Oral Histories - Village Preservation

Village Preservation Oral History Collection

Village Preservation’s Oral History Project includes interviews with some of the great artists, activists, business owners, community leaders, and preservation pioneers of Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo. It captures and preserves their first-person perspective on the important histories they witnessed or of which they were a part.

Click here for an alphabetical list of our entire Oral History Collection.

New Releases

Ayo Harrington

Ayo Harrington has lived in the East Village since the 1960s, and been deeply involved in the community garden, urban homesteading, environmental, resiliency, educational equality, and civil rights movements. She … Continued

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John Guare

John Guare (b. February 5, 1938) is a playwright and screenwriter known for Six Degrees of Separation and The House of Blue Leaves, among many other works. Born in Manhattan … Continued

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Rob Mason

For more than a quarter century, Robert Mason (b. 1946) operated RPM studios from his live/work loft on 12th Street south of Union Square, one of the first boutique recording studios … Continued

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Michael E. Levine

Michael E. Levine (b. 1943) is an urban planner who worked as the NYC Department of City Planning’s CommunityBoard #2 liaison beginning in the 1960s, and was intimately involved in … Continued

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Rick Kelly

Rick Kelly has owned the world-renowned Carmine Street Guitars at 42 Carmine Street since 1990 but opened his first shop on Downing Street in 1976. His oral history delves into his … Continued

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Mimi Sheraton

Mimi Sheraton (b. February 10, 1926) is a food critic and food writer who has lived in the Village since 1945. In 1975 she was she hired as the first … Continued

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Ralph Lee

Puppeteer Ralph Lee (b. 1935) has lived at Westbeth since 1970 and is known as the “Father” of the famous Greenwich Village Halloween Parade.

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Rich Wandel

Rich Wandel (b. May 20, 1946) is a former president of the Gay Activist Alliance, and served as the Archivist Historian at the LGBT Community Center from its founding in … Continued

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David Rothenberg

David Rothenberg (b. August 19, 1933) is one of the Village’s most prolific activists. A former Broadway producer, he also produced the off-Broadway play “Fortune in Men’s Eyes”, which ignited … Continued

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Victor Keyloun

Dr. Victor Keyloun (b. February 20, 1935) worked at St. Vincent’s Hospital from 1963 to 1983. He was a neighborhood doctor, notably serving extended Italian families as well as the … Continued

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Otis Kidwell Burger

Otis Kidwell Burger (1923-2021) lived on Bethune Street for 58 years, where her life intertwined with some of the most intriguing and important figures in the Village during that time. … Continued

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Paula DeLuccia Poons

Paula DeLuccia Poons (b. 1953) and her husband Larry Poons have lived at 827-831 Broadway since 1977. Both are artists, following a long tradition of artists who have taken refuge … Continued

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Village Preservation Oral History Collection

New Releases

Ayo Harrington

John Guare

Rob Mason

Michael E. Levine

Rick Kelly

Mimi Sheraton

Ralph Lee

Rich Wandel

David Rothenberg

Victor Keyloun

Otis Kidwell Burger

Paula DeLuccia Poons