At the 1968 Democratic Convention, anti-war activists were denied permits to demonstrate by the city and spent most of the week getting their skulls cracked courtesy of the Chicago Police Department, witnessed by a television audience of over 50 million. A year later, eight of the most high profile radicals – guys like Abbie Hoffman and the Black Panthers' Bobby Seale – were tried on charges of conspiracy and inciting riots. The courtroom was......

As chains take over every nook and cranny of this city, some people in the East Village are forming a united front against them. The Villager reports on the corporate takeover, the resistance and the new spin on this story as old as time. Multiple Starbucks in Astor Place act as a welcome sign to the East Village, but the East Village Community Coalition would like to say good riddance to them, and more than......

It's the longest day of the year, so you should be able to fit Shepard Fairey's exhibit and at least one of the following events in. READING: Tommy Trantino was convicted and sentenced to death in 1964 for the murder of two New Jersey police officers. While doing time, he wrote to Leonard Weinglass, the lawyer who defended the Chicago Seven. From the letters came a book deal, and his stories (along with poetry, drawings......

The Cedar Tavern is next in the long list of establishments giving way to condo development. The tavern has been located at 82 University Place (between 11th and 12th Streets) since 1963, though it's original location, in 1866, was on Cedar Street, from there it moved to 24 University Place. Best known for its legendary patrons: Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and countless others - most of......

Jacob Burckhardt is a second generation observer of New York life. His father, Rudy Burckhardt photographed and made narrative films during the '50s and '60s of city life and his New York School artist friends. In '84, Jacob made a fiction film about his bohemian life in Brooklyn casting the Beat poet Allen Ginsberg and Beat novelist William S. Burroughs in small parts, as well as a young neighborhood thespian named Vincent D'Onofrio as a......

While you’re touring New York’s Beat Generation landmarks, drop by the Grey Art Gallery to find out what the “community of disaffiliates” were doing out in San Francisco. You’ll discover through Semina Culture that they were hanging out with Wallace Berman. Instead of cutting up and rearranging his own writing like William S. Burroughs was doing, Berman published a cut-and-paste-style arts journal called Semina that showcased his friends’ talent alongside found objects. “Semina was sent......

To correspond with its 50th anniversary celebration reading tonight, the 92nd Street Y Blog created this map of Beat Generation spots. The map is based on a Post article from Saturday that mentions addresses and events in the history of "all those crazy hepcats who turned postwar America on its head." It's a very cool map, but it's missing one thing (perhaps because the article didn't have it): A marker for where Lucien Carr......

The above clip is as frustrating as it is intriguing. The footage is of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Lucien Carr, Mary Frank and children Pablo and Andrea, as well as Lucien's wife Francesca Carr and their three sons, Simon, Caleb and Ethan. Shot in New York in the summer of 1959 at the Harmony Bar & Restaurant at E 9th Street and 3rd Avenue, the footage is all silent (that's the frustrating part, however......

Have you heard of Plastic People of the Universe? The band, from Prague, was a major part of the underground culture there. This underground culture is often linked back to starting just after Allen Ginsberg visited Prague, and was then expelled from Czechoslovakia, in 1965. It's also linked to a rare copy of the Velvet Underground's first record showing up there and inspiring those in the music circle. The PPU (who got their name from......

Bruce Levingston, Clasical Pianist...

The New York Public Library announced that it bought the archive of writer William S. Burroughs, including his letters and drafts of Naked Lunch. This makes the NYPL's collection of Bea-era materials the most comprehensive, since it already holds the Jack Kerouac archive. The NY Times story about the acquisition had the interesting sidenote about how Allen Ginsberg wanted the NYPL to buy his collection, but since he wanted to sell it quickly, the NYPL......

Bring back the Tompkins Square Park band shell! That's what the lead article in this weeks Villager argues, and we've got to say we wholeheartedly agree. Forty years after the original band shell was put up and nearly fifteen years after it was taken down in response to the Tompkins Square riots, there is a growing desire to see a designated performance space return to the park. And why not? The original band shell......

Last year Bob Dylan chronicled his own life. Tonight the first feature length biography on him, No Direction Home, will air on PBS. The Martin Scorsese directed film is split in to two parts, as follows... Part I: Bob Dylan's life and music from 1961-66 (airing tonight @ 9pm) Part II: Conclusion. Bob Dylan's life and music (airing tomorrow night @ 9pm) We've been hearing great things from those who have already caught some......

Artwork by Jim Jarmusch, Nan Goldin, Anton Van Dalen and others up for bid; screenings and performances in community gardens; Charlie Parker tribute jazz festival; hip hop arts; readings; live music; parties; theatre; burlesque; art shows; films; Rooftop Rants; Beat poetry; Latino music and dance; Hebrew trivia; performance art; semi-nude live models in Tompkins Square Park; a Vomitorium; Wigstock with Boy George and RuPaul; and, of course, all things Allen Ginsberg. There are so many......

Daniel Nester, Proofreader/Editor/Poet...

Andy Horwitz, P.S.122...