The Bowery: From Tap Dance & Vaudeville to Skid Row & Punk Rock

Join author David Mulkins for a slide-illustrated presentation of his new book, The Bowery. NYC’s oldest street, the Bowery, was a Native American footpath, a Dutch farm road, and the city’s first entertainment district. It has seminal links to tap dance, vaudeville, Yiddish theater, Stephen Foster, Irving Berlin, baseball, modern tattooing, Harry Houdini, and Mae West. The stomping ground for sailors, shopgirls, gangs, gays, and the immigrant Irish, Italians, Chinese, Jews, and Germans, it later became America’s iconic skid row, but rebounded in the late 20th century, impacting the emergence of Abstract Expressionism, free jazz, and punk rock.

*This event will take place in person at Hudson Park Library. Space is limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

ABOUT AUTHOR

A retired history and cinema studies teacher, David Mulkins serves as president of the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors and is the editor and contributing writer of Windows on the Bowery: 400 Years on NYC’s Oldest Street.

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