By Michael D. Minichiello Even though he loved to draw from an early age, California-born artist Nick Lamia was originally on a very different career path. “I was pre-med in college,” he says. “Then I went into environmental science and ecology, thinking I would go into environmental law. However, on the very day that I
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Dame Ethel Smyth: Still Fighting for Equality 100 Years Later
By Benjamin McCoy, Nicholas Young, Kate Katigbak, and Jeanne Wikler Over a century ago, British composer Dame Ethel Smyth (1858–1944) created her generation’s version of the Women’s March and #TheFutureIsFemale. Now, more than 100 years later, the Cecilia Chorus of New York will give Smyth’s last work, The Prison, its North American premiere on May
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Ramsey Clark: Living Legend of the Great Society
By Bruce Poli “The measure of your quality as a public person, as a citizen, is the gap between what you do and what you say.” “Most faults are not in our Constitution, but in ourselves. “ “A right is not what someone gives you; it’s what no one can take from you.” West Villager Ramsey
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Briefly Noted
Sylvia Ross-Epstein Sylvia Ross-Epstein, 82, resident of West 4th Street since 1968, passed away Friday, March 9, 2018. She was born August 25th, 1935, in Statesville, North Carolina to the late Clarence Ross and Sarah Johnston Ross. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, Martin Epstein; sons, Jeffrey Ross
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The Planets Aligned
Hi George, I have to share with you something that happened shortly after my article came out in the WestView News. As I mentioned in the article, I have an Internet radio show called “Food for Thought”. We had been promised by the station owner for many months that our photo (the one that was
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Paper Trail
Feb. 23, 2018 Twisp, Washington Dear George, I always enjoy getting the WestView News in our mailbox here on the other side of the country. We put it on our coffee table beside our local Methow Valley News in front of the wood stove, which, these very cold days, always has a fire flaming away.
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Arlene Gottfried’s “KISS, Halloween Parade, West Village, 1978”
Arlene Gottfried’s artistic legacy continues in a solo exhibition entitled “A Lifetime Of Wandering,” which is on view from February 28th to April 28th at Daniel Cooney Fine Art in Chelsea. Gottfried, a longtime resident of Westbeth, passed away in August of 2017. Her photography is best known for its humorous and empathetic views of
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No Stopping This Train
By Stanley Wlodyka You’ve seen her. Just as you lift your hand to grab her attention and offer help, she swoops down like an Olympic weightlifter and picks up the stroller, baby and all. She turns around, impatiently blows at a strand of hair that’s fallen out of place, and looks right through you. “Come
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Ramsey Clark at 90: America’s Most Liberal Attorney General and Veteran West Villager (Part 1)
“The greatest crime since World War II has been U.S. foreign policy.”—Ramsey Clark By Bruce Poli Ask me why I live in the West Village, and I might say, “Because people like Ramsey Clark live here.” Considered one of America’s most liberal Attorney Generals, Ramsey Clark, who served in the Department of Justice during the
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We Still Need Beth Israel
By Penny Mintz City Council Member Jumaane Williams, a Brooklyn Democrat running for lieutenant governor, spoke with Progressive Action of Lower Manhattan (PALM) members in late January. He presented progressive credentials quite impressively and answered questions about the threatened closing of Beth Israel Hospital’s main building at 1st Avenue and East 16th Street. But Williams
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West Village Original: Peter Leitch
By Michael D. Minichiello This month’s West Village Original is jazz guitarist Peter Leitch, born in Ottawa in 1944 and raised in Montreal. Leitch released his first solo album in 1981 and then about 15 more over the years. As a sideman, he has recorded with Jeri Brown, Oscar Peterson, Woody Shaw, and Pete Yellin,
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New Exhibition by Nick Lamia
This piece is based on a press release published by Jason McCoy Gallery on February 23, 2018. Nick Lamia lived at 54 Charles Street and studied at the New York Studio School. He currently teaches at the Fashion Institute of Technology.
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Great American Playwright Maria Irene Fornes
A New Documentary Captures Her Incredible Journey from Cuba to Paris to a Life in Greenwich Village By Robert Heide I first met the playwright extraordinaire Maria Irene Fornes in the Village in 1965 at the Caffe Cino on Cornelia Street where my play The Bed was having a successful run. She was introduced to
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The Jar
By E.N.J. Carter My mother never talked about Ireland. My uncle, who she crossed the Atlantic with as a teenager, said she had a tough time of it. Who wants to be suddenly told that you have to leave your country and your friends? To have the feeling that it was too dangerous for a
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It All Started with Pop-Pop
By Dierdre Anderson Pop-Pop, aka Vincent Scailo, my Italian grandfather, sparked my initial love for food. Namely, the preparation part. Growing up, family get-togethers were all about the food. Of course we loved to eat, but with equal passion we loved to create. Together. While Grandma Helen simmered and stirred, my mom seemed to constantly
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The Song that Changes Lives
By Helene Abrams and David Giller Something very special happened to the children of P.S. 55 in the Bronx: A song wove a room full of children into a reverberating hymn of confidence, and a movement for building children’s self-esteem was born. It all began with “I’m A Person,” a simple and inspiring song with
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NYC Annual Cat PURRRTY Revisited
By SuZen Some 30-plus years ago, my love affair with cats began with a Siamese cat named Sushi, whose life changed mine and fostered my exploration into the world of cats. As chronicled in my book, The Love Story of Sushi and Sashimi: A Cat Tale (published by Capri Press), Sushi meets and falls in
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Goodbye Bette! Hello Bernadette!
Two Village Girls Who Made it Big on Broadway By Robert Heide In summing up the 2017 Broadway theater season, Michael Riedel in his New York Post article, entitled “A Sure Bette” (dated December 29, 2017), cites Hello Dolly! as the top, hot ticket of the year. He writes about producer Scott Rudin and director
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Invisible People of the West Village
By Joel Gordon Each day, as I travel to my studio across town, I walk past the ‘invisible people’ that don’t exist. I watch passersby who don’t make eye contact; it’s much easier to ignore the homeless existence. However, these people didn’t intend to become homeless or plan to live on the street; each has
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Flamenco and More at the Creative Cultural Center at St. Veronica
By Caroline Benveniste All too often, we report sad real estate stories—buildings being torn down and replaced with condos or offices, local shops closing because of steep rent increases, and other changes that make the Village less unique. Finally, we have a story that starts like all the others but ends happily. The Church of
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The Village Apothecary, a Treasured Neighborhood Institution
By Anastasia Kaliabakos In 1983, Mr. Michael Konnon, a pharmacist, businessman, activist, and community leader, decided that his neighborhood desperately needed a dedicated, independent community pharmacy. He founded the Village Apothecary at 346 Bleecker Street (at West 10th Street). At that time, the West Village had become the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic, affecting New
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The Rent is Due – $127.61 Please
By W. Russell Neuman $127.61. Yep, for a nifty 1,000-square-foot apartment in an award-winning Federal townhouse on Morton Street. Yes, indeed. That is the current rent, per month, in 2018. West Village heaven. How is this possible, you ask? The answer, of course, is rent control. Other similar but uncontrolled apartments in the same building
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Honoring Catryna Ten Eyck Seymour
By The Family of Catryna Ten Eyck Seymour Catryna Ten Eyck Seymour was born in New York City on June 30, 1931. She passed away on December 2, 2017 in Torrington, Connecticut and is survived by her husband of 66 years, Whitney North Seymour, Jr., and daughters Tryntje and Gabriel. Mrs. Seymour attended the Brearley
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When Landlords Commit Sexual Harassment
By Joseph Turco, Esq. “If I had a hammer, I’d SMASH the Patriarchy.” This message was seen on a sign at the Women’s March on January 21, 2017. It should come as no surprise that several Village big wigs (all white, all male) have been exposed as cads and worse as a result of the
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A.G. Schneiderman Announces Unprecedented Consent Decree With NYC Landlord Steven Croman
The New York State Office of the Attorney General (OAG) published the following press release on December 20, 2017. It has been edited by WestView News. Today, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced an unprecedented settlement with Steven Croman, a major New York City landlord, for engaging in illegal conduct, including harassment, coercion,
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My Uncle the Atheist (In Memory of Oscar Riddle, 1877-1968)
By Barbara Riddle Is there a gene for skepticism, for extreme independence of thought, or intellectual bravery? I ask because of an incident in my life, not too long ago, when I suddenly felt genetically connected to an ancestor across space and time. In the depths of despair about the state of my country, I
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A Transcontinental Legacy
Dear Editors: John Capsis’ obituary, which was published in the December 2017 issue of WestView, provided a reminder of a life well lived, the way John served his community and country. Joy and I happened to travel to Greece just after John Capsis’ passing, so as we met people there, we mentioned Mr. Capsis’ relation
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West Village Original: Robert Heide
By Michael D. Minichiello This month’s West Village Original is playwright and author Robert Heide, who was born and raised in Irvington, New Jersey. The author of numerous plays, Heide has also co-authored, with his lifetime partner John Gilman, many books about collecting memorabilia, including three titles for Disney. A West Village resident since 1958,
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Journey to Forgiveness
By Gayle Kirschenbaum Did you ever feel like you were born into the wrong family? I did. From head to toe, there wasn’t anything right about me. My nose was too big, my butt too fat, and my hair too frizzy. According to my mother, I couldn’t do anything right and my brothers couldn’t do
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My Brief Encounter with Jeanne Moreau
By Allyn Freeman It was the day after Thanksgiving in 1963. I waited in the Cannes airport to board a late afternoon flight to Paris where I worked for an American company. At the newsstand, I bought Le Figaro. Rather than circle around the woman standing between me and the International Herald Tribune, I reached
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The Fight of Her Life
By Reverend Michel Faulkner Growing up in the Bronx as the fourth youngest of 11 children wasn’t easy. When Vicky was three, she and her brothers and sisters almost died due to neglect and were removed from their mother. They were placed in foster care until she was 10. “The hardest thing about this was
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An Historic Moment
By Cynthia Chaffee & Mary Ann Miller On Wednesday, December 20, 2017 at 60 Centre Street, an historic consent decree was reached between the New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and the lawyers for Steve Croman. This decree included an unprecedented monetary restitution ($8 million), which the disgraced landlord must pay to his injured
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Corey Johnson Could Be Chuck Schumer!
Oh wow! The Times keeps calling Corey Johnson, the new Speaker of the City Council, the second-most powerful man in City government. I asked Erik Bottcher, Corey’s Chief of Staff, “How come?” and this is what I got… Like the federal government, city government is divided between the ‘executive’ (the Mayor) and the ‘legislative’ (the
