“American Pie” is perhaps one of the most compelling, beloved, and cryptic songs in the American songbook. Written by Don McLean in 1970, the song sprang from the Folk Music movement in Greenwich Village. Izzy Young, well known to musicians and music aficionados around the world, whose Greenwich Village shop, the Folklore Center, was the […]
There is an absurdity in the photos and video which depict the event now known as “The Beatnik Riots” in Washington Square Park on April 9, 1961. At face value, the key characters in this drama are earnest, clean-shaven, bespectacled, young men in jacket and tie, and young ladies coiffed and dressed much in the […]
On Sunday 9 April 1961, Washington Square Park was full of folk musicians and their friends. The park had become a gathering place for them starting in the 1940s, when the likes of Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie began singing and socializing there. A permit was required at this time, but was considered a formality […]
As you likely know by now, the South Village was designated an official New York City historic district by the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) at the end of December. Part of the landmarks process is the publication of a landmark designation report for the neighborhood by the LPC, which acts as an outline of the […]
