Looking back - going forward
Eric Ferrara is the great, great guy that besides authoring the book "A Guide to Gangsters, Murderers and Weirdos of New York City's Lower East Side" (http://gmwbook.com) also is the founder of the Lower East Side History Project as well as one of its' extraordinarily engaging guides.
The Lower East Side History Project is a non-profit organization with a dedicated mission to research about, document and preserve the all to fast disappearing history of the greater Lower East Side. Besides an exellent historical database accessible through their website, they offer walking tours in the area. The professional and NYC licensed guides are dedicated community members, authors, educators and historians - all native or veteran New Yorkers.
The guides are specialists in each of their areas, and let me tell you - I have never listened with bigger ears. I knew that Allen Ginsberg lived around the corner from my apartment, but Bugsy Siegel, Al Capone, Lucky Luciano and John Gotti? Places I had passed by a hundred times that had been headquarters for all kinds of sordid events, and the original adress for the Black Hand in Little Italy is the place where I now can go shopping for a handbag. These tours are real gems!
I had really dreaded going back to East Village, so much is changed and it now mostly feels like a large college frat party, instead of the alternative artist- and activist place it once was. Or maybe I should have said had become? From a historic point of view I learn that this change is just part of the cycle, as this area has always been under constant change, and trying to freeze time will just make for a dead place. But still - some of the history HAS to be preserved as we otherwise will forget. We need to know where we come from in order to know who we are and where we are going, isn't that so? A 20 year old russian immigrant Clara Lemlich speaking at Cooper Union made 20.000 women garment workers go on strike, an event that gave womens suffrage and workers rights a momentum forward. Historical events forming the world I live in have happened on my very doorstep. I should know this. I am a woman and a worker. Going back became more of an empowerment than a silly trip down memory lane. I am happy I came back. Using the Village as a measuring tool I can also see I have grown. I have changed. Thank God!
Lower East Side History Project website
http://www.leshp.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpage&Itemid=1
The Lower East Side History Project is a non-profit organization with a dedicated mission to research about, document and preserve the all to fast disappearing history of the greater Lower East Side. Besides an exellent historical database accessible through their website, they offer walking tours in the area. The professional and NYC licensed guides are dedicated community members, authors, educators and historians - all native or veteran New Yorkers.
The guides are specialists in each of their areas, and let me tell you - I have never listened with bigger ears. I knew that Allen Ginsberg lived around the corner from my apartment, but Bugsy Siegel, Al Capone, Lucky Luciano and John Gotti? Places I had passed by a hundred times that had been headquarters for all kinds of sordid events, and the original adress for the Black Hand in Little Italy is the place where I now can go shopping for a handbag. These tours are real gems!
I had really dreaded going back to East Village, so much is changed and it now mostly feels like a large college frat party, instead of the alternative artist- and activist place it once was. Or maybe I should have said had become? From a historic point of view I learn that this change is just part of the cycle, as this area has always been under constant change, and trying to freeze time will just make for a dead place. But still - some of the history HAS to be preserved as we otherwise will forget. We need to know where we come from in order to know who we are and where we are going, isn't that so? A 20 year old russian immigrant Clara Lemlich speaking at Cooper Union made 20.000 women garment workers go on strike, an event that gave womens suffrage and workers rights a momentum forward. Historical events forming the world I live in have happened on my very doorstep. I should know this. I am a woman and a worker. Going back became more of an empowerment than a silly trip down memory lane. I am happy I came back. Using the Village as a measuring tool I can also see I have grown. I have changed. Thank God!
Lower East Side History Project website
http://www.leshp.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpage&Itemid=1
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