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Author Interview: Yui Abe

The journey to the Creation of the Picture Book, A Wild Windy Night —The interviewer, Hasegawa, Editor for the original Japanese book (November 2021) Hasegawa: Thank you for your time today. In this interview, we’ll be exploring the creation process of A Wild Windy Night. Can you recall when the initial planning meeting took place? I believe it was just ... Read More »

Of Love and Paris

Historic, Romantic and Obsessive Liaisons Memoirist and Francophile Baxter (A Year in Paris) offers an alluring collection of essays focused on the Parisian “culture of acceptance and acquiescence” in the boudoir. He combines personal reflections with a literary-historical account of neighborhoods and locales, including Montparnasse circa 1924, when Jean Rhys moved in with Ford Madox Ford and his girlfriend, and ... Read More »

Behind the Lights of Birdland: Jazz Legends, Racial Tensions, and the Night Miles Davis Fought Back

<Excerpt from New York Offbeat Walks: Midtown> Walk on, stopping outside (26) 1678 Broadway—approximately where the parking sign is today. This venue has an equally important place in modern music culture as its basement was home to The Birdland Jazz Club from 1949 to 1965. It was named for jazz pioneer and saxophonist Charlie Parker (1920-1955), whose nickname was “Bird.” ... Read More »

Gangs and Legends: Unraveling the Dark Secrets of Battle Row in Hell’s Kitchen

<Excerpt from New York Offbeat Walks: Hell’s Kitchen> On the right, you pass West 39th Street, which—between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues—was once as a notorious slum known as “Battle Row.” Long before the Westies, the 500-strong Irish American Gophers gang controlled the area from the 1890s until around 1910, finding rich pickings by stealing from the nearby train yards and ... Read More »

Titanic’s Ill-Fated Destination: Unveiling the Secrets of Chelsea Piers

<Excerpt from New York Offbeat Walks: Chelsea> Continue on to Eleventh Avenue and the Hudson River to the west. Ahead is Pier 57, built in the early 1950s for shipping by the chemical business W.R. Grace and Company and later used as a bus station. In 1837, Thirteenth Avenue was constructed beside the Hudson River, but it was an unlucky ... Read More »

Lost in Art: John Lennon’s Misadventure at Westbeth Artists Housing

<Excerpt from New York Offbeat Walks: West Village> Continue along Bank Street to reach the junction with Washington Street. On the northwest corner is (34) the Westbeth Artists Housing complex. This incredible site originally comprised of 13 buildings was constructed for Western Electric in 1868, and later taken over by Bell Laboratories in the late 1890s. Demonstrations were held here ... Read More »

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