February is Black History Month. At Village Preservation, we celebrate it by highlighting not only the many sites of significance to the African-American community within our neighborhoods, but also the neighbors who have helped shape our history and local culture. Our series of oral histories seeks to capture their legacies and tell their stories. Today, […]
Electric Lady Studios exists because Jimi Hendrix refused to rush inspiration. In 1968, frustrated by expensive studio time and rigid schedules, Hendrix purchased the failing Generation Club at 52 West 8th Street in Greenwich Village. His vision was radical and simple: a place where musicians could work without watching the clock, that felt alive. Working […]
Fred W. McDarrah did not photograph history from a distance. He stood inside it. Shoulder to shoulder with musicians, poets, organizers, and strangers who believed the street could still change the world. His photographs are not nostalgia. They are evidence. McDarrah’s lens followed the pulse of Greenwich Village and the East Village through the 1950s […]
Village Preservation kicked off its campaign to honor, document, and seek landmark designation for the South Village and its remarkable immigrant and artistic histories in December of 2006 and completed the effort in December of 2016 with designation of the third and final phase of our proposed South Village Historic District, the largest expansion of landmark protections in the neighborhood since […]
Voices and Landmarks of Social Change in the Village There are moments when a building becomes more than brick and stone — when it holds not just architectural value, but the emotional weight of the people who passed through it. And sometimes, it is through the voices of those people that we learn to see […]
On August 7, 1994, drag queens took the stage at Boy Bar (15 St. Marks Place) to partake in a show titled “It’s a Mod Mod World”. Through the Jillian Jonas collection in our historic image archive, we can see the rarely told histories of this iconic space and its contemporary, The Pyramid Club (101 […]
If you were to walk down East 4th Street in the late 1970s, you might come across an ethereal, white-faced character in a flamboyant costume, a spectacle among spectacles. Klaus Nomi (January 24, 1944 – August 6, 1983), a striking and enterprising countertenor, made his mark on experimental music and performance amidst countless other countercultural […]
Edwin Fancher (August 29, 1923 – September 29, 2023) was a co-founder and part-owner of The Village Voice, along with partners Dan Wolf and Norman Mailer, from the 1950s until the 1970s. The Voice functioned as a local alternative newspaper for Greenwich Village (and by extension for New York City) and as an important national arbiter of “hip” […]
On Thursday, December 8th, the audience of our program “Village Preservation at Westbeth Gallery’s Winter Show” had the opportunity to hear directly from artist and Westbeth resident Christina Maile. Christina is self described as trained as a landscape architect, her writing and visual work references colonialism, feminism and extinction and she is of Dayak and West Indian descent.
Everyone in the audience at the gallery very quickly became aware of the depth of knowledge Christina has to share about Westbeth Artists Housing. This program was a great introduction to the launch of Christina’s oral history with Village Preservation, which is available here on our website.
Merce Cunningham, considered by many one of the most influential choreographers of the 20th century, was a multi-dimensional artist. He was a dance-maker, a fierce collaborator, an innovator, a film producer, and a teacher. During his 70 years of creative practice, Cunningham’s exploration forever changed the landscape of dance, music, and contemporary art. The avant-garde […]
The wonderful and daring performance artist Penny Arcade (b. July 15, 1950, New Britain, CT.) is well known for the great works she has created and shared on stages large and small across New York and the world. A dear friend of Village Preservation’s, she’s also (perhaps less well known) someone who has made incredibly […]
After the Supreme Court Decision DOBBS v.JACKSON WOMEN’S HEALTH ORGANIZATION overturning Roe v. Wade was released on Friday, June 24, people took to the streets. It was no surprise that people hoping to make their voices heard looked to our neighborhoods as a gathering place. Two of the many protests and rallies that took place in New York City were held in Washington Square Park and Union Square. These protests were organized by intersectional advocacy groups across Labor, Defund the Police, Housing, Immigration, and LGBTQIA+ movements.
Barbara Kahn recently joined Village Preservation for a celebration of the her oral history with the organization (watch the video here). Barbara and friends offered a selection of performances from Barbara herself as well as her longtime collaborator, Robert Gonzales Jr. The performances of monologues and a song were followed by conversations about Barbara’s process […]
In 2015, Village Preservation conducted an oral history with community organizer Carlos “Chino” García, one of the co-founders of the legendary community organization CHARAS. CHARAS for many years occupied the landmarked former P.S. 64 building on East 9th Street in the East Village. That interview gave some unique, first person insights into one of the […]
Novelist Bernard Malamud is considered by many critics to be one of the finest American novelists of the 20th century. Born on April 26, 1914, in Brooklyn to a poor Russian Jewish immigrant family who ran a small grocery store, he attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, City College of New York, and Columbia for […]
Villager, dancer, and choreographer Merce Cunningham is an artist whose work continues to live vibrantly in 2019, which marks Cunningham’s centennial. The Merce Cunningham Centennial is celebrating a century of artistic expression through events, presentations, and discussions about Merce, dance, and his influence on culture. This Village Preservation Oral History participant will continue to be […]
GVSHP has been conducting and sharing oral histories since the mid-1990s. As we look back on two powerhouse oral histories, we’re considering the importance of such documents as “the first kind of history,” as “part of the struggle of memory against forgetting.”
GVSHP is excited to share our oral history collection with the public, highlighting some of the people and stories that make Greenwich Village and the East Village such unique and vibrant neighborhoods. Each of these histories includes the experiences and insights of long-time residents, usually active in the arts, culture, preservation, business, or civic life. […]
GVSHP is excited to share our oral history collection with the public, and hope they will shed more light on what makes Greenwich Village and the East Village such unique and vibrant areas. Each of these histories highlights the experiences and insights of long-time residents, usually active in the arts, culture, preservation, business, or civic life of […]
GVSHP is excited to share our oral history collection with the public, and hope they will shed more light on what makes Greenwich Village and the East Village such unique and vibrant areas. Each of these histories highlights the experiences and insights of long-time residents, usually active in the arts, culture, preservation, business, or civic life […]
Village Preservation is excited to share our oral history collection with the public, and hope they will shed more light on what makes Greenwich Village and the East Village such unique and vibrant areas. Each of these histories highlights the experiences and insights of long-time residents, usually active in the arts, culture, preservation, business, or civic […]
Once upon a time in Chelsea, New York, a young woman lived in an apartment on the sixth floor with a magical view. Facing north, there was the Chelsea Hotel, and the Empire State Building, and the spire of the Chrysler Building: stolid, yet ever-changing, amid sunrise or fog, rainbows or fireworks. Directly across the […]
