Join us for a live virtual talk with former Village Voice writer Tricia Romano about her new book, containing more than 200 interviews with the paper’s legendary writers, editors, and photographers, including two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, Colson Whitehead, the late cultural critic Greg Tate, gossip columnist Michael Musto, and feminist writers Vivian Gornick and Susan Brownmiller to tell the periodical’s story. 

Either you were there, or you wanted to be. A defining New York City institution co-founded by Norman Mailer, The Village Voice was the first to cover hip-hop, the avant-garde art scene, and the AIDS crisis with urgency and seriousness when other papers were dismissing it as “the gay disease.” It invented new forms of criticism and storytelling, revolutionized journalism, and covered cultural and political moments, often long before big outlets like the New York Times did. 

The Voice gave voice to an army of reporters and cultural critics, including Wayne Barrett, whose coverage of Donald Trump went back to 1979, news reporters Jack Newfield and Tom Robbins, the civil libertarian columnist Nat Hentoff, fashion reporter Lynn Yaeger, and self-appointed “Dean of American Rock Criticism” Robert Christgau. It also provided a visual forum for photographers who defined the look and feel of the paper—including Fred W. McDarrah, Sylvia Plachy, and James Hamilton; printing groundbreaking Pulitzer Prize winning illustrator, Jules Feiffer and off-the-beaten path artists like Stan Mack, Mark Stamaty, and Lynda Barry. THE FREAKS CAME OUT TO WRITE is not only a story of American journalism but American culture. New Yorkers, fans of the Voice, and readers interested in the evolution of media will find a home in this definitive and rollicking oral history of The Village Voice—a New York City institution that became America’s most iconic weekly newspaper.

Romano will read selections from the publication (available for purchase here), share stories of its writing and her time at the Voice, and answer questions. 

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