In Jacobin, Alex Press offered a worthy review of Tricia Romano’s new oral history of the Village Voice, a book that mattered to me as an ex-Voice writer and New York nostalgist. The Voice was, at its various peaks, a remarkable hub for cultural debate and investigative reportage, simultaneously muckraking at City Hall while discovering hip hop and publishing incisive literary criticism. It was, somehow, both an alternative newspaper for the streets and the intellectual class, capturing, as much as any publication could, polyphonic New York. It was a rowdy, chaotic place, fraught with tension even when it was profitable, and its demise was a great blow for the city and the rest of America. The Voice, when humming, was an enchantment for young creatives, a window into what was possible.
Read Full Article »
