At the party for Lower East Side documentarian Clayton Patterson’s new book, the Orensanz brothers, Al, far right, and Angel, second from right, of the Angel Orensanz Foundation on Norfolk St., greeted attorney Myron Beldock, left, as Howie Seligman, president of the Solo Foundation, a group that helps nonprofit organizations get started, stood nearby. “Resistance: A Radical Social and Political History of the Lower East Side,” edited by Patterson, includes selections by a plethora of well-known Lower East Side and East Village writers and figures, such as Emma Goldman, Dorothy Day, Christopher Mele, John Macmillan, Jim Feast, Al Orensanz, Allan Antliff, Lynne Stewart, Thomas McEvilly, Frank Morales, Sarah Ferguson, Colin Moynihan and many others. The topics range from the early settlement houses and sweatshops to squatters, rioters, artists, activists and organizers. “‘Resistance’ is jampacked with fascinating first-person accounts of the battles, triumphs, failures and lives of a neighborhood that is rapidly being lost to gentrification,” said Patterson. The book is getting positive reviews from Lower East Siders. Published by Seven Stories Press, the large-format, 624-page paperback sells for $22.50.
