I recently talked with Colin Simpson, an aspiring reggae artist who goes by Ras Redemption. He lives and works on the Lower East Side, overseeing maintenance as a superintendent for a residential management company.
He told me about his recently released single, "Brethren," and how the neighborhood reminds him of his hometown in Guyana.
Tell us about your journey to the Lower East Side.
I was born and raised in Georgetown, Guyana, and moved to the United States in 2007, living first in Brooklyn. I moved to the Lower East Side in 2011 for work and have lived here ever since.
I have a video about my journey on YouTube if you want to check it out for more about me.
How do you describe your music?
My music is uplifting, redeeming, inspirational and universally friendly. Reggae is righteous music; it's about awakening and knowing yourself. It frees you from whatever tribulation is going on in life, and it's music to keep you grounded and focused.
So, my music and lyrics mirror that — it mentally takes you to a different place.
You live and work on the Lower East Side, whose locales appear in your music videos. How has the neighborhood influenced your work?
It has influenced me in a positive way. I come from a place where, from the moment you're awake to when you're out in the street, you greet everyone in a warm and friendly manner, and I get that same response from living in this neighborhood — it reminds me of home.
Living on the Lower East Side inspires me to write positive music, making me want to extend/show that same kind of warmth and gratitude to the world.
Where can people see and hear you perform?
I’m in the studio working on my first EP and some new singles. So, for now, if people want to hear more of my music, I’m on all digital platforms and social media.
You can find Colin's social media and videos at this link.
As we first noted last Thursday, an 18-year-resident of the Lower East Side created a petition "to promote diversity in low to mid-priced food options for New York City's Lower East Side."
Are you sick and tired of pizzerias opening up all over the Lower East Side? With the closures of so many restaurants in the neighborhood, our low to mid-priced food options are dwindling. Pizzerias have over-saturated this part of Manhattan. Sign this petition and maybe Community Board 3 will take notice. *Enough of the L.E.S. pizzeria takeover!*
The person behind the petition, who goes by No More L.E.S. Pizzerias, made an amendment to the petition to help set the record straight. This is NOT about calling for an end to $1 pizzerias (misinformation that we helped spread).
To clarify the point of this petition: It is not an anti $1 slice pizza petition. We're sick of ALL pizzerias. No more $1 slice pizzerias. No more expensive brick oven pizzerias. NO MORE PIZZERIAS!
Despite a lot of media attention (NPR, CBS 2, among outlets), there have only been 27 signatures added to date.
Fourth Arts Block (FABnyc) and the Cooper Square Committee issued the following news release yesterday regarding the ongoing drama at the Jared Kushner-owned 170-174 E. Second St.
What follows is an edited excerpt:
Countering the common narrative that artists drive gentrification, many East Village artists are actually long-time residents, fighting to remain in affordable housing with their neighbors, reported Cooper Square Committee, a 50-year old tenant advocacy organization.
Like many buildings in the East Village, 170-174 East 2nd Street has long been home to writers, painters, sculptors, and musicians, including beat poet Allen Ginsberg. However, since December 2013, when Jared Kushner purchased the buildings, 70 percent of the 170-174 East 2nd Street's 45 units have been vacated. Of the 9 remaining tenants, half are working artists with deep roots in the neighborhood, including Tony Feher, Richard Weinstein and Dianne Bowen.
"Unfortunately this situation is not unique. I frequently work with artists who live here in the Lower East Side who are being pushed out by profit-driven speculators," said community organizer Brandon Kielbasa from Cooper Square Committee. "These aggressive efforts to create luxury housing in communities like the Lower East Side are wiping out the affordable housing, homogenizing the diversity, and picking apart at the cultural assets of the neighborhood,"
"The arts and culture are such an important part of the life and identify of the East Village and Lower East Side," said Tamara Greenfield, executive director of Fourth Arts Block. "Historically, artists joined with other low income residents to advocate for and build affordable housing in this community. As important as it is to create new affordable housing across the City, we have to work equally hard to preserve existing affordable housing from being lost."
In December of 2013, Jared Kushner purchased 170-174 East 2nd Street buildings for $17 million, and quickly followed the purchase with the distribution of eviction notices to tenants of the two buildings. During the past nine months under the ownership of Kushner, tenants of both buildings were subjected to lengthy and severe construction work which has resulted in ceiling collapses, eroded floors, broken tiles, cut off gas service, and unannounced hot and cold water interruptions. Impacts on artists in the building range from fear of displacement, to damage of artwork, and compromised ability to do creative work under the stress and noise of construction.
"The constant barrage of emergencies for 7 months — water shut offs, violent levels of noise from jack hammering, missing steps on the stair, building floods, fire department safety inspections — create extremely challenging and draining conditions for living and working creatively," said musician Cypress Dubin. "Under these extreme circumstances and to marshal my creative resources, I made the choice to focus deeply on community organizing. As the communications director of our tenants association, I spend hundred of hours a month working to channel that same energy, integrity, and creativity that is foundational to my work as a vocalist, producer and yoga educator into protecting our homes, and preserving this part of the city that continues to be a thriving and diverse community of artists."
"The overwhelming, lightning-fast, rapid gentrification and over-development of the Lower East Side and East Village raises a great concern for the cultural heritage of an iconic NYC neighborhood," said painter Richard Weinstein.
"Gentrification in New York City has never been so aggressive and destructive as it has been in the past 8 years," added multimedia artist Dianne Bowen. "The bottom line is profit; value is a monetary term with no regard or connection to human beings or the life of the city created by all that inhabit it."
Ironically, the buildings' creative history is now being included in its marketing:
"Built in 1899, this beaux-arts building dovetails modern comfort with an older East Village - that same collision of grit and grace that inspired the likes of beat poet Alan [sic] Ginsberg, who called this building his home from 1958-1963."
As previously reported, community group East River Park Action has organized a march and rally tomorrow (Sept. 21) to protest the city's plan to bury East River Park with eight feet of landfill starting this March as part of protecting the east side against future storms and rising seas.
Here's part of the advisory via the EVG inbox...
“We support a plan that will provide much-needed flood protection. At the same time it should expand the park and reduce greenhouse emissions in response to the climate crisis,” says Howard Brandstein, director of the Sixth Street Community Center and a rally organizer.
The flood plan will have devastating consequences for residents in NYCHA housing and other low-and-middle income apartments bordering the park.
“Dust and other pollution from construction will affect air quality. Neighborhood residents already have high levels of asthma and 9/11-related upper respiratory illnesses,” says Lower East Side resident Pat Arnow, who is an organizer of the protest. “NYCHA buildings are undergoing heavy resiliency construction now. Some of their areas look like a war zone.”
The closure of the park for at least three and a half years will rob residents of critical green space, ball fields for team sports, and areas for community gatherings.
“An earlier HUD-funded plan, designed with the community over four years, was summarily scrapped by the city last year,” says Brandstein. “This plan was far more comprehensive. It provided flood control and resiliency without destroying the park, which has long been an oasis for our diverse Lower East Side and East Village neighborhoods.”
The march begins at noon in Tompkins Square Park. Demonstrators will wind through the neighborhood across the Sixth Street footbridge to East River Park. At 1:30 they’ll rally at the Labyrinth (north of the Williamsburg Bridge) followed by a parade down the promenade to a burial site beneath a tree with a 10.5 foot circumference. (Find more info here.)
ICYMI: This is all part of the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project (ESCR), a coastal protection initiative jointly funded by the city and the federal government aimed at reducing flood risk due to coastal storms and sea-level rise. ESCR is the first element of the city’s "Big U" plan to protect Lower Manhattan from surges like those seen during Superstorm Sandy.
As part of the project, city officials, starting next spring, plan to close East River Park for three-plus years, elevating it with 8- to 10-feet of soil and chopping down trees, etc., from Montgomery Street to East 13th Street.
City officials have said that this is a better course of action compared to the previous plan that was in the works with community input before Mayor de Blasio's team changed course last fall. Among other things, city officials claim that the new plan will shave nearly six months off of the projected timeline and will be less disruptive for residents living in the area.
[Illustration via East River Park Action]
The project is now undergoing a third-party review by a Dutch consultant hired by Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and local City Councilmember Carlina Rivera.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the City Planning Commission is expected to vote on the plan in the next step of the public review process before it heads to City Council for a final vote this fall.
Previously on EV Grieve:
• Last week to comment on the city's plans to close East River Park (Aug. 27)
The film follows the last family-owned matzo bakery in America during their final year in their factory on Rivington Street. The factory moved out of the city in 2015 after 90 years in that location. Condos are on the way.
Levine shared a few thoughts about the documentary, Streit's and the neighborhood with us on the eve of the film's NYC theatrical debut...
On the appeal of the Lower East Side and Streit's:
My family has had a presence on the Lower East Side in one form or another for around 100 years, and though I grew up in New Jersey, I felt compelled to come back to the neighborhood as soon as I could. I've have been here almost 16 years now — a short time in the scheme of things, I know, but long enough to have watched the systematic destruction of so many of the neighborhood institutions I knew from growing up, as well as the displacement of so many and much of the people and culture that drew me and so many others here in the first place.
When I came across Streit's, after passing by their factory on Rivington Street for years unaware of their presence, they were clearly one of the survivors: A fifth-generation manufacturing business operating with 90-year-old equipment in four tenement buildings — and I was drawn immediately to their story.
On the start of filming:
When I began filming there in 2013, it was chronicle the history, resilience and resistance of a family and their 60 union employees who had turned down millions to continue a nearly century-long legacy. They hadn't set out to the "last man standing" when it came to manufacturing in the neighborhood — they simply couldn't imagine doing anything else, anywhere else. This was their home.
But it was clear from the start that their presence their was, as one longtime worker puts in in the film, "in the balance." Despite owning the buildings since the 1930s, the factory had been losing money for several years, as the trifecta of aging, irreplaceable machinery, competition from more modern factories, and a lack of interest from the city as far as supporting manufacturing in the neighborhood finally came to a head.
During what was meant to be the last week of editing the film, the family at last made the announcement that they would be closing the factory and using proceeds from the sale of the buildings to build a new factory in Rockland County.
For another year, I continued filming as they slowly emptied the factory and began their transition to their new facility. I truly believe the Streit family has done as much as anyone could hope for, given the challenges they faced: they stuck it out as long as they could, and instead of simply pocketing the money from selling the buildings, they dove right into building a new factory, keeping it close enough to the city to be within commuting distance of many of their longtime employees, all of whom were offered jobs there.
On the factory's departure from the Lower East Side:
For the Lower East Side, though, the loss has less of a silver lining. In the next several weeks, the former factory buildings are slated to be demolished to make room for seven floors of luxury condos and retail, something that seemed unthinkable – though I suppose shouldn't have been — when I started this film three years ago.
I'm grateful that I had opportunity to start filming when I did, to experience the place as a still-vital piece of the community. And while the timing of the film coming out as its "main character" awaits the wrecking ball is somewhat ridiculous to consider, I hope the timing can perhaps offer a unique opportunity to appreciate a place like Streit's at the same moment it is being lost, and hopefully spark some conversation and action to protect the places like it, and the people who depend on them for their livelihoods, and remind people that the Lower East Side is still a neighborhood of resilience and resistance after all.
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The film's official premiere is tonight at 8. Afterward, there's a premiere party of sorts upstairs at 2A (on Avenue A and Second Street) featuring food from Russ & Daughters. Members of the Streit family and workers from the factory will be there. The party is open to anyone, not just people coming from the Film Forum.
Meanwhile, across the street...the Streit's exhibit continues (through May 5) at Art on A Gallery. The gallery is open tonight until midnight. (You can read more about the exhibit here.)
At both the gallery and at 2A this evening, Levine says that people will be able to buy tickets to the film. (Buy a ticket and receive a film poster and box of matzos.)
Officials at the Boys' Club of New York (BCNY) are moving forward with their plans to sell the Harriman Clubhouse on 10th Street and Avenue A.
A listing for the 7-story building is now active on the Cushman & Wakefield website.
The listing notes that the property's new owner could continue on with an "educational/recreational use," though the emphasis seems to be on the recent luxury development in the area:
The building is currently configured as a 7 story walk up building and features and expansive 119’ of frontage on East 10th Street and 71.25’ along Avenue A. The 9,067-square foot (119’ x 102.21’ IRR.) lot is split zoned as R7A/R8B with a commercial C2-5 overlay – commercial FAR 2.0, Residential FAR 3.45/4.0, with IH 4.6 community facility 4.0. The building will be delivered vacant making for an ideal conversion opportunity or continued educational/recreational use by an end user.
The 50,000-square foot building is comprised of classroom, office, gymnasium, auditorium, music studios, recreational and pool space. Every floor boasts 10’+ ceilings with many touting double height ceilings. The concrete slab construction enables virtually beamless floor plates and allows for large open rooms.
The East Village is home to a number of newly completed condo and rental developments. Many of which has already been absorbed by neighborhood demand or sold before building completion. The Steiner at 437 East 12th Street, The Jefferson on 211 East 13th Street and 100 Avenue A are among many of the condo developments that are rapidly selling in the neighborhood.
The asking price: $32 million. (The set-up PDF is here.)
As I first reported in June, Executive Director Stephen Tosh told alumni of the BCNY's plan to sell the clubhouse, which opened in 1901. The BCNY would continue to use the space through June 2019. (You can find more background here.)
According to the letter to alumni, the BCNY will look to rent space elsewhere on the Lower East Side to continue with programming for Harriman members after the closure next summer. The letter also stated that the sale of the East Village building would allow BCNY the opportunity to start new programs in other communities, including Brownsville, East New York and/or the South Bronx.
In his letter. Tosh wrote that: "The neighborhood surrounding the building has changed dramatically since Mr. Harriman built this building, especially in the past few decades."
In August, the Daily News obtained a copy of the Feb. 24, 2015, BCNY board meeting minutes, in which Tosh stated that "enrollment was actually rising sharply, based on an increase over the preceding five-year period, mainly among boys and young men from low-income families."
This past Saturday, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, State Sen. Brad Hoylman, Assemblymember Harvey Epstein, City Council member Carlina Rivera and Manhattan Community Board 3 officials held a press conference outside the Clubhouse to urge the BCNY board to postpone the sale until they consult with the community in "good faith."
According to Hoylman, a sale of the Harriman Clubhouse would make it "the latest casualty in the battle against gentrification in the East Village," citing the 2012 sale of the Mary Help of Christians property on Avenue A and 12th Street to developer Douglas Steiner. (During the summer of 2013, workers demolished the church, school and rectory to make way for ultra-luxury condos that Steiner named after himself.)
"More than a quarter of Lower East Side residents live below the federal poverty level," Hoylman said in a statement. "Clearly, families in the East Village and Lower East Side still need the services and programs offered at the Harriman Clubhouse. I urge the Boys’ Club of New York to identify the needs of boys and young men in our community and meet with us to try to find a solution to save this precious neighborhood resource."
As Patch reported last week, Tosh declined meeting with elected officials in a Sept. 14 letter. "Our role in the neighborhood defines us," Tosh said. "It is also bigger than any one building. Wherever our East Village clubhouse is situated, we remain a vital part of an ever-changing area."
Updated 11:45 a.m.
Upon learning of the this listing, Sen. Hoylman issued this statement:
"It’s extremely disappointing that the Boys’ Club is putting the Harriman Clubhouse on the open market for $32 million without community engagement, an analysis of local needs or concrete plans to continue their services and programs for young men and boys in the East Village and Lower East Side. The local community has good reason to be angry and confused, and will, unfortunately, see this as another example of a nonprofit selling out the neighborhood, putting real-estate profits ahead of the needs of young people and contributing to the wholesale gentrification of their neighborhood."
The reconfigured First Avenue and Second Avenue (bike lanes, bus lanes, pedestrian islands, etc.) have been a popular topic in recent months... and now an LES resident is organizing a protest about the changes...
As you can see from the flyer above, there's a protest planned for Friday, Oct. 15... I contacted Leslie Sicklick, whose name appears on the signs. She's helping organize the event...
Her background: I was born and raised on the Lower East Side. I am a third-generation Lower East Sider. My dad's parents came here from Russia and lived on the Lower East Side since the 1920. My mother's mother came to the Lower East Side also in the 1920s. Unlike many people, my parents did not move and raised me and my brother down on the Lower East Side. I grew up in the bad days of the 1970s, so I have seen the neighborhood change. I have also been a driver since 1995, often taking my mom, who is handicapped, shopping.
On why she's doing this: My father raised me to get involved and, if you don't like something, take a stand, which is what I am doing. My biggest complaint is, because of the bike lanes, New York is becoming impossible for drivers. I used to go to 1st Avenue for dinner, shopping and was able to park my car. My other complaint is with how dangerous some bike riders are and how nasty they are. I was walking across the bike lane on 1st Avenue and was almost hit. I was yelled at — that I should get out of the bike lane. Who the hell are these bikers? They probably have not even been living in East Village for very long. What are my rights? I have lived here all my life.
Also, there are fewer spaces for businesses to deliver food, packages. Do bikers bring in business to the City? No they don't, and many stores are losing business because there is less space for people to park and come into the stores.
What she hopes to accomplish: I guess what I hope to accomplish is to get the message out there to Mayor Bloomberg to change bike lanes so they are not against the sidewalks where people are trying to cross. Bikes don't stop like cars do for lights — they keep going. Bike lanes also attract people on rollerblades, skateboards, runners ... I am not saying all of them are bad.
By Mayor Bloomburg, the idiot, doing this is punishing drivers and rewarding bad behavior of bike riders. Bike riders never stay in bike lanes. Also, how many bike riders are out there compared to drivers? I'd also like to know what is going to happen in the winter when there is snow and ice. What a waste.
This is New York, not Amsterdam. I believe Mayor Bloomberg is killing New York, and changed any character it used to have. I don't miss the City being so bad, but at least it had some character.
[Photo of EL Jardin del Paraiso by Steven Matthews via MoRUS]
It's the last two nights for the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space's Lower East Side Film Fest ... here's a quick look at what's playing via the EVG inbox:
Friday, 8 p.m.
El Jardin De Paraiso
E. 4th street (North Side) between Aves C & D
**** Lawn Seating: Bring a blanket!*****
Catalina Santamaria
UMBRELLA HOUSE
10 min
From the 1970’s to the 1990’s hundreds of buildings have been taken away from their owners in The Lower East Side/East Village because of tax arrears. But these buildings in the hands of the city have been left to collapse or be demolished. Pioneering residents took it upon themselves to move in and restore some these buildings with their own labor, giving new life and vitality to the area.
Sebastian Gutierrez
VIA GEANME
16 min
Geanme reached New York not to long after having crossed the border through Mexico. She dealt with the hardship of living as a squatter, delivering a baby and falling out of love. But her tenacity helped through the winter's cold, building her apartment all the way to the improvised delivery room. With the help of a midwife but no running water, Paula, her daughter, was born. Geanme never really got over having left her family behind in Colombia. But that void was filled by Paula and also by the camaraderie and support from the New York City squatter community.
Christina Holmes
HOME AT LA PLAZA CULTURAL ARMANDO PEREZ COMMUNITY GARDEN
La Plaza Cultural Armando Perez Community Garden on East Ninth Street and Avenue C was one of many public spaces damaged by Hurricane Irene and dealt a further blow by flooding during Hurricane Sandy. Garden members discuss the recovery process, the importance of these spaces, and the history of the garden that inspires them to plan and plant for the future.
Saturday, 8 p.m.
El Jardin De Paraiso
Lizzie Borden
BORN IN FLAMES
80 min
Fitting with the theme of the fest we will be screening the 1983 classic feminist indie film BORN IN FLAMES. Director Lizzie Borden is flying out from Los Angeles to be in attendance for the film, a gem of New York cinema, depicting a militant feminist movement in the city after a fictional socialist revolution in America. It also features vintage footage of the Lower East Side and from around New York.
Find more details about the films and the Festival here. Admission each night is a suggested donation of $5.
Via Felix Salmon, we learn about this event happening next Saturday, Sept. 22, starting at 11 a.m.
Join Transportation Alternatives' Bike Ambassadors on a bike tour of some of our favorite Bike Friendly Businesses to commemorate the launch of New York City's first Bike Friendly Business District, in Manhattan's East Village and Lower East Side. We'll ride through the East Village and Lower East Side stopping by our favorite Bike Friendly Businesses and arts destinations along the way, including Pushcart Coffee, Veselka and the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. The East Village and Lower East Side Bike Friendly Business District — the first of its kind — is a network of more than 150 businesses and cultural institutions dedicated to promoting safe bike riding and better bike infrastructure in their neighborhood. Free food provided, but bring your bike.
Find more details at BikeNYC.org. The group will meet at Veselka, Second Avenue at East Ninth Street.
And you're pleased with this...? Not pleased? Being part of the first Bike Friendly Business District and all.
This September, five short plays inspired by and performed in Lower East Side community gardens will take place. The 2013 version of writer, director and native New Yorker Lillian Meredith's Communal Spaces marks the outdoor festival's third annual installment. Meredith, whose body of work uses site-specific productions to "explore the boundaries of performance and the role of the audience in live theater," has commissioned five 30-minute plays. Each takes place in a different Lower East Side community garden.
Fri.-Sun., Sept. 13-15, 20-22 and 27-29. Each play is 30 minutes.
For more info, visit lillianmeredith.com. Admission is FREE. No
reservation needed.
11:00am - Tim and Tuna in Town.
Written by Josh Gulotta, Directed by Jaki Bradley
Siempre Verde Garden on Stanton and Attorney Streets
(no performance on Sept. 14)
12:30pm - Extinguish Yourself
Written by Angela Santillo, Directed by Michael Padden
Miracle Garden on East 3rd Street btw Aves A and B
3:00pm - Yield!
Written by Will Arbery, Directed by Stella Powell-Jones
All People's Garden on East 3rd btw Aves C and D
4:00pm - CO . OP
Written by Patrick Shaw, Directed by Lillian Meredith
Parque de Tranquilidad on East 4th btw Aves C and D
6:00pm - Limoncello Limoncello.
Written by Alexandra Bassett, Directed by Lillian Meredith
Green Oasis Garden on East 8th btw Aves C and D
2) LUNGS (Loisaida United Neighborhood Gardens)
SECOND ANNUAL HARVEST ARTS FESTIVAL IN THE GARDENS
Saturday, September 27 & Sunday, Sept. 28
24 Community Gardens
Loisaida / The East Village / The Lower East Side / The Village
WHAT TO EXPECT
A multidimensional arts festival that reflects the creative spirit of the neighborhood and the integral part that community gardens play in the culture and life of Loisaida. Scheduled events include music, dance, performance, films, photography, puppets, environmental workshops, yoga. Each garden is designing its own program, so we know it will be interesting.
In addition, The Communal Spaces Play Festival, five 30-minute plays inspired by the selected garden landscapes, will wrap up its three-week run during the Harvest Arts Fest.
We hope you'll join us for an hour, a day, or the full weekend.
WHAT IT COSTS
Nothing. Nada.
HOW IT HAPPENS
The 2013 Harvest Arts Festival in the Gardens is organized by LUNGS (Loisada United Neighborhood Gardens).
This year's festival is sponsored in part by a generous grant from The Citizens Committee for New York City.
During my walk around the neighborhood Saturday, I came across a rummage sale in one of the community gardens on East 8th Street. (They seem to hold sales fairly often on weekends in the summer.) The garden is sandwiched between two buildings...million-dollar condos on the left, and a multimillion-dollar residence with a ground-floor apartment to help off-set the monthly bills.
By the way, 337 E. 8th Street, the address of the schmancy house, was the address of 8bc, the performance space/club/gallery that saw the likes of They Might Be Giants, Karen Finley and Steve Buscemi take the stage during its run from 1983-85. This was before my time here. So I always appreciate hearing stories about the place.
Meanwhile, here's a passage on 8bc by Cynthia Carr from the Times in 2006. The piece is titled Hanging out on the Lower Worst Side:
I remember walking down Avenue B with friends one night around 1983 when we ran into the two artists who had just opened 8BC, soon to become the East Village’s hottest club. They told us that if we wanted to perform (though none of us were performers), we were welcome. By then, I had also been invited to join a band, and I can’t sing or play. The art world had cracked open, shaken by punk, which embraced ugliness and urban decay while putting a lot of old categories in question. What was music anymore when some of those No Wave records could clear a room? This was the era when everything could be tried, and there was space for the tryout. This was the neighborhood I used to call the Lower Worst Side. 8BC occupied the basement of an old farmhouse. At least, that’s how people always described that building.
Meanwhile, in another piece from the Times on the Lower East Side music scene from 1988:
THE Lower East Side has often been treated as a neighborhood producing one sort of music, neatly categorizable and easily stuffed away with the dirty laundry. But when historians of the Lower East Side reconsider the facts, the 1980's will be thought of as an immensely diverse, fecund era for music. The composers and improvisers John Zorn, Elliott Sharp and Wayne Horvitz have broken out of their turf, gaining a larger audience as they reached artistic maturation. The intense and radical social criticism of rock groups like the Swans and Sonic Youth, and the once endless stream of legendary clubs (now curtailed by real-estate prices), from 57 Club and 8BC to the still-vital CBGB and the new Knitting Factory, will make the 80's sound like Eden.
After being displaced from their building for 4 months, the students, staff and parents of East Side Community High School have come together in a show of strength to create and exhibit almost 1,000 pieces of art celebrating the importance of community.
East Side Community High School was evacuated in September after structural damage was found in the building. The 4 month-long evacuation created chaos and frustration, with hundreds of students and staff split up and relocated to other school sites in the city.
Upon returning to the school building in February, art teachers Leigh Klonsky and Desiree Borrero facilitated a massive school-wide art project around the themes of "home" and "community." Over the course of three weeks, students, parents, teachers, paraprofessionals, administration, and non-teaching staff participated in a series of art making workshops. Through writing and discussion, participants reflected on their individual experiences and relationship to the community. Their reflections inspired the creation of small mixed media artworks, using watercolor, colored pencil, marker and collage.
The artwork will be on display from April 24 – May 10 in the school's art gallery, the Loisaida Art Gallery, on East 11th Street between 1st Avenue and Avenue A. The opening reception is on Wednesday April 24 from 3:30 - 6:30 and is open to the public.
A selection from the exhibition will also be available online here.
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As a follow-up, we asked Leigh Klonsky a few questions about the exhibit.
What were you and Desiree hoping to accomplish with this project?
We had two major goals. One was to create an opportunity for everyone who was impacted by the evacuation to be able to reflect on their experience through visual art. Different classes and advisories did activities that helped us all reflect and share our experiences, but expressing yourself through visual art allows for other things to come up, things that might be hard to articulate in words. We wanted to provide an opportunity for people to visualize their experiences.
Another goal was to affirm the importance of every member of our community. By participating in one of the workshops, contributing a piece of art, or coming to the reception, you are affirming your place within our community. Although we are a small school, staff, students and families don't always interact or meet. It was a really special moment, for example, when our school psychologist, a parent and our custodian made art next to each other, after sharing their thoughts about community.
"Home" and "community" mean different things to different people. Did you see any common themes emerge from the artwork?
The workshops were structured to ask 6 questions:
• How does our East Side community represent home to you?
• What did you learn from being away from East Side?
• What does home, our community, the neighborhood, the Lower East Side look like to you?
• What did you miss about our East Side community when we were relocated?
• Is there a specific person or place in our East Side community that makes it home for you?
• What is your ideal vision of a school community?
Common responses discussed the loss of space, middle school students and high school students missing seeing each other, the cultural differences at the relocation sites (metal detectors, different commute, different neighborhood, lack of windows), but the most common response was how East Siders were able to create community wherever they were.
From the students you've talked with, what are some of the things that they took away from the experience of being displaced from their home school?
"Not taking things for granted" was a repeated phrase.
"Time and Space on the Lower East Side: 1980/2010"
w/ photographer Brian Rose
Tonight at 6:30 p.m.
Mid-Manhattan Library
455 5th Avenue, NY NY 10006 (at 41st Street)
Subway: 7 to 5th Avenue or B, D, F, M to 42nd Street/ Bryant Park
FREE!
In 1980, photographers Brian Rose and Ed Faustry embarked on an ambitious project to photograph a number of buildings, storefronts and streets of the Lower East Side. Tonight at the Mid-Manhattan Library, Brian Rose will be discussing his fantastic new book, Time and Space on the Lower East Side, which offers dozens of beautiful "then and now" images.
On East Fifth Street between C and D. Rose was standing near Fourth Street
"The Bowery: A History of Grit, Graft and Grandeur" Book Party W/ presentations by Eric Ferrara, Rob Hollander & David Mulkins
Thursday at 7:30 p.m. The BRECHT FORUM
451 West Street (West Side Highway at Bank Street)
New York, NY 10014
Subway: L to 14th Street
Sliding scale admission: $6/$10/$15/Free for Brecht Forum Subscribers
Refreshments served.
Toyo Tsuchiya, a well-regarded artist and photographer who documented the Lower East Side art scene of the 1980s, died in his East Village apartment on Nov. 23. He was 69. Friends said that he died of heart failure.
Here's more about him via Howl! Happening, which presented a selection of his work in November 2016:
Tsuchiya is best known for his photographs of NYC’s Lower East Side art scene in the 1980s and as an originator of the legendary Rivington School. In these highly personalized images of New York’s Lower East Side since 1980, Tsuchiya documented what was happening around him —the people, performance art, and the Lower East Side art scene — and especially the legendary underground movement of the collaborative Rivington School.
Born near Mt. Fuji in Japan, Tsuchiya grew up in Kyushu and Yokohama. After graduating from the Kanagawa Ken Technical High School for Industrial Design he began his career as an artist. Living in Osaka, Yokohama, and Tokyo, he studied and exhibited paintings, drawings and collage within a small circle of the 1970’s art world in Tokyo. In the late 70s he turned to photography, and soon moved to New York City.
Tsuchiya was a creative force behind the No Se No Social Club, the stage for many art happenings, including the 99 Nights, a marathon of free performances and exhibitions. In his photographs, Tsuchiya captures the style, energy, and free-spirited creativity of the time, and contextualized these happenings in a fine-art lineage.
On Tuesday, fellow Rivington School artist Monty Cantsin honored Tsuchiya on an East Village rooftop, where he painted the "6 O'Clock" Rivington School logo and Toyo's name before roping the piece off with (legally acquired) police tape.
[Photo by Adrian Wilson]
The following is courtesy of Adrian Wilson:
Cantsin spent four years working with Tsuchiya to collate photographs, posters and other ephemera relating to the Rivington School artists, publishing the first comprehensive book on the oft-lamented art group. Many of the Rivington School artists spread into the East Village, notably Linus Corraggio, who ran the Gas Station gallery on Avenue B at Second Street for a decade from 1985.
Longtime East Village resident Roman Albear was working closely with Toya on a Rivington School documentary, and only three weeks ago managed to bring six of the artists together for the first time in over 30 years to discuss their memories on film.
Sadly, this would be the last time Toyo appeared on camera (far left).
Some news to note from last week ... when LIHC Investment Group, one of the largest affordable-housing owners in the country, finalized a deal with the city to preserve 669 Section 8 apartments, including 243 in the East Village.
Here are details via a NYC Housing Preservation and Development news release:
The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC) join LIHC Investment Group to announce the preservation of 669 units of project-based Section 8 housing in high-cost New York City neighborhoods where the majority of similar buildings have converted to market-rate.
This preservation is made possible through tax-abatements under Article XI and new 40-year regulatory agreements with the City of New York covering six different properties in Inwood, Hamilton Heights, Harlem, Williamsburg and the Lower East Side.
The agreements were reached through Mayor de Blasio’s Housing New York Plan, which outlines commitments to protect affordable housing and created policies and programs intended to fight displacement.
And here are details about the housing in this neighborhood...
Lower East Side I & II Apartments are located at 384 East 10th Street and 199 Avenue B in Manhattan. Lower East Side I contains 152 project-based Section 8 units, while Lower East Side II contains 91 project-based Section 8 units. All units will be maintained as affordable to tenants whose annual income does not exceed 50 percent of AMI.
Co-owners LIHC and Center Development Corporation will execute approximately $7 million in capital improvements including installing new kitchen countertops and appliances; bathroom fixtures, tile floors, and fittings; laminate wood flooring, doors and lighting in all apartments.
In 1980, Brian Rose, in collaboration with fellow Cooper Union graduate Ed Fausty, photographed the Lower East Side during what he called "its darkest, but most creative moment. While buildings crumbled and burned, artists and musicians came to explore and express the edgy quality of the place."
After the project was completed and exhibited in 1981, it remained unseen in Rose's archive. And Rose moved on, working on various projects while living in Amsterdam for 15 years.
Rose revisited the streets of the Lower East Side with his camera some three decades later. Rose has put together "Time and Space on the Lower East Side," a self-published book contrasting the LES in 1980 with today. However, as he notes in the book's description:
"From the outset it was clear that this would not be a simple before/after take on the neighborhood. While keeping an eye on the earlier photographs done in 1980, I wanted to rediscover the place with fresh eyes, with the perspective of time, change, and history. The result, still being added to, is a set of photographs that looks backward and forward, that posits the idea that places are not simply “then and now,” but exist in a continuum of decay and rebirth."
He told me that the project is still looking for a publisher and exhibition venue. In the meantime, the book is available for purchase on Blurb.
Rose shared a few of the 1980 images with me....
East Second Street where it merges with Houston between Avenue C and Avenue D
On East Fifth Street between C and D. Rose was standing near Fourth Street
On the Bowery looking north toward East Fifth Street — now JASA/Cooper Square Senior Housing and the Cooper Square Hotel
The Jefferson Theatre on 14th Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue (now the Mystery Lot)
As you may have heard, it's expensive to live here in New York City. Rents just keep going up! For a little perspective, I looked at five articles from The New York Times on living in the Lower East Side/East Village. (Three of the articles came with the headline, "If You're Thinking of Living in: The East Village.")
Renovations on Lower East Side Creating New Living Quarters May 5, 1963 (and written by Bernard Weinraub! Only thought he did movies...) Article only available for a fee (charged by the Times, not me).
Apartments to be found in the vicinity are primarily renovated lofts and tenement flats. Rentals in the renovated houses vary. According to Harry J. Shapolsky and Harry Gruber, builders and owners of more than 25 buildings on the East Side, south of 14th Street, the monthy rental for a one-and-a-half-room air-conditioned apartment in a building with an elevator ranges from $85 to $100. The monthly rental for a three-room apartment in the same building ranges from $110 to $145.
In a renovated building with neither air-conditioning nor elevator, according to Mr. Shapolsky, the monthly rental for a one-and-a-half-room apartment varies from $65 to $85. A three-room apartment in the same building ranges from $75 to $95 a month.
The emergence of renovated apartments has occurred mainly in the area called the East Village – north of Houston Street, south of 14th Street and east of University Place.
Real-estate manager Richard] Paley places the most favored area on the Lower East Side around Tompkins Square Park…
"This is the last frontier in Manhattan for reasonable rents," he said. "You can live here for 'Bronx' or 'Brooklyn' prices."
If You're Thinking of Living in: The East Village October 6, 1985 Rehabilitation of scores of buildings is under way and to hear local developers tell it, the sale of condominiums is brisk. The developers of 65-69 Cooper Square, a new building with 37 studios and one-bedroom condominiums, said more than two-thirds had been sold since it opened several months ago. The apartments range in price from $175,000 to $208,000, with typical maintenance of $329 a month.
But prices are not rising uniformly: The owners of a 20-unit apartment house at 82 East Third Street recently lowered their asking price from $575,000 to $515,000.
Rents for apartments, when available, can be high. Studio apartments on East Ninth Street between First and Second Avenues are being advertised at $725 a month, and two-bedroom apartments at St. Mark's Place and First Avenue have been advertised for $1,500 a month.
Condominium and co-op prices vary widely. Sponsors of a new co-op in a building being rehabilitated at 613 East Sixth Street are asking $165,000 for a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment, with maintenance of about $500 a month.
In general, the trend of real-estate prices seems steadily upward, and that portends what many in the neighborhood fear, gentrification. It already has happened to many of the theaters, nightclubs and music clubs that used to abound in the area only a few years ago. Most are gone now, the victims of rising rents.
If You're Thinking of Living in: The East Village June 14, 1992 Yet the allure of bohemian decadence keeps housing prices up. The building stock includes "more five-story walk-ups than anything else," said Gary Brenner of City Estate Agency. Rents in these and in brownstones and renovated spaces, he said, are $600 to $1,000 a month for studios, $750 to $1,400 for one-bedrooms and $1,200 to $1,800 for two-bedrooms.
Luxury buildings went up during the 1980's. But more than half the owners in the Christodora House, an 85-unit condominium on Avenue B overlooking the park, have rented their spaces, waiting out the recession before selling, according to James Roman, sales manager for the Halstead Property Company, a brokerage, and Red Square, a high-rise rental at 250 East Houston built in the late 80's, "still has empty apartments and a steady turnover."
St. Mark's Real Estate, which handles rent-stabilized apartments, said studios fetch $600 to $700 and two-bedrooms, $1,000 to $1,100.
If You're Thinking of Living In: The East Village; From Mean Streets to Cutting-Edge December 17, 2000
Prices for co-ops and condominiums have quadrupled since 1996, said Jordan Gitterman, an owner of Magnum Realty, which specializes in East Village properties. Though most buildings in the neighborhood remain rental, condominiums are going on the market with prices ranging from $250,000 for one bedroom to $450,000 for three bedrooms.
''Before this big swing in the 90's, this was a pretty rough area,'' Mr. Gitterman said. ''There are still some rough blocks, but it has changed from a low-income area to a trendy, hip area for young people.''
One recent condo conversion is a 20-unit building on East Fourth Street, between Avenues B and C. The building's history encapsulates much of the neighborhood's last hundred years. Built as a church rectory in the early 20th century, the building was later sold and used as a yeshiva for Eastern European boys. It was vacated sometime in the late 60's, reopened as an arena for amateur boxing matches 10 years later and then was boarded up until it was sold to Urbatech Designers and Builders in 1989, said one of the company's owners, Yoram Finkelstein.
Urbatech renovated the building and put the apartments on the market in the early 1990's, but found no buyers. ''We had an ad in the paper in the early 90's, and people would call and hear it was on Avenue C and they would just hang up,'' Mr. Finkelstein said.
After renting the apartments for a decade, the company put the apartments on the market again in September and sold more than half in two months. Prices run from $340,000 for two bedrooms, to $380,000 for a one-bedroom unit with a roof terrace to $425,000 for a three-bedroom unit, he said.
Even more surprising to many longtime residents is the steep rise in rents in the last five years. Apartments that rented 10 years ago for $500 or $600 now go for two or three times that. Studio apartments rent for $1,300 to $1,400, one-bedrooms go for $1,700 to $1,800 and two- and three-bedroom apartments run as high as $3,000, said Jack Bick, owner of Charaton Realty.
''If you want to live in the East Village, you better be prepared to pay a lot of money,'' he said. ''The only way to get anything for under $1,000 is to share a bedroom.''
He and other area brokers attribute the rapid rise in rents to New York University students who began flowing into the neighborhood in the mid-90's. Most of the neighborhood's apartments fall under the city's rent regulation laws, which generally permit landlords to raise rent by 20 percent for new tenants, and the rapid turnover in student tenants has propelled rents upward. Since students tend to stay in apartments for just a couple of years, landlords can raise the rent when the students graduate and move on.
''By their third and fourth year in college, all the students want to live in the East village,'' Mr. Bick said. ''And Mommy and Daddy say, 'O.K., we'll foot the bill.' ''
Finally, while not specifically discussing the East Village, this article from Sunday sums up the NYC rental market:
For Mackenzie Rosenthal, who will be a senior at New York University next year and who will be moving into a one-bedroom at 20 Exchange Place this summer, “the perks were just kind of too good to pass up.” She said she and her father had “pored over the lease, saying: ‘Where’s the catch?’ but as far as we can tell, there doesn’t seem to be one.”
When she and a roommate moved into her current two-bedroom walk-up in the East Village, they had to come up with $12,000 to cover the broker’s fee, security deposit and first and last month’s rent. “That was just ludicrous,” she said. “But when I move into my new apartment, all I need is the first month’s rent.”
Ms. Rosenthal said that after factoring in the free month’s rent, her $3,000 apartment will cost her $2,750 a month. She worries that she will not be able to afford to stay in the apartment when her one-year lease is up, but her broker, Jeffrey Carlson of Platinum Properties, said that as an original tenant, she might be able to negotiate the same rate at renewal time.
Frances Goldin, a lifelong preservationist and community activist, died on Sunday in her East Village apartment, according to published reports. She was 95.
As The New York Timesnoted, Goldin, who was born in Queens in 1924, "won her first street brawl when she was 11 and as a grown-up never stopped fighting to safeguard her beloved Lower East Side from upscale developers."
Here's more from the Times on her remarkable life:
An unreconstructed socialist, Ms. Goldin was an advocate for affordable housing and a staunch defender of the poor.
Her activism extended over two careers. In one, she was a civic leader in a vintage neighborhood that was being gussied up with fancy names (“as soon as they said ‘East Village,’ they tripled the rent,” she told The New York Times in 1984) and studded with asymmetrical buildings girdled in glass.
In the other, from 1977, she was a literary agent who represented progressive authors, including Susan Brownmiller, Martin Duberman, Juan Gonzalez, Robert Meeropol, Frances Fox Piven and the New York City historian Mike Wallace. The novelist Barbara Kingsolver chose Ms. Goldin on the basis of her advertisement that read, “I do not represent any material that is sexist, ageist or gratuitously violent.”
Goldin was the founder of both the Metropolitan Council on Housing and the Cooper Square Committee.
Tributes to her on Twitter included...
Remembering our fierce and inspiring co-founder, Frances Goldin, who passed away on Saturday. Her legacy is enormous, much like her love for the Lower East Side and for all communities struggling for social justice.
Very sorry to hear that Frances Goldin, legendary Lower East Side activist, has died. Charismatic, brilliant, charming, combative – but she got things done. Housing was built. Neighborhoods saved. People were brought together in common cause. One of the greatest of New Yorkers. pic.twitter.com/ThXdIWu7Vf
We were deeply saddened by the passing of Frances Goldin this weekend. She was a giant-slayer, @CooperSq co-founder, social justice fighter, preservationist, and passionate community leader. Read our past birthday tribute, incl her wonderful oral history: https://t.co/RMCWWukAympic.twitter.com/3Jz6v1rr0q
My former boss Frances Goldin passed away over the weekend. She was a literary agent and activist who dyed her hair with Manic Panic at the age of 95. A true legend. I feel so lucky she was in my life. The city won't be the same without her. https://t.co/40ro72fSKL
May 2014 brings the first annual Lower East Side (LES) History Month, a month-long celebration of the rich, diverse history of New York City's Lower East Side, including the neighborhoods of the East Village, Chinatown, Little Italy and Alphabet City. With participation by more than 60 Lower East Side-based cultural and community groups, LES History Month will feature over 80 affordable and unique events, including live performances, exhibits, gallery and walking tours, talks, film screenings, festivals and more.
LES History Month opens with Chalk/LES, a weekend-long participatory project to bring LES history, art and stories onto the streets of the neighborhood. Starting Friday, May 2, numerous LES sites will be emblazoned with chalked trivia and memories of their lived histories. On Saturday, May 3, public chalking sites will be open for all, encouraging passersby to participate with their own stories and images of the LES. Game participants are also invited to join scavenger hunt teams, organized by Guerilla Haiku Movement, who will head out and cover the neighborhood with sidewalk-chalked poetry, and engage passersby in their own creative storytelling about the LES.
Chalk/LES culminates on Sunday, May 4, as artists and volunteers will chalk a pathway from various LES transit hubs toward East River Park, along the waterfront, and arriving at Pier 42 for Picnic on the Pier. As a partnership with Paths to Pier 42, LES History Month will present salsa dancing with las Dinimicas of Grand Street Settlement, gypsy swing from Sugar Hill Gypsy Jazz, songs from the young singers of Downtown Art, and an afternoon of family friendly art activities led by The Tenement Museum and the Museum of Chinese in America.
To celebrate, LES History Month will also announce the inaugural LES Heroes award, recognizing the often unsung contributions of neighborhood residents, activists and leaders.
To find out more about LES History Month, its participants and opening weekend programming, visit here.
A federal judge ruled that the Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union on Avenue B lacks standing to challenge President Trump's appointment of Mick Mulvaney to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
The ruling was made public yesterday. Here's more from Reuters:
U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe in Manhattan said the Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union lacked legal authority to sue, rejecting what he called the plaintiff’s “fear-based theory of standing.”
Gardephe said the credit union failed to show that any actual or expected policy changes under Mulvaney, who is also White House budget chief, would undermine its ability to fulfill its mission of improving the health of underserved communities.
“Organizations advocating for a particular policy goal who have alleged no injury to themselves as organizations may not establish their standing simply on the basis of that goal,” Gardephe wrote. His decision is dated Thursday.
A lawyer for the Credit Union told Reuters: "We are evaluating our options in this extremely important case."
In early December, the Credit Union accused the President in a complaint of "an illegal hostile takeover of the CFPB." You can read more on the challenge here.
The Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union was founded in 1986. Today, it has nearly 8,500 members as well as locations in East Harlem and on Staten Island.
You live and work on the Lower East Side, whose locales appear in your music videos. How has the neighborhood influenced your work? 
