It’s all very easy for blogs like mine to lament the loss of the East Village’s punk-rock character and shake a fist at the bottomless brunchers on St. Marks Place or the dude-bros walking down Avenue A carrying golf bags, but it’s prudent to remember that there was a community on the Lower East Side with a complicated history of its own well prior to the arrival of Sonic Youth, Richard Hell, Debbie Harry and the Cro-Mags.
“Viva Loisaida” is a film directed by Marlis Momber in 1978 that depicts the neighborhood well prior to the decades of gentrification that have turned it into what it is now, and the differences are stark.
One wonders what its subjects would have to say about what the neighborhood transformed into.
Thanks for unearthing yet another amazing gem! I've lived in NYC for 35 years, 28 of those years in the East Village. Every time I see photos or footage of this area in the late 70s it is absolutely unrecognizable to me. This time however I was actually able to spot my block. Pretty amazing. I hope that some of the people in that film, particularly the ones that were active in trying to improve the community, were able to stay (and not get priced out!) to see the improvements that were made.
Posted by: URLBrenner | March 24, 2021 at 01:41 PM