Eleanor Cooper was determined to keep 243 West 20th Street from turning into an icebox. This almost seemed like a joke, if she thought about it, since the building had been a fire station not six years earlier and for decades and decades before that. The three-story firehouse was decrepit and absolutely freezing, but if she had to shovel coal into the furnace herself she’d do it to keep the Women’s Liberation Center open. More →
On the eve of its 20th birthday, the radical Lower East Side bookstore Bluestockings has announced a membership program designed to keep the bookstore open for at least another 20 years. More →
A bike messenger delivered two bags of fresh-cut flowers to City Hall just in time for Transportation Alternatives and Families for Safe Streets to take to the steps. At noon, members of the two organizations, joined by sympathetic city council members, laid pink roses and yellow carnations at the steps of City Hall– alongside photographs of loved ones who had died in traffic accidents. The organizations had joined forces to declare a state of emergency on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Vision Zero Plan. More →
New York is always a city of writers and artists, but this week especially so. Starting today and running through May 12, 200 of them will descend on NYC for the 15th annual PEN World Voices Festival. This year, PEN America will host over 70 events across the city– including panels, poetry slams, and readings that celebrate the literary history of lower Manhattan. More →
The pups of the East Village are making room for new feline friends this weekend. Cat Castle and The Crazy Cat Family will host a Pop-Up Cat Cafe this Saturday at 526 E. 11th Street, just blocks from the dog-friendly cafe Boris & Horton and bar d.b.a.
The Hong Took Tong Chinese Dramatic Company debuted on October 18, 1852 with a 42-person operatic performance. With that show, Hong Took Tong became the United States’ first Asian American theatrical company, but it would be far from the last group to make waves in the Chinese American music scene.
(Photos: Cecilia Nowell)The crowd gathered outside of City Hall this afternoon was excited about more than just a colorful, pink-and-blue bus. Bold lettering across the bus’s side revealed the true purpose of the gathering: “Keith Haring Foundation – Project Street Beat Mobile Health Center.”
(Photos: Cecilia Nowell)
Documentary footage from the 20th-anniversary commemoration of the Stonewall Uprisings plays at the entrance to the Grey Art Gallery. On screen, activists laud the riots sparked by Marsha P. Johnson from the stage, while protestors boo loudly from the sidelines. Under a large sign welcoming visitors to “Art after Stonewall, 1969-1989,” the video, produced by ACT UP’s guerilla video collective DIVA TV, sets the tone for an exhibit that explores how much has, and has not, changed for the queer community 50 years after the Stonewall Riots.
(Photos courtesy of Woodbine)
On a typical weekend morning in Ridgewood, young families spill out of brunches at Julia’s and Norma’s and friends gather to work or catch up at Topos Bookstore. It’s a scene much like any other neighborhood in Queens: the elevated train rattles overhead and groups wander from coffee shop to bodega, to bookstore and wine bar.
(Photos: Cecilia Nowell)
A marching band stumbled into Sage Kitchen on April 2, welcoming the Persian-Israeli restaurant to the neighborhood with some NoHo cheer. The long-time catering company opened its first brick-and-mortar store on the Bowery this month, bringing its apricot-fig jam, mango relish, and pickled fennel to a restaurant and marketplace.
