Love and Pride: At the start of the Drag March in Tompkins Square Park

Participants in the annual Drag March last night gathered in Tompkins Square Park for the walk over to the Stonewall Inn.

With this being the 25th annual Drag March — coupled with the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising — the crowd was larger and the mood even more festive than in previous years. (Gothamist described the March, which stretched two Avenue blocks, as "sexy, provocative and rowdy.")

Shortly after 8 p.m., the March left the Park and headed west along Ninth Street, marking the start of Pride Weekend.

EVG contributor Stacie Joy captured the scene in Tompkins Square Park in these following photos...





























































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Daniel Root also shared photos from last night...

Friday's parting shots

Steven shared these photos from this evening ... as the 25th annual Drag March left Tompkins Square Park and headed west along Ninth Street...





More photos tomorrow...

A song along the Side of the road

Here's "On My Side," a track from the Chicago-based Dehd's second record ... the recently released Water (on Fire Talk).

Last chance to see 'The First Time I Saw The Ramones' at 72 Gallery

"The First Time I saw the Ramones" wraps up its residency on Sunday at 72 Gallery.

This solo show features photos by Tom Hearn, who documented a Ramones show up in New Haven on July 22, 1976.

You can see the exhibit from noon to 8 p.m (to 6 p.m. on Sunday) in the gallery space at The Great Frog, the rock 'n' roll ring shop and boutique at 72 Orchard St. between Broome and Grand. (And while you're down there, you can check out The Cast next door or Jimmy Webb's I Need More across the street.)

And as for some of Hearn's photos...








[The Dee Dee door]

Previously on EV Grieve:
'The First Time I Saw The Ramones' at 72 Gallery

I Am a Rent-Stabilized Tenant

East Village resident Susan Schiffman has been photographing the apartments of rent-stabilized tenants living in the East Village for her Instagram account, I Am a Rent Stabilized Tenant. She shares some of the photos here for this ongoing EVG feature.

Photos and text by Susan Schiffman

Tenant: Lola Saénz, since 1993

Why did you move to the East Village?

I grew up in El Paso, Texas. I always wanted to be an artist. I wanted to live in either Los Angeles or New York City — the East Village or Soho. It was all based on the movies that I would see.

When I moved here I ended up on King Street, not far from Soho. I lived there for a year. I had two roommates and we had to move in a hurry. It’s a long story.







How did you find your apartment?

I got a call from a close friend aka Prima. Asked if I wanted to stay in her studio apartment in the East Village while she was in Florida.

So I came to see the apartment. On my way here, on the corner of 12th Street, a guy asked me if I wanted to buy grass. I didn't buy any, but I was like, This is the East Village!

So I moved in. About three months later, my good friend aka Prima decided to stay in Florida. She came back and we had the lease transferred to my name. That was August 1993. I never looked for a place in the East Village — the apartment came to me.









What do you love about your apartment?

I’ve grown here. If I die today or tomorrow I would die happy — I've accomplished good things ... but I still have many more things I want to do with my life as an artist!





If you're interested in inviting Susan in to photograph your apartment for an upcoming post, then you may contact her via this email. And read about her in the new issue of The New Yorker!

The Drag March is tonight

[Photo from 2018 by Stacie Joy]

The 25th annual Drag March is tonight ... starting in Tompkins Square Park, where hundreds of participants will being gathering at 7 before making their way over to Sheridan Square and then the Stonewall Inn.

The Drag March got its start during the Stonewall 25th anniversary celebrations in 1994.

Here's a HuffPost piece with more history:

Brian Griffin, aka Harmonie Moore Must Die, was a member of the AIDS advocacy group ACT UP and Women’s Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM) in the mid-1990s, an activist who saw the power of drag to confront intolerance and practice civil disobedience in a way that also celebrated queerness. But at planning meetings for the Stonewall 25th anniversary celebrations, Griffin told HuffPost, the committee made it clear that it was only interested in presenting a somewhat sanitized version of LGBTQ activism.

“The committee for Stonewall 25 had actually asked — and it still seems quite unbelievable — that they didn’t want anyone to show up in leather or drag. It still, 25 years later, blows my mind,” Griffin said. “They wanted to normalize the image of gay America for a mass audience. They wanted to present a palatable image of gay men and women, men and women who were normal.”

This year, of course, marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising.

You can revisit photos from last year here.

Will you buy a Gem Spa T-shirt?

As we've been reporting, the venerable Gem Spa on Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place, has struggled of late, in part due to its temporary ban on selling cigarettes and lottery tickets and various landlord issues ... yesterday, Parul Patel, who is running the shop for her father Ray, the owner since 1986, took to Instagram to announce the upcoming sale of Gem Spa T-shirts.

Commenters liked the idea — especially one with just the Gem Spa logo. (No to the fedora option!)

View this post on Instagram

Attention Gem Spa fans #worldwide. We are going to sell a limited edition of Gem Spa T-shirts and would like your input. What would you like to see on the front of the T-shirt? 1) Just the GemSpa sign, 2) GemSpa logo w/the storefront pic 3) GemSpa logo with an eggcream/fedora pic. Please comment below!!🥤🥤🥤🥤🥤🥤🥤#gemspa #madonna #nydolls #basquiat #pattismith #eggcream#chocolateeggcream #nyceats #fedora #nyceatsanddrinks #nycfoodie #eavieats #nycfood #nyctouristguide #nyctour #nycwalkingtour #nyceatssss #nyceat #nyceatfoodies #nycfoodinsta #eastvillage #jewish #eastvillagetour #nycfoods #foodnyc #nycfoodiefinder #foodienyc #nycfoodies

A post shared by Gem Spa (@besteggcream) on Jun 27, 2019 at 7:55am PDT