East Village Eye

Founded by Leonard Abrams in 1979, this small, monthly magazine published out of a basement storefront on New York City’s Ludlow Street ultimately gathered subscribers from around the world. Abrams set out to “create a community in print” at a moment when New York City neared bankruptcy and, as Abrams remembers, “There wasn’t a night [in the East Village] when a building wasn’t going up in flames.” In its eight-year run, the publication commissioned artists to create centerfolds for each issue and documented developments large and small in fashion, music, politics, and the art scene—including the early careers of the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and the hip hop pioneer Fab Five Freddy. The magazine covered the rise of HIV/AIDS, the stores and bars that shaped the culture of the neighborhood, and eventually, the gentrification of downtown Manhattan. The Library recently acquired the archive of the East Village Eye and is now the only public institution to have a complete run of all 72 issues.