along with power outages. Report locations of downed trees at https://t.co/2UtfUH5Qdi or call 3-1-1. To report power outages, call 1-800-75-CONED (26633), or if you have a speech or hearing…
— NYCEM - Notify NYC (@NotifyNYC) September 26, 2026
On the plus side, you no longer have to decide which outdoor event to attend.
Friday, September 25, 2026
Rebounder gets down with 'Downtown People'
Rebounder is looking downtown for its first full-length album.
The NYC band has announced Downtown People, a collection of songs about downtown life, romance and what the group describes as "overt gentrification."
The album's first single and title track, "Downtown People," is out now, along with a music video filmed around the city.
Rebounder will celebrate the release of Downtown People with a show at Night Club 101, 101 Avenue A, on Nov. 6, the day the album arrives.
Inside the inaugural Anti-Anemoia Festival at Webster Hall
Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
Backstage at Webster Hall Saturday night, the members of PMFD were loose, joking around and seemingly unfazed by the fact that they were about to play the largest venue of their career.
The local band was one of four unsigned independent acts selected for the inaugural Anti-Anemoia Festival on Sept. 19, joining the Rote, Figure of Fun and Slorec0re for a night that festival founder Paul Fitzgerald had been imagining for more than a year.
For Fitzgerald, though, the idea goes back much further.
Before starting his career in hospitality, he organized an outdoor concert in Queens for several summers roughly 30 years ago.
Over time, he said, putting on another music event began to feel like "unfinished business."
"The Lower East Side has always been my playground," said Fitzgerald, who lives on MacDougal Street. "I have zero musical skills and [am] simply a fan of alternative music. I love seeing up-and-coming raw bands. From my punk days to the present, the Lower East Side supplies the energy I crave."
In early 2025, he began working on a festival that would give unsigned bands the opportunity to play a larger venue — and compensate them for doing so.
By September, Fitzgerald was ready to commit to a venue. He considered Webster Hall and Irving Plaza, two venues where he'd seen many shows over the years, before ultimately choosing Webster Hall on 11th Street between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue.
The festival team came together along the way. Fitzgerald met photographer Will Case at a show at Night Club 101 on Avenue A. Case initially came aboard to create the website and Instagram presence and eventually became Fitzgerald's collaborating partner on the project.
Then there was a chance encounter in Tompkins Square Park. Fitzgerald was approached by two women — one offered to sketch him while the other wrote him a poem. He gave them a flyer about his search for a twentysomething content creator for the festival. A few days later, Viv submitted a video and landed the role.
"That is how our small but mighty team was created," Fitzgerald said.
Finding the bands required considerably more work.
Fitzgerald listened to 187 acts that submitted for consideration and narrowed the field to 10. The team saw those finalists in the studio and in concert before choosing PMFD, the Rote, Figure of Fun and Slorec0re.
"It's hard to say why these four bands were chosen over the other 183," Fitzgerald said. "I can only say they were judged through the eyes/ears of a music fan and not a music executive."
For Saturday's show, PMFD — Tim Seeberger on guitar and vocals, Carmen Esperanza on bass and vocals, Nicole Harwayne on guitar and Krish Pitaccio on drums, filling in for Violette Grim — played last.
As always, the EVG faves played a high-energy set that showcased their punk fury.
Fitzgerald said he has long felt that way about the bands of the 1960s and '70s.
He originally wanted to call the event Anemoia Festival, but discovered a festival in Europe was already using the name. Adding "Anti" not only distinguished his event but gave the name another meaning.
For Fitzgerald, Anti-Anemoia became about "living in and appreciating the moment" — creating an experience now rather than wishing you had been around for one in the past.
Or, as he put it, "celebrating one unforgettable show that people could someday look back on with anemoia of their own."
Whether there will be another one remains to be seen. Fitzgerald and Case planned to meet this week to go over the inaugural edition before deciding what's next.
For now, Fitzgerald said, "I'm super proud of the bands and everything we accomplished to get to Webster Hall."
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