The Bowery was a Native American footpath, Dutch farm road, site of the first free Black homesteads, and site of Lincoln’s epochal anti-slavery speech at The Cooper Union. The city’s first entertainment district, it has seminal links to tap dance, vaudeville, Yiddish theater, Stephen Foster, Irving Berlin, baseball, Houdini, and modern tattooing. It later became America’s iconic skid row, but rebounded in the late 20th century, impacting Abstract Expressionism, Beat literature, free jazz and punk rock.
Join The Bowery author David Mulkins and ragtime pianist Ramona Baker for a lively illustrated appreciation of nearly 400 years on this storied “cradle of American popular culture.” Please register via Eventbrite [link forthcoming].