East Village native Anna Colombia on pursuing photography and growing up in the neighborhood

Anna Colombia is an interdisciplinary artist born and raised in the East Village, where she still lives. 

Her most recent publication is "Make Shift Youth," a zine featuring 24 Riso-printed images and letterpress-printed text from her days in the neighborhood's punk scene.

Here, she discusses discovering photography, growing up in the East Village and finding inspiration today.
 

What sparked your initial interest in photography in high school? 

My high school experience was horrible, so I kinda stopped going after a certain point. My mom really wanted me to graduate and to enjoy learning, so she started trying to get me to take high school art classes at SVA. One of the first ones I took was an introduction to photography. I was hooked instantly by the magic of it all and learning how to use the darkroom.

Obviously, being in high school, I didn’t really know what to photograph, so I started by taking pictures of a lot of the graffiti around the neighborhood, and then naturally my friends and the punk shows I was going to. 

Were you known in the punk community as someone who always took photos? What was your initial comfort level with photographing people? 

 I always had a camera with me, but I don’t think I was ever seen as that person always taking pictures. My style of documentation has always been somewhat on the sly, with friends saying they never really knew I had taken certain pictures because it was always so natural.

There was another girl who sometimes hung out and who was always taking photos. She was the one everyone thought of as the photographer. Her collection has got to be amazing, but it always bothered me that she didn’t respect people’s wishes not to be photographed. I have always been very comfortable photographing people, because I have always only photographed the people in my life. 

While I love catching moments of my life through those around me, I also respect when people do not want to be photographed. 

Why did you decide to revisit growing up in the East Village punk scene with "Make Shift Youth"? 

Before COVID shut everything down, I had spent about two years slowly working, scanning all my negatives from high school and the years after. I hadn't looked at my high school photos in so long, and I was surprised by what I had, especially that the majority of them highlighted all these ladies in the scene... something I personally feel you don't see a lot of (or enough of) when it comes to documentation of "alternative" scenes. 

Then, the lockdown happened, and I had a lot of time to sit and play on the computer with the images at home. I had been applying for grants to publish another, bigger collection of photographs from my travels and decided maybe I should start with this collection since it was smaller and really what started it all. 

So, I began slowly working, putting together images I wanted to use for this zine. I had just discovered Riso as a print process, and I really loved the idea that instead of just showing the original images, I could manipulate them to become abstracted and color-blocked prints, combining the two things I love: photography and printmaking.

On the opening page of the zine, you wrote the date and then scribbled it out. Why did you decide not to list the years?

I like the mystery. 

How do you balance documentation and abstraction in your visual storytelling? 

I began publishing zines in high school about being female in the punk scene, using my photographs and words to tell this story. I have been publishing zines and art books for many years now, combining stories about my life with photographs and printmaking. While I really wanted to show these photos, I didn't want to take away from them by visually adding any text or talking about them. 

As a printmaker, my work focuses on abstracting an image and allowing those who see the work to create their own narrative. When I started putting the photos I wanted to print together, I could already see how I wanted to abstract a few of them: extending aspects of the image or cutting out the parts I thought were important. I wanted the narrative to flow from page to page through composition, colors and shapes. 

You were born and raised and are still living in the East Village. Did you ever live elsewhere... or at least consider it? 

 I traveled a lot for a long time, riding trains and hitchhiking, but that's a different story and a whole other body of photo work I'm hoping to one day publish. The East Village has always been my home. 

Why have you decided to stay here? 

This neighborhood and city have changed so much, I honestly don't know anymore. 

How does your environment in the East Village continue to inspire or influence your creative process?

Growing up in the neighborhood was definitely one of the things that started me on the path of the work I make. As a kid and teenager growing up in the East Village, I experienced things a lot of people might not have. My mom is an artist too, so that also helped me see and interact with my surroundings in a unique way. 

I grew up playing in Tompkins and the 6th and B Garden, got in trouble for taking hypodermic needles to show and tell that my friend and I found in the concrete playground of P.S. 19... long before it became what it is now. I drank at Mars Bar when I shouldn't have, and got to go to shows at CBGB and Coney Island High.

All these experiences have shaped who I am today and fueled all my early work. The neighborhood has changed, gentrification and rising rents have priced out all the things I grew up with and loved. And while I do find some inspiration still walking down the streets, I find a lot of what inspires my new work comes from the time I spend traveling across the U.S. and other countries. 

I understand you have a treasure trove of photos. What else from the archives might you feature next? 

I would love to do maybe two or three more volumes or even have a show of the actual photographs. I’ve thought about doing one volume of only photos shot at punk shows...mosh pits, mohawks and a sea of hair dyed in all the colors of the rainbow. 

My real dream, however, has been to publish a photo book of the collection of images I have from after high school, traveling around and across this country for years. 

And did you ever replace your mom's Canon Rebel that you destroyed with beer while in high school? 

We had to get it fixed... she was not happy about that (it was kinda a loaner from her job). I think at the time, I also told her someone at the show spilled beer on it (not me, of course). 

My mom saw how much I loved photography and later bought me a smaller, more pocket-friendly (for my lifestyle) camera, which continues to be my favorite camera to shoot with.

You can find her Etsy shop here.

Late night at Key Food

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

Key Food returned to a 24/7 schedule last October after shortened hours during the pandemic. 

Ownership — the Mandell family operates this location as well as the Key Food outposts in Park Slope and Astoria, part of the Key Food Stores Co-Operative — invited me into the grocery during the overnight hours... and even provided an all-access tour of the space. 

Aside from knowing EVG's affinity for the grocery (for better or worse!), the store on Avenue A and Fourth Street is trying to encourage people to shop between midnight and 6 a.m. and has a promo through July 27 — $5 off a purchase of $50 or more.

While I didn't receive a laminated all-access badge, I did have a tour guide in Dwyane "Petie" Reddy, who has worked for Key Food since 1987 — starting at the Queens store, and here for the past seven years ...

Also on duty this night — store manager Richie Gaitan, who has also been with Key Food since 1987...

...and away we went ... here are some behind-the-scenes scenes ... away from what shoppers might see... the place is a lot bigger than you might think at first glance rounding aisle 1...

A few things I learned... the ready-to-eat salads and prepared meals you see when you enter Key are made in-house. (The sushi is delivered each day from an outside vendor.) The meat department is staffed daily as well...

Key Food management also showed off a new employees-only T-shirt design (and I pitched them on making merch for the store because we'd buy this)...

And some Key trivia — these 24-packs of Poland Spring water are the store's top-selling product. (I'm told this is a loss-leader item)...

Richie's (iconic?) yellow sale signs and other various notices that are everywhere are designed and printed in-house...

And there's a reason for the seemingly never-ending supply of Keebler Export Sodas canisters and those 18-pound bags of wild bird food by the exit — they are big sellers...

We also cracked the mystery of the store music, often heavy on the semi-forgotten and/or guilty pleasure hits from the mid-to-late 1980s (from Level 42 to Glass Tiger to Mike + the Mechanics). 

However, my editor is making me save this scoop for another post so he can list all the random songs he's heard while shopping at Key. 

Speaking of shopping, the overnight hours proved to be a good time to knock this errand off your to-do list ... if it fits into your schedule. 

A Merry Mystery Lot Christmas

Thanks to Goggla for sharing this! A Christmas scene circa 2012 from the Mystery Lot ... the beloved site of far too many EVG posts on 13th Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue... home since early 2014 to the Jefferson, an 82-unit condoplex.

Q&A with Jake Dobkin, co-founder of Gothamist and author of 'Ask a Native New Yorker'

After helping launch Gothamist in 2003, co-founder and native New Yorker Jake Dobkin enjoyed answering questions and offering advice (often unsolicited!) about NYC to staffers who recently arrived here.

Eventually, Editor-in-Chief John Del Signore suggested that Dobkin, a third-generation New Yorker who grew up in Park Slope, share his humorous and opinionated perspective to readers who may have questions about adjusting to the NYC way of life or to longtime residents looking for a unique point of view.

And so, in the summer of 2013, Dobkin wrote his first "Ask a Native New Yorker" for the news site, tackling a topic that people may wonder about but couldn't find an answer to: "Is It Normal For Roaches To Crawl Through My Hair At Night?"

Now, after 150 columns — addressing questions ranging from "Should I Wash My Hands After Taking The Subway?" to "When Should I Call The Cops On My New Neighbors?" — the series has been turned into a book. I recently asked Dobkin a few questions about "Ask a Native New Yorker."

You've written some 150 "Ask a Native New Yorker" posts for Gothamist. However, the book isn't a repackaging of those. What can readers expect to find in this volume?

I wanted to start from scratch here and really create a volume of advice that could guide a New Yorker from birth until death. I thought a lot of the original columns on the web were pretty good, but they were written under the usual blogging time constraints.

For the book. I had a lot more time and so I think the answers are a lot more thoughtful, and hopefully more amusing. Turns out banging out eight blog posts a day ain't the best way to create quality writing!

In the book, you write that to be considered a native New Yorker, you must have, for starters, been born in one of the five boroughs. What are your feelings about people who say they are a native New Yorker — they just grew up a quick LIRR ride away in, oh, Valley Stream?

I feel bad for these people, because the truth always comes out, and then they look like real chumps. Listen, I grew up in Park Slope — it's not exactly the most hardcore neighborhood in New York, and so I understand why someone might want to shade the truth on their origin story. In college I used to tell people I grew up in South Brooklyn or something.

But ultimately to achieve wisdom you must be honest with the world and yourself about who you are and where you come from, and anyway, it could be worse — you could be from Jersey!

Do you allow for any wiggle room for iconic figures from the city's past or present — people who made an impression on NYC's culture and history though they weren't born here and hence not native New Yorkers? People such as Mickey Mantle, Andy Warhol, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Patrick Ewing, Debbie Harry and Patti Smith to randomly name six...

Newcomers, immigrants and refugees from the suburbs all contribute to the wonderful tossed-salad that is NYC culture — I'd never denigrate anyone who took the extreme act of courage it takes to move here. That said, I think it's fair to say that natives have a different, and valuable point of view, that is too often overlooked, and which I hope the book shines a light on.

You went to school at Columbia. At the time while making your collegiate choice, did it occur to you that attending, say, Brown or Dartmouth, would have watered down your native New Yorker status by being away for four years?

I was raised by hippie radical communists in Park Slope, whose style of parenting was to avoid parenting as much as possible. So when it came to applying to college I was pretty much on my own.

Stuyvesant High School in those days had about one college counselor for every 950 kids, so there wasn't much advice there either — it was pretty much "don't forget to apply to college!" So I was actually totally unaware Columbia existed until after I graduated from high school — basically everything above 14th Street was like one of those old maps where the far north is labelled "there be dragons."

So I didn't apply there, and actually got rejected by every school except Dartmouth and Binghamton. Now, I knew I couldn't go to Dartmouth, because I had a feeling my whole sarcastic Jew schtick wouldn't play well in New Hampshire. So I ended up going to SUNY Binghamton for 12 weeks, and then dropping out, and at that point, finally, someone suggested I check out Columbia, and I did. It was like I discovered El Dorado — an amazing lost city of gold.

So I wish I could say my college choice was the product of my New York Native realness, but it was actually just a kind of ridiculous stumbling ass-backwards into a situation that worked for me. The moral of the story is I'm not letting my kids apply to any school you can't get to on NYC public transit. Maybe I'd make an exception for Rutgers or something.

The book provides a lot of helpful tips for people new to the city. Do you have any specific advice for residents who are new to the East Village?

I remember when I first got to Stuy, back in 1990 — I was 13, and in those days it was on 15th and 1st, just outside the East Village. Everything south was this giant mystery which took me years to unravel. I actually think the first time I walked down St. Mark's I was 20 years old! But since then I've developed tons of favorite spots, none particularly original — Veselka, Sobaya, 7B, etc.

One of the best secret spots in all of NYC — the New York Marble Cemetery off Second Avenue — I love going in there whenever the gate is open.

Do you still believe — as you write — that New York is the greatest city in the world? You finished this book before Hudson Yards opened.

New York is the greatest city the world has ever seen, and probably will ever see, since between climate change and our current politics, the human race doesn't seem like it has so much time left.

You can't let things like Hudson Yards bother you too much — New York has always changed at a blistering pace, and somehow we always turn out OK. I was up there [the other day] shooting the Shed, and I saw like four hot-dog carts already colonizing the edges of the site. I have no doubt in 10 or 20 years the place will be totally over-run with real New York chaos.

---

"Ask a Native New Yorker: Hard-Earned Advice on Surviving and Thriving in the Big City" (Abrams Image) is now available wherever books are sold.

Full reveal at 363 Lafayette

Just noting the recent full reveal over at 363 Lafayette St., the 10-floor, mixed-used office building at Great Jones...



Ironstate Development is behind this project. (Their work in the neighborhood includes The Jefferson, the condoplex at the site of the former Mystery Lot.) The 363 website lists that seven of the 10 floors have been leased. The sidewalk-level retail that stretches back to Bond is available as well.

This was a long-vacant parcel that partially housed the Jones Diner until September 2002.


[EVG photo from 2015]

Previously on EV Grieve:
Former Jones Diner lot on Lafayette primed for new development

[Image: Spencer Platt/Getty Images]

Help plan a park at the DEP shaft site on 4th Street

That long-vacant lot on Fourth Street between 2 Cooper Square and the Merchant's House Museum has always been a bit of a mystery ... seems like prime space just waiting for a, say, hotel!

Since the 1990s, the Department of Environmental Preservation (DEP) has used this city-owned space to work on shafts connected to the underground network of tunnels that supply the city's drinking water.

Now, as promised some years ago, this lot will be turned into a city park — or rather "passive recreation space."

On Monday night, reps from the city will host a meeting to discuss usage for the site...



Per the invite:

Please join us to discuss creating a passive recreation space at the DEP shaft site on East Fourth Street

Monday, Oct. 1:

6:30 p.m. — Meet first to see the DEP shaft site

7 p.m. — Scope meeting at JASA Green Residence, 200 E. Fifth St. at the Bowery

This project was funded by Mayor de Blasio and former Council Member Rosie Mendez, and is supported by Council Member Carlina Rivera.

NYC Parks is starting the design process for this project by holding a scope meeting, in which local residents and stakeholders to learn about the opportunities at the site and provide feedback. With this input, we will develop a design to be presented to Community Board 2 for public review.

The park space here will measure 9,750 square feet. This DNAinfo article from 2016 has more background.

Construtction watch: 363 Lafayette St.

Here's an in-progress look at 363 Lafayette St., the 10-floor, mixed-used building that's nearing a full reveal at Great Jones...



Ironstate Development is behind this project. Their work in the neighborhood includes The Jefferson, the condoplex at the site of the former Mystery Lot. Another familiar name in these parts, Morris Adjmi, is the architect of record. (He designed the building proposed for the Second Avenue explosion site.)

...and here are renderings via SK Development...





The 363 website lists that seven of the 10 floors have been leased.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Former Jones Diner lot on Lafayette primed for new development

[Image: Spencer Platt/Getty Images]

Construction watch: 363 Lafayette

Here's a look at 363 Lafayette, where work has passed the halfway mark on a 10-floor, mixed-used building rising at Great Jones.

The office building will feature a showroom on the ground floor and community facility space on the second floor and part of the third floor, as New York Yimby previously reported.

The property stretches south to Bond Street...





Morris Adjmi is the architect of record. Here's more from his firm's website:

This office building’s fanning setback was inspired by the unique wedge-shaped site. With its brick cladding and contemporary terracotta detailing, this office building reflects the architectural character of the NoHo Historic District.

And a rendering...



Ironstate Development is behind this project. Their work in the neighborhood includes The Jefferson, the condoplex at the site of the former Mystery Lot.

This parcel of land hasn't been without controversy. In 2008, artist Chuck Close, whose studio is next door at 20 Bond St., filed a lawsuit against the previous property owner, Olmstead Properties, to prevent the construction of a 6-floor office building. He argued that the new development would block the building’s natural light, which he and other artists at No. 20 need for their work.

Ironstate's original proposal for the space included the 10 stories covering the side windows of No. 20. Those plans were later modified.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Former Jones Diner lot on Lafayette primed for new development

[Image: Spencer Platt/Getty Images]

More details on Bruno Pizza, opening early next year on East 13th Street

The buildout continues at 204 E. 13th St., just east of Third Avenue and across from the former Mystery Lot Jefferson.

Bruno Pizza is the new tenant. And Grub Street and Eater have more details on what first-time restaurateur Demian Repucci has planned for the space.

In addition to serving Neapolitan pizza, he has hired the two chefs who created the tasting menu at Box Kite Coffee on St. Mark's Place.

Per Eater:

Repucci is still working out all of the details, but for now, he plans to make the tasting menu a reservations-only option for just a handful of seats at the restaurant. The space is much larger than the tiny Box Kite, but to keep the intimate relationship between chefs and diners, Repucci built a 20 person bar looking into the kitchen and a few special seats right at the pass, where the chefs will cook.

As we reported back in May 2013, Repucci, a restaurant designer, planned to open his pizzeria at 223 First Ave., where Birdbath Neighborhood Green Bakery vacated. However, the lease fell through, and eventually Mee Noodle Shop moved in.

Week in Grieview

[Why did Zoltar move? He loves Paul's! Photo by Derek Berg]

Gracefully is closing on Avenue A (Monday)

Q-and-A with Vanessa McDonnell, director of the John's of 12th Street documentary (Thursday)

East Village Radio is returning (Friday)

Native Bean moving soon on Avenue A (Thursday)

Q-and-A with activist Kelly Cogswell, author of "Eating Fire: My Life as a Lesbian Avenger" (Tuesday)

Pizza Bagel Cafe yielding to a T-Mobil store on East 14th Street and First Avenue (Tuesday)

City's first cat cafe opening on the LES (Thursday)

Out and About with Ben Bahud (Wednesday)

Coming soon to First Avenue: Sweet Generation, "A Bakery for Arts Education" (Monday)

Facebook is here now in Midtown South (Wednesday)

The Marshal seizes Cafe Cambodge on Avenue C (Thursday)

$73 million and Ben Shaoul's Bloom 62 is all yours (Friday)

John Lurie's new live Internet radio show debuts (Wednesday)

LaVie in rubble (Friday)

zPizza closes on First Avenue (Monday)

A Building condo returns to market WITHOUT THE SLIDE (Tuesday)

Heavenly Market opens on Third Avenue (Friday)

Awwwwwwwww: Christo and Dora make cute in the sunset (Tuesday)

Momofuku-French Louie vets bringing BARA to East First Street (Monday)

Refurbished El Sombrero debuts (Wednesday)

New residential building for former Mobil station lot will be 10 floors with 0 zero affordable units (Wednesday)

57 Second Ave. available for $30 million (Thursday)

Mystery mounds (Friday)

Mile High Run Club is up and running (Monday)

… and we realized that we never noted the arrival of the recently relocated Cloak & Dagger boutique at 334 E. Ninth St. … in the former Archangel Antiques space…

Mystery mounds at the former Mary Help of Christians lot

[Photo by dwg]

Several readers have wondered what has been going on at the former Mary Help of Christians lot off of Avenue A between East 11th Street and East 12th Street ... currently enjoying the afterlife as a trash dump and graffiti canvas.

There has been some activity at the site of late ... a few dump trucks and mounds of dirt...





Not sure what the workers are doing. (Making a course for area children to snow tube and sled this winter?)

Developer Douglas Steiner is still waiting on city approval for his retail-residential complex. The city last disapproved plans here in June, according to DOB records.

During the summer of 2013, workers demolished the church, school and rectory. As for the new 438 E. 12th St., there will be 158 residential units… and maybe a rooftop pool.

Bottom two photos by Bobby Williams

Previously on EV Grieve:
New residential complex at former Mary Help of Christians lot may include rooftop swimming pool

Meet your new neighbor on Avenue A

Permits filed to demolish Mary Help of Christians church, school and rectory

Preservationists call for archeological review of former cemetery at Mary Help of Christians site

The 'senseless shocking self-destruction' of Mary Help of Christians

At The Nathaniel, named after a hated secondary character in an Ayn Rand novel

Speaking of Third Avenue and East 12th Street... the luxury rentals at The Nathaniel hit the market back in the summer.

Curbed took a tour of the building for a post yesterday.

Curbed clears up one minor mystery: Just who or what is The Nathaniel named for: Turns out it's for Nathaniel Taggart, who is the grandfather of the protagonist of Ayn Rand's 1957 novel "Atlas Shrugged."

Per the always reliable Wikipedia:

Nathaniel Taggart was the founder of Taggart Transcontinental. He built his railroad without any government handouts, and ran the business for no other reason than to turn a profit. He began as a penniless adventurer and ended up as one of the wealthiest men in the country. He never earned money by force or fraud (except for bribing government officials and throwing an opponent down a flight of stairs), and never apologized for becoming wealthy and successful. He was one of the most hated men of his time.

Perhaps, then, The Nathaniel will become the most hated apartment building of its time in the East Village?

Off to a good start! The Nathaniel's least-expensive offering is a $3,273 studio, which, Curbed notes, is just slightly less than the median rental price ($3,300) for an apartment in the neighborhood.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Those persistent rumors about 74-76 Third Avenue and the future of Nevada Smiths

The East Village will lose a parking lot and gain an apartment building

Bendy thing sighting as 84 Third Ave. eclipses the AMC Loews Village 7

Upscale rentals and a rooftop reflection pool at The Nathaniel on 3rd Avenue

The Nathaniel on 3rd Avenue and East 12th Street is apparently in Greenwich Village

Chop Chop Yow: CityMd signage arrives at The Jefferson

We pointed out a few weeks ago that The Jefferson's retail space at 216 E. 14th St. near Third Avenue would be home to a CityMD practice.

Anyway, just wanted to point out that the sign is up now for City MD ... "Chop Chop Yow?"

Rejected headlines:
Doctor, doctor, give me the news — I have a bad case of blogging you

Previously on EV Grieve:
Jefferson retail façade — revealed

The Mystery Lot developers using famous dead comedians to sell condos at The Jefferson

The Jefferson reveals what '21st Century living in the heart of Olde New York' costs

CityMD Urgent Care center coming to The Jefferson's retail space on East 14th Street