It’s going to be a throwback weekend off of Tompkins Square Park. Not only is Clayton Patterson holding court Friday at Pyramid Club, but on Saturday and Sunday, the annual concerts commemorating the Tompkins Square Park Riot — which he so famously documented — return to the park.
In addition to performances by hippie holdover David “The Pope Smokes Dope” Peel and the usual array of hardcore/punk bands with names like Nihilistics and Transgendered Jesus (no Porno Dracula this year?), parkgoers will be treated to a free installment of The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black, courtesy of the East Village’s own Kembra Pfahler.
She’ll get up to her usual shock-rock theatrics at 4 p.m. on Sunday (the shows run from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday).
The reunion — not to be mistaken for a reenactment — brings together those who tangled with cops while defending the park against a curfew in the wee hours of August 7, 1988. Per the invite, it’s also a celebration of “the vitality of the counter cultural scene that has survived on the Lower East Side, despite the rampant gentrification, soaring rents and lost venues that have contributed to the cultural genocide sweeping New York City.”
This isn’t the first riot reunion — in fact, it’s the 26th. Check out this clip from the August 29, 1988 issue of New York magazine to read about what may well have been the first one — just a week after the “big event.” Click to enlarge.
