The rebirth of the East Village in the late 1970s and the flowering of a new and original New York subculture -- what Edmund White called "the Downtown Scene" -- arose from the shadow of urban devastation and was anchored by a community that reclaimed its own deteriorating neighborhood.
In the last episode (Creating the East Village 1955-1975) this northern corner of New York's Lower East Side became the desired home for new cultural venues -- nightclubs, cafes, theaters, and bars -- after the city tore down the Third Avenue Elevated in 1955.
By the mid-1970s, however, the high had worn off. The East Village was in crisis, one of the Manhattan neighborhoods hit hardest by the city’s fiscal difficulties and cutbacks. It had become a landscape of dark, unsafe streets and buildings demolished in flame.
But the next generation of creative interlopers (following the initial stampede of Greenwich Village beatniks and hippies) built upon the legacies of East Village counter-culture to create poems, music, paintings, and stage performances heavily influenced by the apocalyptic situations around them.
This was something truly distinct, a creative scene that was thoroughly and uniquely an East Village creation -- punk and hardcore, murals and graffiti, fashion and drag. In this episode Greg hits the streets of the East Village in a special live-on-the-streets event, with musician and tour guide Krikor Daglian (of True Tales of NYC), exploring the secrets of the recent past -- from the origins of skateboarding to the seeds of the American alternative rock scene.
FEATURING: CBGB, Supreme, the Pyramid, Club 57, Niagara, 7B, Brownies, and many others
AND special guests Bill Di Paola from the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space and Ramon 'Ray' Alvarez from Ray's Candy Store
ALSO: Check out our Walking The East Village playlist, curated by Krikor and Greg -- on Spotify
Rewind: Truman Capote and the Black and White Ball
#424 Kosciuszko! The Man. The Bridge. The Legend.
#423 Leonard Bernstein's New York, New York
#422 Grace Church: A Most Fashionable History
Christmas in Old New York: Holiday History
#421 Evacuation Day: Forgotten Holiday of the American Revolution
#420 Garbo Walks: Old Hollywood in New York
The Official Gilded Age Podcast: S2 E1 with Lord Julian Fellowes
Rewind: The Gilded Age Mansions of Fifth Avenue
#419 Ghost Stories by Gaslight
#418 Theodore Roosevelt's Wild Kingdom
#416 Creating the East Village 1955-1975
Rewind: The Rebellious History of Tompkins Square Park
#415 The Early Years of Central Park
#414 The Brooklyn Navy Yard and Vinegar Hill
#413 The New Storytellers: Landmarks, Diners and Everyday New Yorkers
A Gilded Age Tour Up the Island of Manhattan
Rewind: The Deadly Draft Riots of 1863
The Making of the Pledge of Allegiance
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