By Yalini Anne Sampathkumar, 10 Jefferson Market Library has a great collection of kids’ books and some of the nicest librarians. I look for Rebecca Schosha every time I come. She is one of the librarians, who always gives me a warm greeting. I decided to interview her about the children’s section of the Jefferson
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Ethnic Pride Portraits
Portraits of people around the world proud of their heritage, showing ethnic and religious pride wearing traditional folk regalia and costumes. Below: Greek, Korean, Native American, Hindu, Chinese and American African Muslim. Other examples can be found on my website www.joelgordon.com. Photo credit © Joel Gordon 2019—All rights reserved.
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Greenwich Village: Reminiscence
By Harry Rissetto I grew up in Greenwich Village during the period between Robert Moses’ proposed freeway and John Lindsey’s plans for a tourist mecca. I recently spent parts of a year back there and tried to connect my memories and current impressions. The West Village during the ‘50s and ‘60s was mostly middle class
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West Village Original: Marshall W. Mason
By Michael D. Minichiello This month’s West Village Original is director Marshall W. Mason, born in Amarillo, Texas in 1940. Mason co-founded the Circle Repertory Company in New York and was artistic director for 18 years. He directed such plays as The Hot L Baltimore, Fifth of July, Talley’s Folly, As Is, and Burn This. Nominated five
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Theater Book Review: The Transcendent Years
By Robert Heide The title of Marshall W. Mason’s remarkable new book entitled The Transcendent Years—The Circle Repertory Company & The 1960s for which he was the artistic director for eighteen years is his homage to Harold Clurman’s Group Theater book The Fervent Years. Marshall Mason won a special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement and
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VISIONS/Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired
By Bernadette Alexander Glaucoma runs in my family on my mother’s side. My mother, grandmother, siblings and even third cousins have it. Although I was diagnosed over twenty years ago, I didn’t lose my vision until April 2017. It was devastating. I had a successful career as both a state administrator and Senior Workers Compensation
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Remembrances of the Lost Village: David Amram, Renaissance Man
By Roger Paradiso I first met David Amram at the Half Pint Bar on West Third and Sullivan. It was the winter of 2012. He was nice enough to come down and be interviewed by me for a documentary film. As soon as we met we started talking and talking, and the conversation hasn’t stopped
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Brooklyn Hero of the Poor Now Speaks for All
By George Capsis Oh wow! Jumaane Williams won as Public Advocate and we interviewed him a few weeks ago as he sat in “my reading the New York Times chair” in our kitchen conference room at 69 Charles Street. We did not exactly endorse him as attorney Arthur Schwartz did, but asked him questions mostly
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Welcome Jumaane Williams!
By Arthur Z. Schwartz As we go to press, Jumaane Williams, of Brooklyn, is being installed as the City’s fourth Public Advocate. Besides chairing City Council meetings, the Public Advocate has rather undefined powers—but largely, it is the position of public ombudsman. Jumaane is an activist, a fighter, and an effective legislator (53 bills passed
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Remembrances of The Lost Village: Doris Deither the fighter
By Roger Paradiso Starting October 19th with THE LOST VILLAGE premiere at the legendary Cinema Village Theaters, we did community panel discussions after each screening. Sponsored by WestView News, we ended up doing 8 panels in that first week. But none was more memorable than the night Doris Deither came to visit. She has been
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Jonas Mekas Was Frozen History
By George Capsis 66 years ago I was invited by Dick Brummer to his top floor apartment on Perry Street for an small evening party and I found myself glancing down from the rear window at a garden across the way on Charles Street that became the house I bought for my family and in
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Jacques Benveniste, 1928-2019
By Caroline Benveniste My father, Jacques Benveniste, a longtime Village resident, died unexpectedly on January 7, 2019. He was 90 years old. He was found unresponsive at home and transported by ambulance to Lenox Health, Greenwich Village, but the paramedics and doctors were unable to revive him. My father was born in Athens, Greece on
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Corey asks Subway Riders to Fund Race to Mayor
I’m writing to share some exciting news: I am thinking about running for Mayor of New York City. It’s a big decision, I know, but I love this City and am committed to making it a better place for all. As much as I love New York, we are capable of so much more. And
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How the Berks Were Able to Live in Their Apartment for 20 Years and Collect $500k Upon Leaving—An Update
By Paul Dalnoky Long before the guardianship of Ruth Berk and the canonization of her attorney, Arthur Schwartz, there was a newbie East Village lawyer named Paul Dalnoky who worked, mostly, out of his rent-stabilized apartment. Dalnoky long ago gave up on the practice of law and discovering intelligent life (save a precious few) on
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New York Doormen and Me
By Janet Capron Growing up at 1185 Park Avenue, a big drive-in building with six sections, I rarely encountered any working-class people. Plumbers, electricians and other union guys were like apparitions, riding the back elevator, slinking in and out the back door. They were minor players in my cosseted young life—with the sole exception of
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Seniors in Our City Can Have Scary Choices to Make
By Arthur Z. Schwartz In mid-December I got a worried phone call from George Capsis. An older woman (who I will call Fran for purposes of this article) had found her way to George’s apartment, holding a clipping from WestView about another older woman who George had referred to me with a landlord problem. She
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Dress Code
There really is a distinct difference between West Village garb and that of the folks who live north of 14th Street. Recently, I went north to attend a birthday party for a dear friend and, on another night, for dinner at a fancy Upper East Side restaurant. That’s when it hit me—the dress code and
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Notes From Away: War Story
By Tom Lamia I write on the day of the memorial service for George H.W. Bush. Today and during the preceding four days, many have spoken privately and publicly of the remarkable character of Bush 41. A connection between his character and the effect of his service in World War II has been noted as
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Visions of Vija: A Villager’s Journey
By Stanley Wlodyka Almost 90 years ago, Vija Vetra peeked through a hole in the wall of a dance studio where ballet classes were taught. Who knows which adolescent boy had carved out the peephole, looking to stoke the fire kindled by adolescent hormones, watching the girls plié and rond de jambe their way into
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10 Ways Village Seniors Cope with Winter Blues
By Jane Heil Usyk I really hate winter. It’s so cold! And besides that, it’s often slippery, and slushy, and wet. I could stay in all winter, except I need my walking exercise, and I have to get groceries, and go to the library, and watch movies, mail bills, and do a number of other
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Why Do I Still Do the Paper?
We were driving in an Uber to East Wiliston to my son’s house for Christmas dinner when we discovered that our 33 year-old driver used to work for Trader Joe’s and regretted quitting after he felt he had been downgraded when his job function was eliminated, but now he had a wife and tiny son
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Bruce Boyce, Artist, Gardener, and Neighbor, Dies at 76
Bruce Wesley Boyce transformed his small corner of the West Village into a destination for those in the know. Thanks to Mr. Boyce’s efforts, locals and tourists alike stop in front of the wrought iron gates at 65-67 Jane Street between Hudson and Greenwich to take photos or steal glimpses of the elaborate garden installations,
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WestView Provides Spark!
WestView has built my confidence, inspiring me and my poetic abilities. I know I would not have had the courage nor inclination to ‘compete’ with myself had George not suggested I ‘kernalize’, which I still struggle with. He ’stretches’ not only me, but everyone associated with the paper. WestView granted me, a homespun neophyte poet
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Jessica Moves
Long-time West Village fixture, Jessica Berk, moved out of 95 Christopher Street at the end of October (part of a 6 figure deal with her landlord to turn over a rent-controlled 2 bedroom apartment) and has purchased a new home: a 2-bedroom condo in Atlantic City! Her dog is about to join her as she
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Robot Travel
By George Capsis Michael Usyk had a show of his artwork in Paris which he attended via Skype—his image displayed on a laptop on a table in the middle of the show. Visitors to the exhibit (if they spoke English) could chat with Michael about his work as he sat in his little apartment in the West Village. Well, this
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Remembrances of The Lost Village: Cornelia Street Café
By Roger Paradiso I remember the Fourth of July festival on Cornelia Street a few years back. Robin Hirsch of the Cornelia Street Café was throwing his annual birthday celebration for his landmark jazz/comedy/poetry club. (To this date as I write this in 2018, he is celebrating his 41st year in business. Number 42 would
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Selling Christmas Trees in Manhattan
By Joey Fortune Like the tides, some things in life are predictable yet unstoppable. Days never cease, while seasons follow seasons with impeccable reliance. As humans, we’ve adapted to this and in our hubris, created our own events to show the universe that we are also in command. We have given birth to holidays. Yes,
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My Grandfather, A Doctor in the Early 20th Century
By Jane Heil Usyk How would you like to be able to phone your doctor and get someone real on the other end, your doctor or his/her nurse, and make an appointment for a few days in the future without having to wait interminably for recorded messages not intended for you, and numerous irrelevant instructions? How
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Teddy Capsis Wraps Up Brilliant College Career
College of Holy Cross Senior Teddy Capsis earns All-Patriot League honors for the second time in his career, after previously being a second team selection in 2017. He started all 11 games for the Crusaders at defensive end this season, totaling a team-best six quarterback sacks for 30 yards and 15 tackles for loss for 56
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The Great Whitney Warhol Show
By Robert Heide The title for the spectacular new Whitney art show is simply Andy Warhol From A to B and Back Again. The chief curator of the show is Donna De Salvo who has assembled a fully comprehensive Warhol art retrospective of more than 350 of his world famous Pop Art originals. Warhol had been turning
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The Story Emerges
By Tom Lamia Life everywhere has resembled a bad novel these past two years. Bad, but with all the ingredients needed for commercial appeal: good guys, bad guys and all shades of characters in between; intrigue worthy of Hitchcock; foreign malevolence on the scale of Peter Lorre; cryptic influences sure to be made known but
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“The Lost Village” Exposes The Evil Takeover of Greenwich Village by NYU and Large Corporations
By Carol Yost The Lost Village is our very own Greenwich Village: Roger Paradiso’s film chronicles how greed and lust for power have transformed the original, unique character of the Village. (NOTE: This is a revised review after last year’s screening. Now the film is in distribution, and I saw it for the second time
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Remembrances from The Lost Village: Death of The Living Theater
By Roger Paradiso If there is one interview that haunts me from my film The Lost Village it was the one with Judith Malina. Judith and Julian Beck met when she was 17. In 1947 they formed The Living Theater, which was a part of the Village scene in the 1950s and 60s until they
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Autograph Hound
By Alan Perna I was standing on 6th Avenue and 48th Street in front of a rehearsal studio, when I saw a taxi go by. I started running after it. I ran three blocks until it stopped at a light. My mind was racing, my heart pounding, my mouth was dry. I grabbed the door
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Kennedy: Bobby’s Last Crusade, Theatre At St. Clement’s
By Eric Uhlfelder A play remembering the 1968 presidential campaign, how the country has changed and how it hasn’t. Wandering several blocks west of Times Square to an old church might seem an odd place to find a tale about a presidential campaign fifty years on. But this choice of venue to host an escape
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Why I Am Voting for Cynthia Nixon (Not Deborah Glick) For State Assembly
Glick Has Not Earned Your Vote. Nixon Represents Change. Think About It! By Jim Fouratt In the September issue of Westview, I wrote that Cynthia Nixon, if she did not win her primary against Andrew Cuomo, would be a perfect candidate to run on the Working Families ballot for NY State Assembly opposing 28 year
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Cynthia Nixon for Assembly? Time for A Change
By Arthur Z. Schwartz There was not a single Assembly District in the State of New York where Cynthia Nixon did better against Andrew Cuomo in the September 13th Democratic Primary than our 66th Assembly District. Yes, our bastion of progressivism gave her 57.5% of the vote against a man who spent over $20 million
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Gentleman Jerrold: Our Fierce Warrior in the House
By Catherine Revland The NRA is Twitterpated over Congressman Jerrold Nadler. “To say it bluntly,” warns #AmmoLand, “the man would be a nightmare for Second Amendment supporters if the Democrats take control of the House.” Aside from being the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, with jurisdiction over the Department of Justice, the FBI,
