Showing posts with label RIP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RIP. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 27, 2024

RIP Hettie Jones

Hettie Jones, an acclaimed poet, publisher, teacher, activist, and decades-long East Village resident, died on Aug. 13. She was 90.

A native New Yorker who grew up in Queens, Jones wrote 23 books, including three volumes of poetry and a memoir of the Beat Generation, as well as books for children and young adults, including "The Trees Stand Shining" and "Big Star Fallin’ Mama: Five Women in Black Music."

She was connected with the Beat poets, actively involved in social justice, and taught poetry and writing at New York University, The New School, Parsons School of Design, and other institutions.

PEN America, where Jones was a longtime member, shared details about her life
In the 1950s, she married the poet LeRoi Jones, who later changed his name to become the Black power nationalist Amiri Baraka. Hettie Jones spoke and wrote about the bigotry and antisemitism she faced at that time, both as a Jewish woman and a white woman married to a Black man. 

In 1957, the couple founded a literary magazine, Yugen, and the Totem Press, which published works by legendary Beat writers, including Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and Williams S. Burroughs.

Later divorced, they had two daughters: Kellie Jones, a professor of art, archaeology and African American studies at Columbia University, and Lisa Jones Brown, a writer on staff at The Village Voice for 15 years. 

The family had lived at 27 Cooper Square since the early 1960s and the heyday of the Beats. 

Village Preservation has more about her fight to save her longtime home between Fifth Street and Sixth Street, where she lived for nearly six decades:

In 2007, when a hotel developer announced plans to build the 22-story Cooper Square Hotel, it looked like the 1844 Greek Revival house at 27 Cooper Square would be demolished. The four-story building that currently stands on this lot is of unknown origins. However, clues from a tax assessment records and historic maps indicate it might have been constructed between 1843 and 1845, as two narrow houses with ground-floor shops.

Given Hettie's petite size, it would be easy to call her successful effort to save the structure a David-and-Goliath triumph, but that would diminish her accomplishment. Remarkably, her gentle but persuasive stress on the building's age and artistic heritage convinced the hotel's owners. They opted to spare the building and simply utilize the structure's lower two floors for corporate headquarters. Hettie also convinced the hotel to reinstall the vintage stained glass window above the entrance door, which had been removed long before.
You can read more about her extraordinary life at The Associated Press and The New York Times.

Wednesday, August 21, 2024

Remembering Harold Meltzer

Photos and text by Stacie Joy 

I'm not much for imparting personal information here on EV Grieve, but occasionally, something happens that I'm comfortable with — or feel compelled to try — sharing.  

A local family, the Meltzers, have been quietly supporting the community for years through words and deeds, and I am grateful to have them as friends. Hilary, whom I met through yoga, a lawyer working for the City of New York, her husband Harold, a world-renowned composer, and their two children, Julia and Elijah. All are community-oriented, quietly donating to help our newest neighbors, those in need, and those who are hungry or in need of comfort. 

For the past six years, Harold has been fighting a progressive disease that has resulted in a series of strokes and the increasing loss of mobility, all the while keeping up his good humor (or bad dad jokes, as Elijah and Julia might say). 

Sadly, this week, the disease got the better of him. Hilary messaged me over the weekend that sepsis had set in, and the doctors didn't think he'd survive the night — and they were right.

He died on Monday morning, Aug. 12. He was 58.

I'm grateful to have known him, to have heard his truly awful jokes, to enjoy his complicated music, and to have discussed literature and travel with him. Before my first trip to Rome, he carefully prepared a list of must-see places for me and had plenty of time to discuss gelato and the best basilicas with me. 

At the packed funeral (a testament to how loved he was), Hilary spoke movingly about the difference between suffering and misery, between victim and victimhood. I often wonder if I'd have the grace he had as the disease robbed him of his ability to walk and use his extremities, if I would have the good humor to smile and roll out in an electric wheelchair for a midday cappuccino.
I know there are more formal obituaries for him, like at The New York Times. However, I'd like to say that I'm grateful to have met Harold and will miss him now that he's gone.

Sunday, July 7, 2024

East Village McDonald's pays tribute to 2 victims from suspected DUI collision in Corlears Hook Park during July 4 celebration

Residents who live around Corlears Hook Park on the Lower East Side are reeling from the tragedy that unfolded on the evening of July 4 when an alleged drunken driver plowed into a group celebrating the holiday, killing three people and injuring at least eight others. 

There's a makeshift memorial with balloons, candles and flowers at the McDonald's on 14th Street at First Avenue for two of the victims, Lucille Pinkney, 59, and her son, Herman Pinkney, 38.

"Lucille had worked for many years at the McDonald's on 14th Street and First Avenue and was the sweetest person," said Tom Hickey, who shared the photos here. "[She was] always greeting patrons with a smile and remembering their orders and things like that. Lovely, lovely woman." 
Authorities identified the other victim as Ana Morel, 43, of East Harlem. 

Police said that a Ford F-150 came traveling "at a high rate of speed" shortly before 9 p.m., went through an intersection and past a stop sign, then drove onto the sidewalk and into Corlears Hook Park. 

The driver, Daniel Hyden, 44, a substance abuse counselor in New Jersey, was arrested on charges including aggravated vehicular homicide, eight counts of assault for recklessly causing serious injury with a weapon, driving while intoxicated, and aggravated unlicensed driving, police said.

This afternoon, local elected officials helped organize a prayer vigil at Corlears Hook Park. Rev. Dr. Marc Rivera will lead the service, which starts at 4 p.m.
CBS 2 ... PIX 11 ... and the Post are among the outlets with comments from the victims' loved ones, including 29-year-old Diamond Pinkney who lived a block away in the Vladeck Houses with his mom and brother.

Wednesday, July 3, 2024

RIP Anton van Dalen

Photo by Anthony Lindsey from the documentary, "Anton: Circling Home"

Longtime East Village-based artist Anton van Dalen passed away in his home on June 25. He was 86.

P·P·O·W, the gallery that had represented him over the years, announced that he died of natural causes in his sleep. 

Some background on his life and work:
Van Dalen was born in Amstelveen, Holland, in 1938 to a conservative Calvinist family during World War II. He began rearing pigeons at 12, seeking solace in the companionship of a community outside the instability around him. 

Enraptured by the magic of their flight, van Dalen saw his own migration journey, from Holland to Canada and ultimately to the United States, reflected in the migratory nature of the birds.

After arriving in New York's Lower East Side in 1966, before ultimately settling in the East Village, van Dalen served as witness, storyteller, and documentarian of the dramatic cultural shifts in the neighborhood.

While active in the alternative art scene in the East Village during the 1980s, van Dalen began his career as a graphic designer. Working as a studio assistant to Saul Steinberg for over 30 years, van Dalen learned the stylization and design aesthetics that would ultimately ground the visual language he used to discuss the culture around him.

Van Dalen became known for his Night Street Drawings (1975–77), a monochrome series of graphite drawings documenting the surrounding Lower East Side with tenderness and empathy, including vignettes of car wrecks, sex workers, crumbling buildings, and more.

As poet and critic John Yau wrote, all of van Dalen's work arose "out of a meticulous draftsmanship in service of an idiosyncratic imagination merged with civic-mindedness."
Van Dalen lived at 166 Avenue A — the PEACE house — between 10th Street and 11th Street since 1971. He documented the changes there in this post for EVG. 

His flock of snow-white pigeons from his rooftop loft were a common site in the nearby skies. (Photo from 2015 by Grant Shaffer.)
We had the great pleasure of meeting van Dalen several times, first over a dinner at Odessa. We appreciated his kind, thoughtful manner and deep affinity for the East Village. He shared several dispatches with us over the years (see the end of this post for a selection). 

Van Dalen was especially upset about the 2013 demolition of the Mary Help of Christians church, school, and rectory on Avenue A between 11th Street and 12th Street, which made way for the block-long Steiner East Village condoplex. 

He shared this photo and sketch for a post in August 2013.
The  neighborhood's transformation was a common theme in his work, as seen in his one-man performance piece "Avenue A Cutout Theatre," which featured "a portable model of his house, which he uses as a staging ground for telling the story of the evolution of the East Village."
He first performed the Avenue A Cut-Out Theatre in 1995 at the University Settlement House on the Lower East Side. The performance has been shown at numerous institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art and The New York Historical Society. 

As he wrote in a post for EVG in October 2020: 
I consider myself a documentarian of the East Village, yet I am a participant and spectator to its evolution. Began documenting my street surroundings in 1975, urged on by wanting to note and remember these lives. Came to realize I had to embrace wholeheartedly, with pencil in hand, my streets with its raw emotions.
Van Dalen is survived by his older brother, Leen van Dalen; his two children, Marinda and Jason; their spouses, René van Haaften and Ali Villagra; and three grandchildren, Cleo, Aster, and Diego.

P·P·O·W said that memorial service announcements will be forthcoming.

Previously on EV Grieve







Wednesday, June 19, 2024

RIP James Chance


The following first appeared yesterday on the James Chance Official Website...

James Chance, the singer, saxophonist, bandleader and composer who in the late 1970s emerged from New York’s "No Wave" scene to embody the genre known as "punk funk," died today [June 18] at the Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center in New York. 

His death was announced by his brother David Siegfried of Chicago, who did not specify a cause of death but noted that the musician's health had been in decline for several years

James Alan Siegfried was born April 20, 1953, in Milwaukee, Wis. He began playing piano under the tutelage of nuns at his Catholic elementary school and took up alto saxophone at age 18.

... He moved to New York in 1975 and began using the name James Chance. He formed a quartet called Flaming Youth before joining No Wave progenitors Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, featuring singer, guitarist, and lyricist Lydia Lunch. (Recordings by this lineup were issued by ZE Records in 1979 as an EP, Pre Teenage Jesus And The Jerks.) 

In 1977, after a period of study with saxophonist David Murray, James formed the first version of the Contortions with guitarists Jody Harris and Pat Place, bassist George Scott III (deceased), drummer Don Christiansen, and keyboards player/vocalist Adele Bertei. 

Reviewing a May 1978 performance by the Contortions at Artists Space in Lower Manhattan, Roy Trakin wrote in New York Rocker magazine: "Mr. Chance immediately established his personal space at the top of his performance by kicking out all those artist types sitting crosslegged within about a six-foot radius of his band, as he snarled and smirked with unmerciful obnoxiousness. The band, meanwhile, lay down a thick mixture of semi-syncopated, twisted swirls of sound, creating a tension of unfinished beats and incomplete rhythms." 

Initially, the naturally shy and introverted frontman became known as much for his on-stage aggression as for his music. 

In 1979, an altered Contortions lineup (minus Adele Bertei and with David Hofstra on bass) released the debut album Buy on ZE Records. In the same year, ZE released "Off White" by James White and the Blacks, and the musician would toggle between these two appellations for the remainder of his career. 

"James was the first artist I signed and provided the blueprint for future ZE Records," says label founder Michael Zilkha. “I was seeking a fusion of disco and punk, and James was too. Once he transformed the Contortions into the slower and slinkier James White and the Blacks, it paved the way for my other bands and a slew of contemporaries. James was serious and devoted to his craft and a brilliant and original musician. It was an honor to work with him, and I will miss him greatly."

The Contortions' breakup was accompanied by acrimony over issues of credit and compensation. But any hard feelings would dissipate with time and James' occasional reunions with the former members. 

Beginning in 2003, James reunited with original members of the Contortions to perform a series of engagements, including two performances at the All Tomorrow’s Parties music festival in Los Angeles. James later reunited with friends Deborah Harry and Chris Stein for several guest appearances with Blondie, and he continued to tour internationally with several groups, including the French "Le Contortions," until 2019. 

His final live performance is believed to have taken place in March 2019 in Utrecht, The Netherlands. 

Guitarist Pat Place of the Bush Tetras writes: "I'm so sad to hear of James’ passing. Working with him in the early days of the Contortions was a roller coaster ride of fun, creativity and insanity. His loss is a great one for the downtown community and the music world."

Although James Chance recorded prolifically over three decades, releasing 20 albums during his 40-year career, only the ZE and ROIR labels issued more than one album of his music. Other releases appeared on small independent labels such as Invisible (Live Aux Bains Douches, 1980), Enemy (Molotov Cocktail Lounge, 1996), and True Groove (The Flesh Is Weak, 2016). 

 From 1979, here's a live version of "Contort Yourself" ...

 

Wednesday, May 8, 2024

Remembering Frank Stella

As you may have read, Frank Stella, the renowned painter, sculptor and printmaker, died on Saturday at the age of 87. 

Many tributes have been paid to Stella, whom CBS News called "a towering figure in post-war American art." 

Per NPR: "One of the most influential American artists of his time, Stella was a pioneer of the minimalist movement of the early 1960s. During that time, painters and sculptors challenged the idea that art was meant to be representative and used their medium as their message." 

Other selected tributes include Artforum ... and The New Yorker.

From 1978 to 2005, 128 E. 13th St. between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue served as Stella's studio, where he reportedly created many of his most renowned works. 

In November 2021, Village Preservation unveiled a plaque on the space in a virtual ceremony with Stella and Whitney Museum Director Adam Weinberg.
The building, erected in 1903, is believed to be the last surviving horse and carriage auction mart in NYC. In 2006, Village Preservation helped prevent it from becoming a seven-level condo.

The Peridance Center now leases a dance studio here.

Wednesday, April 10, 2024

RIP Debby Lee Cohen

Photo courtesy of Cafeteria Culture

Longtime East Village resident Debby Lee Cohen, an artist, activist and teacher, died on Sunday, according to Cafeteria Culture, where she served as the executive director. She was 64.

Here's more about Cohen from a message about her passing from Cafeteria Culture, the nonprofit that she started in 2009: 
Debby Lee founded Cafeteria Culture as a concerned parent of public school students. After her younger daughter announced that she didn't want to eat school food anymore because styrofoam trays were "killing the polar bears," Debby Lee started working to eliminate styrofoam from New York City Public School cafeterias. 

Always a uniter but never afraid to push boundaries, Debby Lee advocated with constant pressure on decision-makers to eliminate foam trays in school cafeterias and didn't stop until her mission was accomplished. This grassroots victory eliminated over half a billion plastic foam trays per year from student meals, landfills, and incinerators in New York City and now 18 other cities across the U.S. 

Debby Lee's public school work to drive change forward has a tremendous and lasting impact on our world far beyond the city. Her dream to achieve equitable zero waste has fueled the continued work of Cafeteria Culture and paved the way for New York City's 2019 and New York State's 2022 foam bans. We owe much to Debby Lee's sheer determination to tackle this problem that at the outset, most people thought was impossible to accomplish. 

Debby Lee centered our students throughout these victories. Whether she was teaching them to build giant foam monster puppets or to create their own stop-motion animation projects, she shared her creative gifts to support students in telling their own stories. These principles continue to guide our teaching today to support Cafeteria Culture students as they continue to advocate for environmental justice and possibility. 
Cohen and her family lived at 310 E. 12th and 305 E. 11th St., two buildings bought by a private equity firm in August 2022. Since then, there have been reports of significant rent increases, evictions and alleged apartment warehousing at the buildings. 

"Debby Lee was a life force for our building and the housing justice we were fighting for. That advocacy and passion came from her broader, impactful life's work which included her Cafeteria Culture foundation, and expanded across all levels of environmental justice causes," her friend and neighbor Artie Athas told EVG. "She was my dear neighbor, our dear friend, and a passionate voice across causes that impacted us all." 

Cohen's family plans to hold a celebration of her life sometime next year. 

In lieu of flowers, friends may make a donation to Cafeteria Culture here.

Saturday, March 30, 2024

Remembering Tim Lomas

Photo by Stacie Joy 

There's a small memorial on Avenue B near Fourth Street and Fifth Street where East Village resident Tim Lomas lived for over 40 years.

Lomas, an artist, musician, teacher and photographer, died in February 2023. Read more about his life here

Kent Wang and Tim's many friends (aka The Irrational Lovelies) were responsible for the sign... and they vow to maintain it. TY EiLeen Doster.

Saturday, February 24, 2024

RIP Flaco

Photo from November on the LES by @Vinweasel_

Sad news from the Upper West Side last evening.

Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl who escaped from New York City's Central Park Zoo and became one of the city's most beloved celebrities as he flew around Manhattan, has died, zoo officials announced Friday. 

A little over one year after he was freed from his cage at the zoo in a criminal act that has yet to be solved, Flaco appears to have collided with an Upper West Side building, the zoo said in a statement. 
Flaco was 13.

This past November, Flaco — the only Eurasian eagle-owl in the wild in North America — spent eight days in the East Village and Lower East Side.

Flaco was first spotted in the East Village on Nov. 6 at the Kenkeleba House Garden off Avenue B and Third Street. He was seen multiple times over the next few days here and on the Lower East Side... inspiring some we've-been-there-too poetry and silly headlines.

And among the many remembrances on X...

Tuesday, February 6, 2024

RIP Merle Ratner

Photo from 2017 by James Maher for EVG 

Merle Ratner, a longtime East Village resident and passionate advocate, died last night. She was 67. 

Police identified Ratner as the victim in the collision on 10th Street and Avenue C. As previously reported, a commercial tow truck struck Ratner as she crossed the east side of 10th Street. A Fourth Street resident, she was said to be going to a friend's house for dinner.

ABC 7 reported that the Collision Investigation Squad questioned the driver and conducted a field sobriety test. He has reportedly not been charged while the investigation continues. 

Ratner grew up in the Bronx and lived in the East Village starting in the 1980s. She was a co-coordinator of the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign. She also worked as a labor rights organizer at the International Commission for Labor Rights ... and served on the board at the Laundry Workers Center, which organizes low-wage immigrant laundry and food service workers. 

Here's more from Ratner in an EVG interview with James Maher in 2017: 
My family has a history — my grandmother, when she came from Odessa, was the first woman business agent at the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, and my mother was a member of Local 1707 Day Care Workers. I have a picture in my house of my grandmother; it must have been in the 1920s, with a long skirt with a bustle, the very traditional thing that women wore, holding a picket sign with her friend that said, 'Don’t be a scab.'" 
NgĂ´ Thanh NhĂ n talked with The Village Sun about his wife of 40 years. 

"She loved life and was always thinking about ways to build a society that supports people, not profit," he said.

Friday, January 19, 2024

Celebrating the life and spirit of John Crellin, aka 'Architect John'

Photo by Kyle de Vre 
From the book "See You Next Tuesday."
Republished with permission 

Information via the EVG inbox...

John R. Crellin, 75, died peacefully on Nov. 25, 2023.

John spent his childhood in Spencertown, N.Y., and on Queechy Lake in Canaan, N.Y. He earned a history degree from Colgate University (class of 1970) and an architecture degree from Pratt Institute. 

"Architect John" was a devout resident of the East Village. He was on the board of the Howl Festival and enjoyed the local community and culture. He was a regular at Sophie's and enjoyed socializing at The Grafton and St. Dymphna's. 

In earlier years, he delighted in King Tut's Wah Wah Hut at Seventh and A (now Niagara), and he and his wife Wendy (who met at the Wah Wah Hut) were married at Life Cafe at 10th and B. 

Equal parts architect and artist, John was a lifelong creator and inventor. He loved building homemade double-decker motorized rafts ("Queechy Queens”), photographing "memories of old buildings" and cracked pavers, and creating shrines and 3D photographs. John always participated in The Howl Festival's "Art Around the Park," painting murals yearly. 

In his professional career, he practiced architecture with several firms in New York City, including Kohn Pederson Fox, Hardy Holtzman Pfeiffer Associates, and Agrest & Gandelsonas. 

Among his many projects, he contributed to the design of the Melrose Community Center in the Bronx and the renovations of the Plaza Hotel and the Brooklyn Tabernacle. 

John was the beloved father to Madeleine Hoog-Crellin, Juliette Crellin, and Lilly Crellin, and grandfather to Josephine and Caroline Crawford (Mady's girls) ... and, lastly, his bunny Honey Bunny.

A celebration of John's life is planned for Tuesday, Jan. 23, at Sophie's, 507 E. Fifth St. (just east of Avenue A) at 6 p.m.

Memories of John can be shared here

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

RIP Vinie Burrows

Vinie Burrows, an acclaimed actress and activist who lived in the East Village in Village View along First Avenue, died on Dec. 25. She was 99. 

From her obituary:
Burrows began her Broadway career in the 1950s, starring alongside Ossie Davis in "The Wisteria Trees." She continued to perform on Broadway for several years, appearing in such shows as "The Green Pastures," "The Skin of Our Teeth," and "The Blacks." But Burrows became frustrated with the narrow range of roles available to Black women, and she left Broadway to pursue a solo career in one-woman shows. 

Burrows' one-woman Off-Broadway show, "Walk Together Children," was critically acclaimed and continued as an international tour after its initial run. She went on to perform other one-woman shows, including "Sister! Sister!" "Dark Fire" and “The Great White Way: The Story of Rose McClendon." 
In 2020, she was honored with an Obie Award for Lifetime Achievement. Burrows was also an activist who represented the Women's International Democratic Federation at the United Nations.  
As the Amsterdam News reported, Burrows "once noted that her greatest role in life was the one she performed for truth and justice." 

She has been the subject of several tributes in recent days... ... including this piece in The New Yorker titled The Many Lives of Vinie Burrows

Here's a video message from Burrows from April 2020...

   

Burrows is survived by her son and daughter, six grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild.

Tuesday, January 9, 2024

RIP Charlie Carroll

Neighbors at 21 First Ave. shared the following information and photos...

Charlie Carroll, a longtime East Village resident, died on Jan. 1. He was 63. 

According to his obituary, he "passed away peacefully at his home, in the care of his devoted sisters Diane Carroll, Lorraine White and Eileen Toler, friend Vicky Berrios, wife Meaddows Ryan, and dedicated hospice workers."

Charlie, the youngest of four, was born in Manhattan to Angie and Charles Carroll II, "and he was a quintessential New Yorker from that day forward."

In 1980, he joined the United States Marine Corps. After serving, he returned to downtown Manhattan, "where he put his mechanical and construction skills to work as a property manager, crew supervisor, and contractor specializing in repair and renovation."

Charlie became a self-employed superintendent for four buildings in the East Village, including where he lived at 21 First Ave. 

He was also passionate about guitars, "researching them, buying them, adapting them, collecting gear for them, puttering with them, and sometimes even playing them." He played in several local bands, including Raw Kinder, Krunch and the Milestones.

You can read more about Charlie's life and passions here.

On Saturday afternoon (Jan. 13) from 1-3, friends and family are coming together to celebrate his life at the Redden Funeral Home, 325 W. 14th St. between Eighth Avenue and Ninth Avenue.
In addition to his wife and sisters, he is survived by his mother, stepson Justin Ciuzio, nephews Raymond White and Michael Aquino, and niece Buffy Aquino Lopez ... "as well as countless other family and friends." 

Friday, December 15, 2023

RIP Phil Klein

Several EVG readers who shop at Whiskers Holistic Pet Care, which has been on Ninth Street at Second Avenue since 1988, shared the following sad news about one of its owners. (H/T Bayou!)

Phil Klein died in his sleep at home on Nov. 24. He was 81. 

According to a memorial post on the shop's Facebook account, Phil suffered a heart attack eight years ago and had not been at Whiskers since then. 

Here's more via the Facebook post...
Of course, he missed going into the store, said his wife and partner of 42 years Randy Klein. "He would go in every day with gusto. Never angry or with frustration."

Phil and Randy Klein are a New York story if ever there was one. Having met 43 years ago at a bus stop in front of the New York Public Library, they were both going to the same stop at 34th Street to Penn Station — one to Flushing and the other to Long Island. That became a ride of love, and they married a year later in 1982. 

You could say that fateful meeting started them off on the same road into a shared future that led to Whiskers Holistic Pet Care. Born from their commitment to trying to save their own dog from cancer and the frustration and anger with traditional recommendations and medicine. 
Phil Klein, a Vietnam veteran, played the drums and loved to ride his motorcycle any chance he got. 

Survivors include Randy Klein, his wife of 42 years and co-founder of Whiskers Holistic Pet Care; his cousin, Betty Edel; and his closest friend, Richie Armento.

Whiskers is asking that people share memories and tributes to Phil on Facebook.

Thursday, December 14, 2023

A memorial for Bill Dean

There's a memorial on Saturday afternoon at 2 for Bill Dean (aka "Sensitive Bill") under the Hare Krishna Tree in the center of Tompkins Square Park. 

Here's more information (thanks to Jimmy the Greek for this)... 

Known to his friends as "Sensitive Bill," Bill Dean passed away on Dec. 10 at age 60. The cause of death has not been determined. 

Dean was an activist with the Yippies in the 1980s, a 13th Street squatter and community gardener, Rainbow Gathering brother, photographer, and avid cyclist. 

In recent years, he had been living on the Upper West Side but often came down to Tompkins Square Park to hang with friends and attend local demonstrations. 

He is survived by an adult daughter in Sweden.

Tuesday, December 5, 2023

RIP Ed Burns

Dr. Edward M. Burns, a longtime East Village resident and educator, died on Nov. 3. He was 79. 

Burns was a professor of English at William Paterson University, joining the faculty in 1989. He published widely on Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, James Joyce and Thornton Wilder, among others. 

His work on Gertrude Stein was included in a three-part New Yorker article by Janet Malcolm in the early 2000s. As an editor, his book credits included "Tour of the Darkling Plain: The 'Finnegans Wake' Letters of Thornton Wilder and Adaline Glasheen"; "A Passion for Joyce: The Letters of Hugh Kenner and Adaline Glasheen," "The Letters of Gertrude Stein and Thornton Wilder," and "Gertrude Stein on Picasso." 

As The New Yorker put it, Stein became the focus of his life's work. Burns was the expert The Metropolitan Museum of Art consulted for the 2012 exhibition, "The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde." 

He also wrote an essay about Gertrude Stein that was included in the exhibition’s catalog and donated more than 20 archival photos of the paintings in her apartment. 

From his official obituary: "Dr. Burns was an avid supporter of the arts and literature in New York and Paris. Loving uncle, great-uncle, great-great-uncle, friend, and colleague to many. He will be missed by all."

We knew Ed as a regular at the Grassroots Tavern on St. Mark's Place ... when we enjoyed spending far too many late afternoons and early evenings during John Leeper's shifts. 

In one of her New Yorker pieces, Malcolm described Burns as "burly, affable and loquacious." Not sure about burly, but the other descriptions fit the bill.

H/T Steven

Saturday, November 25, 2023

RIP Bob Contant

Bob Contant, co-founder and co-owner of St. Mark's Bookshop, died at his Manhattan home on Nov. 6. Per published reports, he died of cardiac arrest. He was 80. 

According to Shelf Awareness, Contant was born in Rochester, N.Y., and grew up in suburban Washington, D.C. After college, he worked at the Washington Public Library and, after a move to Cambridge, Mass., at two of Harvard's libraries and then at several Harvard Square bookstores.
He came to New York in 1972 and was manager of the old 8th Street Bookshop in Greenwich Village. In 1977, Contant, along with others working at East Side Books — Terry McCoy, Peter Dargis, and Tom Evans — decided to open their own store at 13 St. Mark's Place. St. Mark's Bookshop moved to a larger location, at 12 St. Mark's Place, in 1987 and then in 1993 to a new development by Cooper Union at 31 Third Avenue. 

The store built on its strength in poetry, critical studies, small press literature, and art. But after many years, with a change of board, the school shifted its approach to the bookstore and offered no help when, in the wake of the financial crisis, St. Mark's had trouble paying its $20,000-a-month rent. 
After 38 years at four locations, St. Mark's Bookshop eventually closed for good on Feb. 28, 2016, at a smaller space on 136 E. Third St. between Avenue A and First Avenue.

Adena Siegel, a retired sales representative at Yale University Press, Harvard U Press and MIT Press,  remembered Contant as "a passionate bookseller, principled, enthusiastic, so knowledgeable," per Shelf Awareness.

Tuesday, October 17, 2023

RIP Maryanne Byington

Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens (LUNGS) shared the following information about longtime East Village resident Maryanne Byington... 
Maryanne left us Friday, Oct. 13, after a long battle with a pulmonary illness. 
Maryanne was a resident of East Eighth Street since 1982 and an integral part of Green Oasis and Gilbert's Sculpture Garden. She was one of the founders of LUNGS and served as Vice President from 2011 to 2020. 

Maryanne was a trophy-winning professional ballroom dancer. She was Emeritus Dean of High Heels at Miss Vera's Finishing School for Boys Who Want to Be Girls, where she offered students expert instruction in the arts of dressing up, making up, going out, and acting like a lady. Maryanne said, " Do you enjoy wearing high heels? Sometimes, the technique of rumba will create just the right walk for the right situation." 

Maryanne loved to dance and dress in Oscar de la Renta's most colorful Latin-influenced festive party gowns. She also loved to sit in her garden, watch children carve pumpkins, and listen to the birds sing. She was partial to shrimp cocktails, grilled cheese sandwiches and chilled Negronis served in a pretty cocktail glass. 

Maryanne's graciousness, sense of humor and beautiful smile are already greatly missed.

Wednesday, October 11, 2023

RIP Richard 'Pete' Peterson

EVG reader Annie Gosfield shares the sad news about the passing of Richard "Pete" Peterson, "a well-loved neighbor" who lived at 305 E. 12th St. since 1968. He was 83. 

His nephew said that Pete died during a brief stay in the hospital due to heart problems. 

He loved plants and shared his gardening skills with adjacent buildings between First Avenue and Second Avenue.