The Village in 48 Photos

Jack Kerouac reading poetry at the Artist’s Studio at 48 East 3rd Street, February 15, 1959. “I smoked pot with Jack,” Fred W. McDarrah, who served as a picture editor and photographer for the Village Voice from 1956 to 2005, told the East Hampton Star in 1999 of his friendship with Beat writer Kerouac. “The funny part was that we both hated it. It was not something we enjoyed,” he said. “Even though it was part of the culture at the time, I don’t like anything that puts you in a place where you’re floating. I like to keep my feet on the ground.” McDarrah passed away in 2007.

American poets LeRoi Jones (later known as Amiri Baraka) and Diane di Prima sit together in a booth at the Cedar Street Tavern, April 5, 1960. The following year, the pair would begin publication of a literary magazine, the Floating Bear. Though originally located on Cedar Street, the tavern had, by the time of this photo, relocated to 24 University Place.

Social and urban activist and author Jane Jacobs (center) in Washington Square Park, August 24, 1963.

Women marching along Fifth Avenue on August 26, 1970, to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of women’s suffrage in the United States.

Robert F. Kennedy during a tour of a tenement house at 112 Stanton Street on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, May 8, 1967.

Bob Dylan in Christopher Park near the old Voice offices off Sheridan Square, January 22, 1965.

A group of young people celebrate outside the boarded-up Stonewall Inn at 53 Christopher Street after riots over the weekend of June 27, 1969. The bar and surrounding area were the site of a series of demonstrations and riots that led to the formation of the modern gay rights movement in the United States.

American author and activist Susan Sontag enjoys a cigarette while in the atrium of the Mills Hotel on Bleecker Street for a symposium on sex, December 2, 1962.

Backstage at the Grammy Awards at the Uris Theatre (later renamed the Gershwin Theatre). From left, David Bowie, Yoko Ono, John Lennon, and Roberta Flack (John and Yoko’s neighbor at the Dakota), March 1, 1975. Lennon wears a medallion around his neck that reads “Dr. Winston O’Boogie” and a jeweled “Elvis” brooch; Ono and Lennon’s only child together, Sean Lennon, was born seven months later.

American jazz musician and composer Charles Mingus (in white shirt) and his band perform at the Five Spot Cafe (2 St. Marks Place), New York, New York, August 22, 1962.

Mr. Purple, 1985 “He was like a spirit, his white hair flowing as he rode his bike up and down the East Village. He always wore purple and he always rode fast. There was also a Mrs. Purple who wore purple, but she went out less.”

Under the Williamsburg Bridge, 1987 “It was the time of AIDS. It was late and I was heading home when this sign called out to me. I had to stop, set up my tripod, and take this image from thedarkness with me.”

The Circus Comes to Town, 1977 “Every end of March, Barnum & Bailey would parade through the streets of Manhattan with some of its stars. I was there when Gunther Gebel-Williams stopped the procession and gave a command. Suddenly, the two elephants lifted their bulk into the air. I dropped to the ground, focusing furiously. Unaware of the second command, I stayed down. Only when the elephants started lowering themselves and the people were shouting to me did I scamper to my feet.”

Andy Warhol at Studio 54, 1983 “I covered parties, some glamorous, some grungy. This night was to honor Warhol.”

Bill T. Jones, 1980 “This was the first time I met him and photographed him. Today he is as graceful as he was then.”

Angel Jack and the Kittens at Studio 54, 1983 Guy Trebay and I often went together scouring the city for his weekly column. This time we were in the basement dressing room of Studio 54 with the Kittens, young girl singers who were about to go on stage, when Angel Jack appeared at their door. Here is an excerpt of Angel Jack in Guy’s words, a “ towering vision in fishnet unitard that covered half his body with sequins, the other half not at all.”

Wild Bikes, 1986 “This is what kids did on their bikes back then. A platform was built in an alley on the Lower East Side and the boys would pedal fast to the top, do a flip in the air, and scoot back down. For the best view I positioned myself on the ledge and asked them to be careful and they said they would.”

William S. Burroughs, 1984 "He was staying with friends in Lower Manhattan, and I was sent over to get his picture. There was a sword in the apartment and it made the cut."

Pope John Paul II, 1979 “The pope was visiting New York and people were gathering at Yankee Stadium to hear him say Mass. There were welcoming pictures and signs along the way, like this one in the window of an Irish bar.”

Africa Bambaataa of The Zulu Nation, 1982He is considered “Godfather of Hip Hop culture” I met him outside of the Bronx River Projects where he grew up.

Murdered protester at Tiananmen Square, June 1989

Tompkins Square Police Riot, August 1988 “I was at a dinner party at Karen Durbin’s place with a bunch of Voice writers, and someone mentioned that there may be trouble in Tompkins Square because the police were going to roust some squatters. Since I had my camera with me, as usual, I ran over and made this picture.”

Muhammad Ali, May 1977 "Staff writer Arthur Bell and I spent a few days running around the city with Muhammad Ali, it was unusual access, especially for a writer who usually covered gay issues."

Teamsters Boss Jackie Presser At The Teamsters Convention, Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, May 1986 "Reporter Joe Conason & I went to Las Vegas and crashed the Teamsters Convention at Caesars Palace, pretending to be reporters for a Teamsters paper. I made this picture at the climax of the convention, as Teamster Boss, Jackie Presser was carried in in style."

Congressman Gary Ackerman and State Senator Franz Leichter on Imelda Marcos’s bed at Malacañang Palace, Manila, Philippines, February 1986 “Joe Conason and I were sent by the paper to the Philippines to cover the campaign and the People’s Party’s election of Corazon Aquino. After we returned, dictator Ferdinand Marcos was overthrown and we went back to cover that story. We eventually went to check out Malacañang Palace and I discovered two New York politicians, Congressman Gary Ackerman and State Senator Franz Leichter, laughing together on Imelda Marcos’s bed.”

Raul Julia As Macheath In "The Threepenny Opera", June 1976 "I went backstage to meet Raul Julia when he played Macheath in Joe Papp’s production of “The Threepenny Opera” at Lincoln Center."

Martin Scorsese, April 1978

The Beastie Boys, December 1986 “My apartment is across the street from where the Voice used to be, on University Place, and it still doubles as a studio/darkroom. I would often have subjects in for portraits, and the Beastie Boys showed up one evening.”

Jack Nicholson, May 1975 "From an afternoon with Jack."

Jimmy in the Half Moon bar, the Bowery, April 1977 “In the late 1970s, Michael Daly and I decided that we wanted to find out what life was like in the bars and flophouses on the Bowery, places we had passed many times but knew nothing about. I kept my camera under my coat in the bars, and Michael stayed in the flophouses. The most notorious bar was called the Half Moon, where the bartenders were horribly abusive to the men. There was a guy there named Jimmy that I liked very much.”

The Clash, 1981 “It was an excuse to talk to anybody,” Arbus said. “It was a way for me personally to be involved in a very hip scene, the downtown East Village scene, that I wasn’t initially a part of"

D Train, 1983

Hat and Men’s Tie, 1984

Moccasins, 1982

Madonna, 1983 “The only direction I was given was to photograph anyone that made me turn my head,” Amy Arbus told the Voice in 2015 of her popular “On the Street” feature, which ran from 1980 to 1990. “The theory behind the whole ‘On the Street’ page for ten years was that these kids were inventing the styles that then were going to be borrowed by [designers such as] Marc Jacobs, Anna Sui.”

A portrait of former mayor Ed Koch and the Reverend Al Sharpton shot for an October 19, 1999, cover story by Peter Noel entitled “Brothers in Arms: How Ed Koch made Al Sharpton kosher and is winning the hearts of African Americans.”

9/11 rescue workers, shot in the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Actor Taylor Mead in his apartment on Orchard Street on the Lower East Side.

Michael Musto, 1992 “After sixteen years of working with him every week on his column, I have so many photos of him that I love. This is an outtake I’ve never released before from the Madonna Sex book spoof we did to raise money for AIDS.”

L-R: L.L. Cool J (a/k/a James Todd Smith), Russell Simmons, Heavy D (a/k/a Dwight Myers), and Jalil Hutchins of Whodini pose for a photo at a party for the release of Run-D.M.C.’s Tougher Than Leather album on September 15,1988, at the Palladium nightclub.

Debbie Harry at the Jackie 60 Awards with the Fur Balls, March 1993.

Filmmaker John Waters greets fans (among them artist Keith Haring) outside the Waverly Theater at the premiere of Waters’s Hairspray on February 26, 1988.

Larry Kramer at Village Voice AIDS conference on June 6, 1987 in New York City.

Dancers voguing at Mars nightclub, 1988.

Michael Alig, circa 1990s “How about this one for Michael Alig? I have to tell you, I’ve never released this one before to anyone, anywhere...it’s from Limelight. This one is of the Club Kids at one of Michael Musto’s birthday parties. Michael Alig is the one in the center, with his head turned. Ernie Glam is at the back on the left; he also once worked at the Voice.”

"Performer "BOB", a "drag" queen who in fact was really a woman!" At home in her East Village apt, NYC NY. 1999

Graffiti artist Fab 5 Freddy (born Fred Brathwaite), drag queen RuPaul, and Tommy Boy Records executive Monica Lynch pose for a group portrait in Times Square, November 1992.

Warhol Superstar Viva poses for a portrait with her daughter, actress Gaby Hoffmann, at home at the Chelsea Hotel, February 1991.