A campaign to landmark the building that housed A Gathering of Tribes on 3rd Street

Steve Cannon founded A Gathering of Tribes at 285 E. Third St. between Avenues C and D in 1991. Through the years, A Gathering of the Tribes evolved into a salon of sorts in Cannon's apartment for artists to meet and exchange ideas.

There's now a campaign to landmark the federal-style building that housed the arts and cultural organization. 

Here's more via the Gathering of Tribes website:

The Landmarks Preservation Commission recently made a commitment to "ensure diversity and inclusion in historical landmark designations, to make sure that we are telling the stories of all New Yorkers." 

Let’s hold them to it. Currently, the vast majority of historical landmarks in NYC honor the accomplishments of white, cis/het men from affluent backgrounds. 

Landmarking A Gathering of the Tribes would honor Steve Cannon’s legacy of radical inclusion, and protect a space that served as a second home and one-of-a-kind creative hub to countless diverse, revolutionary NYC artists for decades. Landmark status would protect this already historic building from demolition now, and in the future.

The organization, with the help of Village Preservation, is collecting letters of support for the landmarking through this Wednesday. (A previous effort to landmark the building was not successful in 2011.) This link has a sample letter and info about where to send a letter.

Cannon, a blind poet, playwright, and novelist, was evicted from the building following a lengthy legal battle in April 2014. Cannon died in July 2019 at age 84. 

A Gathering of Tribes continues on today, providing "a platform for diverse, traditionally under-represented artists and writers, amplifying the emerging and established revolutionary voices of our time." 

Image via

RIP Steve Cannon

[Image via Facebook]

Update: A gathering to remember Steve Cannon and collectively mourn his loss is set for Sunday, July 14 at the Bowery Poetry Club from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Steve Cannon, a local cultural icon who founded the East Village-based A Gathering of the Tribes, died this past weekend. He was 84. A cause of death was not immediately known.

Cannon, who was born in New Orleans in 1935, had been recovering at the VillageCare Rehabilitation and Nursing Center on West Houston Street for a broken hip, according to The Villager.

In 1991, Cannon founded A Gathering Of The Tribes as an arts and cultural organization "dedicated to excellence in the arts from a diverse perspective." It started as a print magazine at the time that he lost his eyesight to glaucoma. Through the years, A Gathering of the Tribes evolved into a salon of sorts in Cannon's East Third Street apartment for artists to meet and exchange ideas.

As The New York Times Style Magazine described it in a February 2018 feature: "It was a living monument to Lower Manhattan’s lineage of multicultural artists and thinkers — people who often get overlooked in favor of narratives of and by successive generations of self-destructing, gentrifying white bohemians — but it was also an all-hours open house, where all were welcome (even the gentrifying white bohemians) and an essential site of Lower Manhattan’s last gasp as the center of the avant-garde."

Here's more on Cannon from that Times piece:

Cannon ... came to New York in 1962, and even before he founded Tribes, he played such a role in New York’s counterculture that he has become a kind of oracular figure to those who have encountered him. In the early ’60s, he convened informal discussions about music and literature with writers like [writer David] Henderson and [his friend Ishmael] Reed and other members of Umbra.

In the 1970s, Cannon ran a publishing house with Reed and the poet Joe Johnson that was one of the first independent presses to focus on multicultural literature. The painter Gerald Jackson once saved him from drowning in the Hudson River. Sun Ra used to seek him out to tell stories about flying around in space. (“If he says he flew into space, then I guess he flew into space,” Cannon says.) He helped integrate the public university school system in New York by becoming an early faculty member at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, where he taught humanities. The composer Butch Morris refined his ideas of improvised music in his living room.

After a lengthy legal battle with his landlord, Cannon moved out of his longtime Third Street home in 2014, relocating to East Sixth Street.

Cannon's friends and followers have been leaving tributes these past 48 hours...

View this post on Instagram

Steve Cannon R.I.P😎🙏🏽🕊 I remember him always sitting at the corner of the bar at the NuyoricanPoets Cafe smoking a cigarette, long ash refusing to drop. A young poet prepares to take the stage to read/slam/spit his/her poem...but first begins to explain what the poem is about. Steve, the blind ogre with a heart of gold yells out from his sacred corner of the bar "Read the goddamn poem!" He seemed mean but he made us (me) better, made us (me) sharper less afraid to take the stage and just "read the goddamn poem" without apology or explanation. He loved us poets. He toughened us. He is gone. There are more stories more memories... more than more, much more. This is just one of the so many more that popped in my mind. For you Steve I will READ THE GODDAMN POEM #stevecannon #nuyoricalpoetscafe #tribes #blackpoet #apoetsangel #readthedamnpoem

A post shared by Liza Jessie Peterson (@lizajessiepeterson) on Jul 7, 2019 at 9:14am PDT

View this post on Instagram

we love you madly Steve Cannon. Poet. Professor. cultural leader. Gatherer of souls. you did everything imaginable for artists and for our city. you showed us that Magic was still here, despite the new york changes, showing us what yesterday was Like and what today could be. your Space fostered countless new relationships, visions, creations. I found my way to the Tribes doorstep as a wandering 18 year old artist looking for something real.. it changed and illuminated everything. we Honor you by the continuation of generations that Thrived because of your selfless work and your love. we love you madly madly madly. (photographs © No Land, one by @chavisawoods and one by Gaia squarci) @a_gathering_of_the_tribes @bobholman @illybeats #stevecannon #gatheringofthetribes #tribesgallery #umbrapoets #lowereastsidenyc

A post shared by No Land (@nolandtapes) on Jul 7, 2019 at 9:44am PDT

We'll update the post when more details are available, including news of a memorial.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Musical interludes: Steve Cannon plays piano at Tribes Gallery

A Gathering of Tribes faces an uncertain future on East Third Street

A Gathering of Tribes 'faces the end of its time'

Efforts to save A Gathering of Tribes have not been successful.

Steve Cannon, the blind poet who founded Tribes in 1991, sent out an appeal in early March looking for a donor to buy the building that the arts and cultural organization has called home at 285 E. Third St. between Avenues C and D.

On Monday, the following notice went out in its newsletter:

In case you haven't been informed — Tribes faces the end of its time. Steve Cannon will be moving out on April 15 to a new apartment just around the corner.

Although, Tribes shows, poetry reading, open mics, etc., will not continue. We will still have our website, reviews, literary journal and fly by night press for publishing books.

Cannon confirmed the news in an email yesterday afternoon. "Yes, unfortunately this is it for Tribes."

Cannon and Tribes have been locked in a lengthy battle with building owner Lorraine Zhang now for the past three years, including various court appearances and eviction notices.

He bought the building in 1970 for $35,000. As The Villager reported on March 20, "Cannon fell into debt trying to sustain Tribes and maintain the dilapidated building. … Frustrated with trying to play landlord as a blind man, Cannon sold the building to Zhang in 2004, with an agreement that he be able to continue living there, and holding 'non-for-profit' [sic] arts activities in his apartment and the back garden for another 10 years."

Zhang purchased the building from Cannon for $950,000. She is currently asking $3.35 million.

Despite the closure, Cannon promises to be a high-profile figure in the weeks and months ahead. There's a benefit in his honor on April 23 at The Nuyorican Poets Cafe. Cannon will also be 2014's poet laureate of the Lower East Side during the Howl! Festival.


[Cannon via Facebook]

Previously on EV Grieve:
A Gathering of Tribes faces an uncertain future on East Third Street

Facing eviction, A Gathering of Tribes looks for a donor to purchase its East 3rd Street home

Facing eviction, A Gathering of Tribes looks for a donor to purchase its East 3rd Street home

Facing an April 15 eviction, supporters of A Gathering of Tribes, 285 E. Third St. between Avenues C and D, are reaching out to find someone to help save the embattled 23-year-old arts and cultural organization. The following letter from Steve Cannon, the blind poet who founded Tribes in 1991, is making the rounds on Facebook:

As you may already know, our landlord Lorraine Zhang has put 285 E. 3rd St. on the market, and has taken Steve Cannon to court for what she asserts is an unlawful use of the premises. As a result, we are now subject to a legally binding agreement to leave by April 15.

Zhang purchased the building from Cannon in 2004 for $950,000. She is currently asking $3.35 million — an amount which we believe exceeds the value of the property.

We are reaching out to you now with an urgent appeal to avert the displacement of Cannon and the dissolution of this internationally recognized arts space.

A Gathering of the Tribes was founded in 1990 here at 285 E. 3rd Street. We are a 501 C3 and have received funding support from the New York State Council of the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Jerome Foundation, Andy Warhol Foundation, Bloomberg LP, as well as an abundance of private donors.

Our literary magazine, which is published annually, is distributed to museums, schools and libraries worldwide. Our gallery space showcases both seasoned and emerging artists from across the US, as well as Russia, India, China, Africa and beyond. We host an average of 10 exhibitions per year, in addition to the annual Charlie Parker Festival in August. Fly By Night Press, our publishing arm, publishes poetry by writers from diverse backgrounds. Tribes also sponsors and hosts music and dance performances, poetry readings, lectures, forums, open mic’s, and other happenings. We have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, literary magazines, art journals and numerous local and international publications.

Because we’ve been established for close to 25 years and have made the East Village our home, we would like to continue to operate here and offer a base of support and community for artists in our neighborhood.

This is why we need your help. Tribes is in search of a benevolent donor to purchase this property on behalf of our 501 C3. We plan on continuing and expanding our activities on the second floor as described above (gallery, poetry and performance salon, publishing magazine bi-annually, as well as 2 to 4 books per year). And we would like to convert the rest of the building to residences for poets, writers, musicians, and artists of all stripes. Our plan is to partner with foundations, schools or other institutions that can provide stipends to artists to reside here for 3-6 months, up to 1 year periods of time. We will continue offering internships through local universities to young artists, who can get involved in our programming and be mentored by the artists we house.

In order to manage such an operation, we would expand our staff to include at minimum a full-time office manager, grant writer, program coordinator, online editor and maintenance staff.

[The cost of running this building is relatively low. Fuel is approx. $10,000 per year (heat and hot water), insurance is approx. $5,000 per year, and real estate taxes are just $3620 per year. That’s a total of $18,620 annually.]

There are many possibilities for how Tribes can thrive and grow—including leasing floors to groups that could fund such artist residences. We are open to any and all kinds of creative financing. At this point what we need is to secure the building.

If you are interested in buying the building or donating to a fund to purchase the building, please get in touch. We have exhausted our legal appeals, so we either need to find someone(s) to purchase the property or get out.

This year, the HOWL! Festival will honor Steve Cannon by naming him the poet laureate of the Lower East Side. There is even now a Two Boots pizza named after A Gathering of the Tribes.

It would be a tragedy to lose our space in spite of such ongoing recognition of the services we provide as an arts incubator on the Lower East Side. We are one of last places left that nurtures young aspiring artists in all disciplines. Please help, or help pass the word. SAVE TRIBES!

Thank you for your careful consideration of this matter. If you would like further information about the property or any details of our legal situation, please do not hesitate to call.

Sincerely,

Steve Cannon
Director, A Gathering of the Tribes aka the Blind Guy

You may find contact info here.

Cannon and Tribes have been locked in a lengthy battle with Zhang now for the past three years, including various court appearances and eviction notices. For more background on the situation here, you can read this article by Colin Moynihan at the Times from March 2011 … as well as The Local in May 2012.

Previously on EV Grieve:
A Gathering of Tribes faces an uncertain future on East Third Street

Musical interludes: Steve Cannon plays piano at Tribes Gallery

Love the ending. Video by Jim Flynn. Learn more about Steve Cannon and A Gathering of the Tribes on East Third Street here.

A Gathering of the Tribes starts its annual Charlie Parker Festival tonight

[Click on image to enlarge]

Check out the website for more details.

Meanwhile, the East Village portion of the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival is Sunday, Aug. 26. More details to follow...

A Gathering of Tribes faces an uncertain future on East Third Street

Colin Moynihan at the Times reports on what could be the end of A Gathering of Tribes on East Third Street. The building that has housed the arts and cultural organization at 285 E. Third St. between Avenues C and D is on the market for $2.995 million.



Per the article:

The news sent shudders through generations of poets, artists, musicians and others, who felt a strong sense of devotion to A Gathering of the Tribes, a gallery and salon in the building, and to [Steve] Cannon. A former humanities professor, who taught for 25 years at city university campuses including Hunter College in Manhattan and Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, Mr. Cannon decided in 1991 to turn the building, which he had bought for $35,000 in 1970, into a salon and open house where practically everybody was welcome.

Per the listing at Marcus & Millichap:

INVESTMENT HIGHLIGHT
• Four Free Market Floor-Through Two Bedroom Apartment
• Approximately 3,000 Square Fee
• 22 Feet of Frontage on East 3rd Street Between Avenue C and Avenue
• Possible Conversion into a Single Family Townhouse
• 1,100 Square Foot Garden Located Behind the Building

Cannon sold the three-story federal-style townhouse to its present owner — Lorraine Zhang — in 2004 believing that he would be able to occupy the second floor for at least a decade.

Meanwhile, according to the article:

"Mr. Cannon said he was exploring whether he had any legal recourse to oppose the sale in court. At the same time, he said, he would reach out to friends and arts patrons to see whether any of them might be interested in buying the building and turning it into an artists’ residence and cultural center."