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Fred Bass getting a kiss from his daughter Nancy Bass Wyden at the Village Awards. The two run the historic Strand Book Store. Photos by Tequila Minsky
Iconic local merchants and arts institutions, plus an ad-hoc group desperately fighting the planned redevelopment of low-scale Gansevoort St. in the Meatpacking District were the honorees at the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation’s annual Village Awards ceremony on Tues., June 14. This year’s honorees were Strand Book Store, family-owned for 89 years; East Village Meat Market; the Jaffe Art Theater for its interior restoration; Julius’ Bar, site of the famous “sip-in” protest, when several gay men, members of the Mattachine Society, claimed their right simply to order a drink in a public bar; Smalls Jazz Club; Steve Cannon, poet, playwright, novelist and proprietor of the East Village’s A Gathering of the Tribes art space; and Save Gansevoort, the winners of G.V.S.H.P.’s Regina Kellerman Award. Adding a light touch and wit to the evening, Bob Holman, founder of the Bowery Poetry Club, was the event’s emcee.
Zack Winestine, left, and Elaine Young, leading members of Save Gansevoort, accepting G.V.S.H.P.’s Regina Kellerman Award for their efforts in fighting the “Gansevoort Row” project, which would redevelop and boost building heights on an entire low-scale block of the Gansevoort Historic District. Shockingly and sadly, the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission recently approved the project.
Steve Cannon receiving his Village Award from Andrew Berman, director of G.V.S.H.P., left, and East Village journalist Sarah Ferguson, who helped the blind poet find a new home on E. Sixth St. after he lost Tribes’ longtime space at 285 E. Third St. two years ago.Andrew Berman presents the owners of Julius’ Bar, site of the historic 1966 “sip-in,” with a Village Award.
