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.
Karen Cooper was the Director of Film Forum from 1972 to 2023, building the institution into a force for independent and repertory cinema. Her oral history deals with her five decades at its helm, her being drawn to the Village as a young person growing up in Queens, and changes she’s seen in the neighborhood since the mid-20th century.
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Margaret “Pi” Halsey Gardiner has been the Director of the Merchant’s House Museum since the early 1990s. Her oral history deals with decades of stewardship of that beloved NYC landmark and institutions, as well as growing up in MacDougal-Sullivan Gardens in the 1950s and her family’s deep roots in New York history.
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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 unique guitar design and construction method, using recycled wood from New York City buildings being demolished, as well as his interactions over the years with […]
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Matt Umanov (b. August 28, 1947) is the founder and proprietor of Matt Umanov Guitars, located at 273 Bleecker Street. Since 1965, Matt Umanov Guitars has been buying, selling, and repairing vintage guitars, and has served some of the biggest names in music.
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Romana Raffetto (1931-2018) is the former owner and her son Andrew the current owner of Raffetto Pasta at 144 West Houston Street. A Greenwich Village and New York institution, Raffetto Pasta was founded by Romana’s father-in-law in 1906.
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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.
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Vincent Livelli (April 9, 1920 – June 21, 2024) lived in the Village for over 100 years. From the 1940s to 1970s, Vincent helped revolutionize the cruise ship industry as a music and dance director. Vincent reminisces about his early years growing up in the South Village as the child of Sicilian and Genovese immigrants […]
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The child of Irish immigrants, Maria Kenny (b. October 25, 1963) grew up in the Bronx and Greenwich Village. Her father, Pat, was owner of the Village music club Kenny’s Castaways and a part owner of The Bitter End. Kenny recalls musicians and the scene, and the changed circumstances that eventually led her and her […]
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Colette Douglas (November 19, 1926-September 30, 2023) lived in MacDougal-Sullivan Gardens in the 1950s and her oral history tells a classic story of midcentury Village life, from attending Little Red Schoolhouse as a child to witnessing her husband fight the proposed Lower Manhattan Expressway that would have destroyed the neighborhoods of SoHo, Little Italy, and […]
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A noted musician, bandleader, prolific composer, and pioneer of the jazz French horn for more than the past half-century, David Amram (b. November 17, 1930) lived in various parts of Greenwich Village and has worked with Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Willie Nelson, Langston Hughes, Charles Mingus, Leonard Bernstein, Tito Puente, Joseph Papp, Arthur Miller, Pete […]
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