Did you know that Manhattan has only one official cultural district? And it might not be located where you think: Under the bright lights of Broadway? Nope. Museum Mile perhaps? Guess again. The East Fourth Street Cultural District is the only designated cultural district in the borough and one of only two in all of New York City.
Earning its prestigious title in 2006, this one short city block between Bowery and Second Avenue is a contemporary cultural oasis in a city where experimental, fringe and organic, grassroots arts have diminished under the pressure of sprawling gentrification.
It is no secret that "all the artists moved to Brooklyn" (then to the Bronx)—however on East Fourth Street, destined A-List artists, play writes, dancers, film makers and actors can still present their craft to enthusiastic audiences and participate in one of the last thriving performing arts communities in Manhattan.
Hosting twelve professional Off-Off-Broadway theaters, eight dance rehearsal studios and three film editing suites, the East Fourth Street Cultural District is no longer one of the city's best kept secrets; venues like La Mama E.T.C. and Duo Theater are drawing record numbers of culturally astute attendees seeking groundbreaking performance art and film.
Pioneering theater is a tradition on this block dating back to the late-nineteenth century, when the first Yiddish Theater performance in America took place at 66 East 4th Street in 1882 (Boris Thomashefsky's Season of the Witch).
Beyond East Fourth Street's theater history, the block served as the epicenter of New York City's progressive, Socialist and Anarchist labor movements by the turn of the twentieth century. Some of the largest labor strikes in American history were organized within the union halls and offices of East Fourth Street and several influential institutions founded on the block, including the International Ladies Garment Workers Union in 1900.
Several high-profile rabble-rousers were active on East Fourth Street during this time period including Mother Jones, Emma Goldman, Johan Most, Alexander Berkman and even Leon Trotsky during his brief time in New York.
By the 1930s, the union halls and offices gave way to warehouses, dive bars and flop houses. It wasn't again until the1950s that East Fourth Street would receive a cultural reawakening as artists transformed the largely abandoned spaces into theaters, workshops and studios. Andy Warhol, Edward Albee, Frank O'Hara, Dianne DiPrima, and most notably, Ellen Stewart, are just a very few of the early pioneers who have left their mark on the block.
To find out more about the block and see a schedule of current and upcoming events, visit the Fourth Arts Block at http://fabnyc.org.
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