Friday, April 10, 2009

Time Out New York: "Women: Movers & Shakers" tour Top Five in NYC

Forget the dudes—this two-hour, three-quarter-mile tour is all about the awesome ladies who influenced the art, culture and politics of NYC’s hippest ’hood. Guide Andrea Coyle concentrates on the Bowery and shares tidbits about everyone from Emma Goldman to Patricia Field and Madonna.

From Time Out New York, (Issue 705, Apr 2-8)


Women Movers & Shakers Tour
The gist: Forget the dudes—this two-hour, three-quarter-mile tour is all about the awesome ladies who influenced the art, culture and politics of NYC’s hippest ’hood. Guide Andrea Coyle concentrates on the Bowery and shares tidbits about everyone from Emma Goldman to Patricia Field and Madonna.
Who goes: Womyn, counterculturists and, yes, men, too
High: Even longtime Villagers will learn something new about their nabe—for instance, the corner of Bowery and 2nd Street once held a flophouse nicknamed “McGurk’s Suicide Hall” for the high number of prostitutes who offed themselves there.
Low: The tour hammers home just how much history has been lost in the East Village. The Fillmore East, where Janis Joplin once performed, is now an Emigrant Bank; the Amato Opera will close in May. And so it goes.
Before you go: Fuel up at Think Coffee (1 Bleecker St at Bowery, 212-553-3366), and search for cute vintage frocks at KGB Bar (85 E 4th St between Second and Third Aves, 212-505-3360), modern dance at La MaMa (74A E 4th St between Second and Third Aves, 212-475-7710) or the New York Neo-Futurists’ long-running show, Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, at the east-village.com to register.
If you like that, try this: The East Village History Project produces a variety of neighborhood tours; delve into its seedy underbelly with Gangsters, Murderers & Weirdos (avenuea.org), covering the more gruesome parts of the Village’s history (avenuea.org)—Amy Plitt

Friday, April 3, 2009

LESHP's Rob Hollander on WNYC Radio

Main Street NYC: Bowery History on Display at the East Village Visitors Center
by Brigid Bergin

NEW YORK, NY April 03, 2009 —WNYC's Main Street Project is tracking streets across the area. Last month, we stopped by the Bowery to see how New York's old Skid Row is doing today. But there's much more to the street's history. And that's the subject of a new exhibit opening tonight.

HOLLANDER: We want to be the defining institution of the East Village the way the Tenement Museum is the defining institution of the Lower East Side.

REPORTER: Rob Hollander is one of the co-founders of the East Village History Project and the new East Village Visitors Center.

Hollander says one of the street's legacies is its role in the development of New York's theatre district. He says the 19th century Bowery Theatre used to draw some 3,500 working class people to its spirited productions.

HOLLANDER: That's a huge gathering place for working class people. That's where people went to see each other, to interact with with each other and the theatre experience was nothing like what it is today. It was more like a riot.

REPORTER: That exhibit opens tonight at the Bowery Poetry Club.

LISTEN TO AUDIO: http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/127865