The Lower East Side Festival for the Arts continues this weekend

The 20th anniversary … At Theater for the New City, 155 First Ave. at East 10th Street. Head to TNC's website here for more details.

You did not miss today

The sunset shot is from last evening via Bobby Williams…

A place in the sun

Harmony Tividad and Cleo Tucker of Girlpool head to Coney Island in the video for their new release "Before The World Was Big."

The Loisaida Festival is this weekend

There's a lot going on this weekend related to the Loisaida Festival, now in its 28th year.

Here are some details via the Festival's Facebook page:

The Loisaida Festival has been celebrated on Sunday before Memorial Day since 1987.

Performing on the LoisaidaFest Main Stage: Calma Carmona, Chicano Batman, Papote Jimenez, Herencia De Plena, E.A.Flow, Capá Prieto & more...

Hosted by Luis Guzmán

Beyond the top-notch diverse musical line-up of our Main Stage, the Festival offers a Green Zone, Healthy Living Zone, Arts and Craft Zone, and rich culinary street-level experiences, our Theater Lab with an Itinerary for Kid Friendly Activities, the Loisaida Awards, and our celebratory Loisaida Fest Carnival Procession.

The Festival is the annual signature event of Loisaida Inc. Funds are raised to expand our non-profit, which recently secured a 51-year lease for its new Loisaida Center. All proceeds from the Loisaida Festival are used for the production of the same and for the operations of the Loisaida Center.

This year’s theme is “One neighborhood… and entire community.”

The Festival hours on Sunday are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Avenue C, from East Sixth Street to East 12th Street.

And head to the Festival's website for all the activities this weekend, including tonight — Performing Queer Latin@ Loisaida: A Cabaret.

Last night, EVG contributor Stacie Joy stopped by the Festival's opening reception at the Loisaida Center at 710 E. Ninth St., where several of the participating artists were on hand...




[Calma Carmona]


[Eury G. Orsini & Zuleira Soto Roman]


[Papote Jimenez & Edgardo Tomas Larregui]

Mid-morning photo of a dog photo

Photo yesterday on East Fourth Street by Derek Berg

Down On Avenue A, 1922

Anton van Dalen shared the following with us this week...

Ever since my settling on Avenue A in 1971, I have been collecting the neighborhood's history. That gathering is of diverse interest with ephemera and artifacts of all kinds. It includes vintage press photos, flyers, maps, architectural salvage, street signs, etcetera.

One of my favorite finds is this sheet music of 1922 titled "Down On Avenue A." The great cover image in style, fashion and attitude still looks contemporary, timeless.

As now with impending summer the down on Avenue A sidewalk parade has started anew.

You can find more details about the music here.

Next week: The Follow Me Friday Small Business Crawl on 2nd Avenue

Via the EVG inbox...

Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and Council Member Rosie Mendez today announced the Council will host a “Follow Me Friday” tour of the East Village with local business owners, community members and elected officials on Friday, May 29.

The Follow Me Friday Small Business Crawl will help highlight and promote East Village businesses recovering from the aftermath of the March 26 building explosion ... and will begin with a moment of silence at the site of the explosion on 2nd Avenue and 7th Street. The small business tour will begin at 5:30 PM and will include the following stops:

• Moment of silence for victims of recent explosion (Northwest Corner of 2nd Avenue and East 7th Street)
• Tour of Moishe’s Bake Shop (115 2nd Avenue)
• Tour of New Yorker Market (550 2nd Avenue)
• Tour of Café Mocha (116 2nd Avenue)
• Tour of Bar Virage (118 2nd Avenue)
• Tour of Himalayan Vision (127 2nd Avenue)
• Tour of Enz’s (125 2nd Avenue)
• Tour of Jimmy’s No. 43 (23 East 7th Street)

Those wishing to join the event should RSVP by sending an e-mail here

The John's of 12th Street documentary is now available for home viewing

[EVG file photo]

"John's of 12th Street," the documentary by Brooklyn-based filmmaker-editor Vanessa McDonnell, is now available as of today on Fandor and Vimeo on Demand.

The 65-minute film had its debut last November.

Here's a quick description:

"John's of 12th Street" is a portrait of a century-old Italian-American restaurant in New York City, one of the last of its kind in a rapidly changing East Village. This observational documentary loosely follows the rhythm of the restaurant’s day, which swings between boredom and frenzy as the old rooms empty and fill, cataloguing the overlooked details of working life and a vanishing facet of New York City.

Watch John's on Fandor here … and on Vimeo on Demand here.

And to warm you up…

John's is located at 302 E 12th St. just east of Second Avenue.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Q-and-A with Vanessa McDonnell, director of the John's of 12th Street documentary

Union Square getting a bank branch-coffee shop combo because why not

So here's what is in the works for the southwest corner 14th Street and Broadway via Crain's ...

Capital One has come up with an alternative to the staid retail bank branch. It will launch a concept in Union Square, at 853 Broadway, on the building's ground, basement and mezzanine levels. The entrance will feature a large café operated by Peet's Coffee. The space upstairs will differ from a typical retail bank branch. Capital One will create a large work lounge, where customers can camp out and use free Wi-Fi.

Capital One, which operates several similar cafes across the country, is also eyeing a location on Lafayette Street near the Puck Building for another branch.

Immerse yourself in archival photos of NYC

The New York Public Library today unveiled OldNYC.org, an interactive map that brings its digitized collection of vintage photos to life by street/avenue/neighborhoods.

Per OldNYC:

This site provides an alternative way of browsing the NYPL's incredible Photographic Views of New York City, 1870s-1970s collection. Its goal is to help you discover the history behind the places you see every day.

And, if you're lucky, maybe you'll even discover something about New York's rich past that you never knew before!

Where did these images come from?
The images all come from the New York Public Library's Milstein Collection. While many photographers contributed to the collection, the majority of its images are the work of Percy Loomis Sperr, who documented changes to the city from the late 1920s to the early 1940s.

We clicked on Avenue A and East 10th Street...



... and found this shot (and more) from 1934...



Enjoy your Memorial Weekend. (And if you don't like historical photos, then....)

Today in photos of an abandoned carousel horse in Tompkins Square Park

Photographed by EVG regular William Klayer this morning... probably a good reason why it's here...

Demolition of 118 E. 1st St. begins to make way for 9-story residential building

Work is underway here between Avenue A and First Avenue, where the existing 3-floor building will be demolished … and a 9-floor residential building will rise…



As NY Yimby first pointed out last November, a developer operating under the name of Acacia 118, LLC is behind the project.

Per NY Yimby...

As with many new projects in neighborhoods that once only supported rentals, 118 East 1st will likely be condos, with its seven units divided over 12,500 square feet of residential space. The average size is a quite hefty 1,800 square feet, with duplexes on the top and bottom and full-floor units in between…

The city has yet to approve the plans for the new building.

This development can't sit well with the owner of Punjabi Grocery & Deli next door. Owner Jashon Singh has reported declining sales these past five years with the ongoing East Houston Reconstruction Project outside his front doors.

The work on East Houston, reportedly three years behind schedule, is expected to wrap up in August. Just in time for the new construction at No. 118.



The new building will also include a 250-square foot retail space on the ground level.

Thanks to EVG reader Gacin for the photos

Previously on EV Grieve:
118 E. 1st St. arrives on the market with so many possibilities, and air rights

118 E. 1st. St. will yield to a new 9-floor residential building