Did you know that Village Preservation members receive advance notice of our public programs? Our tours and other programs sometimes offer limited seating or spaces. By becoming a member of Village Preservation, you can take advantage of that advanced notice and register before the general public. Find out how to become a member here.

For videos, details, and other media from our past programs, click here.

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On This Spot NYC: Stories of Pioneering Women Artists in Greenwich Village

Thursday, August 10, 2023
6:00pm
Zoom Webinar

Pre-Registration is Required.
Free 

Did you know that only 11% of all major museum art acquisitions in the last decade were works by women artists?

On This Spot NYC is a nonprofit digital mapping project that aims to tell the stories of a diverse group of women artists through short-form documentary videos. It explores the places where they lived and worked, their favorite spots to eat and drink, their dreams and laughter, and the places where they danced and found inspiration and community to create their art. Through these videos, On This Spot NYC shines a light on the numerous boundary-breaking women artists, both known and unknown, who have been at the forefront of the New York art scene.

The project covers various decades, starting from the 1950s and extending to the end of the 20th century. It has begun in the West Village and East Village, and will be expanding to SoHo, the Lower East Side, Chelsea, TriBeCa, Midtown, Upper East Side, Upper West Side, and Harlem.

On This Spot NYC aims to play a pivotal role in addressing the gender imbalance in our museums, galleries, and textbooks. Its objective is to inspire a new generation of women artists. Learn more about this amazing new project and the light it shines on trailblazing women of our neighborhoods and beyond.

This program will consist of a screening of On This Spot NYC short-form videos and conversation from the Co-creator and Executive Director Loretta Howard. She’ll explore the origins and future of the project and the extraordinary role Greenwich Village women played in advancing 20th century art.

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The 2nd Birthplace Tour (Hip-Hop at 50 Tour) 

Friday, August 11, 2023
Afternoon Tour – 3:00pm – 5:00pm
Evening Tour – 6:00pm – 8:00pm

Outdoor Walking Tour
Pre-Registration is Required. Spaces are limited.
Free

Meeting Place: Washington Square Park 

Did you know that the first place in NYC where all four Hip Hop elements were presented together for the first time outside of the Bronx was at a club/concert hall in the East Village? 

Did you know that rappers like Mos Def and Biggie got their start at an open mic show in the West Village? 

The 2nd Birthplace Tour (Hip-Hop at 50 Tour) is a two-hour walking tour (10 stops) that honors the artists and entrepreneurs, and explores spaces and sites in the Village that were pivotal in introducing Hip-Hop cultural elements (B-Boying, DJ-ing, Graffiti, Fashion and Emceeing) to the world. During a pivotal 20 year period in Hip-Hop history (1979-1999), nightlife venues, art galleries, walls and parks throughout the Village functioned as a secondary incubator and stage for B-Boys, Graffiti artists, Emcees, DJs and designers creating what we now call Hip-Hop Culture. It’s part of a year-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of the birth of hip-hop, which began in The Bronx, but which grew and developed substantially in our neighborhoods. 

Leading the tour is Tara Crichlow, aka “big tara,” a native of the Lower East Side. As a pioneering B-girl, MC, cultural ambassador, performer, and curator, she is dedicated to accurately representing New York’s underground music and dance culture. She has been featured in books such as Vibe Hip Hop Divas, We Bgirlz, Girls Got Kicks and God Save the Queens.

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Wrecking Ball: A Conversation with Adrian Untermyer About How Government Has Shaped New York’s Defining Preservation Battles, with Village Preservation Executive Director Andrew Berman

Wednesday, August 16
6:00pm
In-Person
Pre-registration required
Free

Location: Jefferson Market Library

Preservation battles are fought in all sorts of places — the streets, corporate boardrooms, and the court of public opinion. Sometimes they are fought in the actual courts, as well as in the halls of government, and those legal battles have profoundly shaped how preservation works and has taken root in New York City and State. The intersection between historic preservation, the law, and the great City and State of New York is an often misunderstood and rarely discussed space, but it has a bigger impact upon what is preserved as historic and what is destroyed as expendable than perhaps any other factor.

Attorney, urbanist, and historian Adrian Untermyer aims to lift that veil, and reveal the inner workings of the three branches of government and how they have shaped and affected the preservation movement — its successes and the challenges it still faces — in our city and state. He’s launched a new podcast called “Wrecking Ball” in association with the Historical Society of the New York Courts to do just that, in which he brings in legal and preservation scholars to discuss some of these defining preservation battles, such as those to save Castle Clinton, Penn Station, and Washington Square Park. It’s only appropriate that this conversation, with Village Preservation Executive Director Andrew Berman, take place at Jefferson Market Library — subject of one of the great preservation battles of the 20th century, and itself formerly a New York Courthouse. Come hear more about these battles, about the new podcast Illuminating them, and about Adrian’s fascinating ongoing work.

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Native New Yorkers Walking Tour with Evan Pritchard

Thursday, August 17, 2023
5:00pm – 7:00pm
Outdoor Walking Tour

Pre-Registration is Required.
Sold out. Waitlist only.
Free

The meeting place will be shared one week before the event.

One might assume that New York’s streets are as old as Dutch settlement, but many of the thoroughfares we use today actually began long before that. Early Dutch and English immigrants adopted many pathways that were originally carved by truly native New Yorkers, and these routes were incorporated into the more formal city plan as development spread across the island. On this extended tour, Evan Pritchard, author of Native New Yorkers: The Legacy of the Algonquin People of New York, will take you on a journey through the history of New York’s streets from west to east. Starting in the Meatpacking District, you’ll traverse the island through Greenwich Village before ending at the St. Mark’s in-the-Bowery graveyard in the East Village where Peter Stuyvesant is interred. Along the way, you’ll see the streets and plazas through Native American eyes and explore how New York’s indigenous history influences our modern streetscapes and public spaces. Drawing upon archaeology, linguistics, and oral and written histories, this walk will link the legacy of the Lenape with Abraham Lincoln, modern luxury, and more.

This tour is free. Please select the $20 option to purchase a signed copy of Evan Pritchard’s book, Native New Yorkers: The Legacy of the Algonquin People of New York.

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Book Talk: Swimming to Jerusalem with Author Seth Borenstein

Tuesday, August 22, 2023
In-Person
6:00pm

Pre-registration required
Free
Location: Hudson Park Library


Swimming to Jerusalem is a new novel by Seth Borenstein, inspired in part by his many years living in the West Village, which he’ll discuss along with other inspirations for and stories behind his new literary outing. The novel follows Bram beginning in 1980, when he was the coolest, most confident, and self-assured guy in the world – or so he thought. After his discharge from the Israel Defense Forces and finding himself in Paris three years later he is anything but. Aimless and disillusioned, he has no idea what comes next. Busking on the Boulevard Saint-Germain he meets Liz. Following her back to New York, he moves into her apartment on Grove Street.

Thirty-two years later the “next” has happened. Despite any grand plan, Bram’s life took its course. Liz did have a grand plan – and he goes along for the ride. Alternating between past and present, Swimming to Jerusalem is the story of that journey. This includes the family he never imagined, a career he fell into, and memories that are like rogue waves, strong and unexpected.

Everything can change in a heartbeat. But the past never does. We know that memory should be a reference, not a residence – though sometimes that just isn’t possible.

Kirkus Reviews called Swimming to Jerusalem, “A great novel of New York in the Trump era and a tender look at the way the progression of time makes immigrants of us all.”

About the author:

Seth Bornstein has written plays, short stories, and essays. Swimming to Jerusalem is his first novel. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he attended Parsons School of Design and has had a career in urban economic development with positions in the public, private, and academic sectors. He is an avid though very slow swimmer and has participated in winter swimming competitions around the globe. A consummate city guy, he prides himself on never needing a GPS and can usually find a parking space anywhere. He resides in New York City with his wife, Diane Loughran.