Please join us for an evening with authors Michael Gentile, Clayton Patterson and John Strausbaugh, celebrating Gentile’s new book, There’s That Too, and Patterson and Strausbaugh’s 2022 publication, Offbeats: Lower East Side Portraits.

Gentile wrote, illustrated, and designed There’s That Too, a blend of stories, paintings, and photographs that beautifully evoke the Baltimore he knew growing up and the downtown Manhattan culture he made significant contributions to starting in the 1980s — from the dangerous pleasures of Red Rover in the playground, to punk rock at art school, to meeting William S. Burroughs.

With a history of mentoring a generation of artists, Michael Gentile was the founding art director of the great downtown weekly New York Press, and developed the newspaper’s distinct look and unique visual identity. The Society of Illustrators Alt-Weekly exhibit called his New York Press tenure with RAW alumni “utterly unlike anything else previously seen in newsprint.” His own writing and illustration often explores first-person experiences, historical city and rural life, along with landscapes, animals and figures. Published pieces have appeared in LA Weekly, NYLON, Splice Today and House & Garden.

The Lower East Side has long been both a magnet and an incubator for artists, misfits, rebels, and refugees from the straight and normal life. In Offbeats: Lower East Side Portraits, Patterson and Strausbaugh profile a remarkable gallery of Lower East Side visionaries, artists, misfits, and criminals. They include: Lionel Ziprin, poet, mystic, kabbalist, and unsung hero of the East Village scene of the 60s; Father Pat Maloney, a founder of Bonitas House youth services on E. 9th Street, who was convicted of helping the IRA rob millions of dollars from Brinks; Molly Picon, star of the 2nd Avenue Yiddish theaters in their heyday; John Evans, who created collages from the flotsam and jetsam of his East Village streets, and several others.

Clayton Patterson has been an outstanding figure on the Lower East Side for forty years. Documenting the neighborhood in photos, video and words, he pioneered “citizen journalism” and has built a vast and unique archive of neighborhood history. His books include Resistance: A Radical Social and Political History of the Lower East Side; Captured: A Film & Video History of the Lower East Side; and the three-volume Jews: A People’s History of the Lower East Side. He and his partner Elsa Rensaa are the subjects of the documentary film Captured by Daniel Levin and Ben Solomon.

John Strausbaugh is an award-winning author, historiographer and journalist. He wrote for and edited the legendary New York Press from 1988 to 2003. His books on New York City history include The Village, City of Sedition, and Victory City. He also wrote and hosted a series of neighborhood history articles and podcasts for the New York Times. He has just completed a book about Marcel Duchamp in New York.