A vibrant narrative history of three hallowed Manhattan blocksthe epicenter of American cool.
St. Marks Place in New York City has spawned countless artistic and political movements. Here Frank OHara caroused, Emma Goldman plotted, and the Velvet Underground wailed. But every generation of miscreant denizens believes that their era, and no other, marked the streets apex. This idiosyncratic work of reportage tells the many layered history of the streetfrom its beginnings as Colonial Dutch Director-General Peter Stuyvesants pear orchard to todays hipster playgroundorganized around those pivotal moments when critics declared St. Marks is dead.
In a narrative enriched by hundreds of interviews and dozens of rare images, St. Marks native Ada Calhoun profiles iconic characters from W. H. Auden to Abbie Hoffman, from Keith Haring to the Beastie Boys, among many others. She argues that St. Marks has variously been an elite address, an immigrants haven, a mafia warzone, a hippie paradise, and a backdrop to the film Kidsbut it has always been a place that outsiders call home.
70 illustrations
