In 1984, an Atlanta drag queen named RuPaul exploded onto the New York scene in a performance

at an East Village nightclub named The Parrot.

5 years later, a Seattle band by the name of Nirvana, fronted by Kurt Cobain, made their

New York City debut on that very same stage.

And it was here, in the late summer of 2023, in front of that very stage, that I sat down

with East Village resident and guide Craig Gordaglia to talk about a few wild cultural

moments from the neighborhood's history.

It was aggressive, it was fast, it was hard, and for a lot of people, that's what they

needed, and it really touched the nerve of what was going on in this area, and it became

a community.

People who weren't from here found their way to this neighborhood and found these people

that they had something in common with and centered around the music.

This is the story of punk and hardcore, squatters and community gardens, skateboarders, and some

of the 20th century's greatest musicians and artists.

And at the end, we'll stop in to say hi to one of the true kings of the East Village,

a man who has held out in his little corner of the neighborhood for almost 50 years.

The Bowry Boys episode 417, walking in the East Village.

Hi there, welcome to the Bowry Boys, this is Greg Young, and today we'll be further exploring

the story of the East Village, the Manhattan neighborhood, which has been a vital cultural

center from music, art, and theater since the 1960s.

Now in the last episode, we traced the transformation of the neighborhood from its days as a part

of the Lower East Side, still graced today with the influences of German, Polish, and

...