Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!

Create Free Account

St. Marks Is Dead: The Many Lives of America's Hippest Street

4/5 ( ratings)

A vibrant narrative history of three hallowed Manhattan blocks—the epicenter of American cool.

St. Marks Place in New York City has spawned countless artistic and political movements. Here Frank O’Hara caroused, Emma Goldman plotted, and the Velvet Underground wailed. But every generation of miscreant denizens believes that their era, and no other, marked the street’s apex. This idiosyncratic work of reportage tells the many layered history of the street—from its beginnings as Colonial Dutch Director-General Peter Stuyvesant’s pear orchard to today’s hipster playground—organized 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 Kids—but it has always been a place that outsiders call home. This idiosyncratic work offers a bold new perspective on gentrification, urban nostalgia, and the evolution of a community.

Language: English

Pages: 432

Format: Paperback

Publisher: W. W. Norton Company

Release: November 08, 2016

ISBN: 0393353303

ISBN 13: 9780393353303

St. Marks Is Dead: The Many Lives of America's Hippest Street

4/5 ( ratings)

A vibrant narrative history of three hallowed Manhattan blocks—the epicenter of American cool.

St. Marks Place in New York City has spawned countless artistic and political movements. Here Frank O’Hara caroused, Emma Goldman plotted, and the Velvet Underground wailed. But every generation of miscreant denizens believes that their era, and no other, marked the street’s apex. This idiosyncratic work of reportage tells the many layered history of the street—from its beginnings as Colonial Dutch Director-General Peter Stuyvesant’s pear orchard to today’s hipster playground—organized 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 Kids—but it has always been a place that outsiders call home. This idiosyncratic work offers a bold new perspective on gentrification, urban nostalgia, and the evolution of a community.

Language: English

Pages: 432

Format: Paperback

Publisher: W. W. Norton Company

Release: November 08, 2016

ISBN: 0393353303

ISBN 13: 9780393353303

More books from Ada Calhoun

Why We Can't Sleep: Women's New Midlife Crisis

3.6/5 ( ratings)

Gunn's Golden Rules: Life's Little Lessons for Making It Work

3.7/5 ( ratings)

Tim Gunn's Fashion Bible: The Fascinating History of Everything in Your Closet

3.8/5 ( ratings)

Wedding Toasts I'll Never Give

3.7/5 ( ratings)

Instinctive Parenting: Trusting Ourselves to Raise Good Kids

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Why We Sleep The New Science of Sleep and Dreams By Matthew Walker and Why We Can't Sleep Women's New Midlife Crisis By Ada Calhoun 2 Books Collection Set

4.3/5 ( ratings)

Also a Poet: Frank O'Hara, My Father, and Me

4.4/5 ( ratings)

The Power of Showing Up By Daniel J. Siegel, Tina Payne Bryson and Why We Can't Sleep By Ada Calhoun 2 Books Collection Set

4.5/5 ( ratings)

Also a Poet

4.5/5 ( ratings)

Beastie Boys Book

4.5/5 ( ratings)

Rate this book!

Write a review?