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.
The views expressed by the contributor(s) are solely those of the contributor(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or endorsement of our organization.
Janet Coleman is a writer, actor, radio producer, and historian of the theater. She worked at the New York Review from 1963 to 1966. She authored both “The Compass: The Improvisational Theater That Revolutionized American Comedy” and (with Al Young) “Mingus/Mingus: Two Memoirs.’ She is a founding producer of the seminal off-off Broadway’s Loft Theatre Workshop.
Full Transcript
Lucy Komisar is a former Village Voice reporter who covered the historic “Sip In” at Julius’ Bar and the former Vice President of the National Organization for Women involved in ending the men-only policy at McSorely’s Old Ale House.
Full Transcript
In 1971, Alex Harsley founded Minority Photographers, offering support, mentoring, and collaboration for minority and other marginalized photographers, and in 1973 opened the 4th Street Photo Gallery, to show not only his own work but the work of other Black photographers. Both are located in the East Village.
Full Transcript
Barbara Kahn is an East Village playwright who’s produced dozens of works rooted in history, especially New York history, with a frequent focus on women, LGBTQ+ people, other marginalized groups, and personal trauma. Her award-winning plays have been produced at the Theater for the New City since 1994, and elsewhere throughout New York, Paris, and London for decades.
Full Transcript
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 first moved here as a teenager to live with her older sister, who was active in radical Black organizing at the time. Ayo followed suit, […]
Full Transcript
Orselli (b. 1949) immigrated from Italy to Brazil in 1954 and to New York in 1960. He has been a passionate advocate for affordable housing for almost 50 years, especially in the Lower East Side/East Village. His life-long commitment to activism and advocacy has led to work with the Cooper Square Community Land Trust, Cooper […]
Full Transcript
Peter Longo (b. October 22, 1951) grew up in an Italian family in the Village, attending Catholic schools and absorbing the immigrant and Beat cultures that surrounded him. He took over, and still runs, the coffee business his father started, the Porto Rico Importing Company.
Full Transcript
Robert Zerelli (b. November 30, 1962) was raised in New Jersey, and at the age of 18, he moved to New York City to work at the bakery founded by his great uncle in 1894 — the legendary Veneiro’s. Zerilli lived above the store at 342 East 11th Street, married a customer, raised a family, […]
Full Transcript
Virlana Tkacz (b. June 23, 1962) was born in Newark, but had family connections to the Ukrainian community in the East Village, to which she eventually moved. She pursued theater at La MaMa under Ellen Stewart, whose encouragement led to the creation of Tkacz’s own theater company. The Yara Arts Group addresses themes related to […]
Full Transcript
Lorcan Otway (b. July 27, 1955), the owner of the Off Broadway Theater 80, located at 80 St. Mark’s Place, speaks about the theater’s history, as well as the cultural history of the East Village. He recounts stories of the former repertory movie house and theater’s past as a speakeasy during Prohibition, at which time […]
Full Transcript
Born in 1943 in Berlin, Germany, Marlis has lived in Loisaida since 1975. Her photographs document the struggle of the mostly Puerto Rican people living in that part of Manhattan. Her black-and-white and color photographs have been used to illustrate national and international publications on political and cultural topics such as: gentrification, urban development, slumlords/arson […]
Full Transcript
Born in Lithuania, Jonas Mekas (1922-2019) came to New York City after World War II and became part of the downtown arts scene as a writer, poet and auteur. He pursued his passion for making and displaying avant garde film, founding the world-renowned Anthology Film Archive in 1970.
Full Transcript