St. Marks Is Dead Book Party at Cooper Union Recap

Cooper book party-Cooper book party

Holy shit, everyone. That was the best night of my life save getting married and having a child. What I loved most was seeing 700 people from different eras of the street’s history, from teenagers to people in their eighties, all talking and drinking and laughing together in the place where Lincoln gave his “Right Makes Might” speech.

One photo contributor to the book wore an outfit she’d bought on the street in the 1960s and ran into the woman quoted in the book who had made it. Someone else told me, “I was hoping this guy I haven’t seen for 30 years would show up tonight, and he did. We’re having dinner tomorrow night."

Here are a few of the arti­cles I saw about the par­ty: Bedford+Bowery, Untapped Cities, Brook­lyn Veg­an, The Guardian, SavetheVil­lage. I espe­cial­ly love this line from The Observ­er: The neigh­bor­hood may not be what it used to be, but, at least for the night, a lot of peo­ple were hap­py to gath­er and remem­ber the way it once was, and imag­ine what it might become.”

THANK YOU to the best hus­band and friends any­one could ever have who put togeth­er the most killer band ever, the St. Marks Zeros: Adam Horovitz, Neal Med­lyn, Kath­leen Han­na, Brid­get Everett, Erin Markey, Julian Maile, Carmine Cov­el­li, Jim Andralis, and Lar­ry Kro­ne. Thanks to Mr. Mur­ray Hill for being the best pos­si­ble emcee. Thanks to Brook­lyn Brew­ery for donat­ing 15 cas­es of beer, which van­ished in about two sec­onds, to my mom for get­ting the wine and seltzer and dec­o­rat­ing, to Coop­er Union (espe­cial­ly Kim­ber­ly Bow­ers and Kim New­man) for pro­vid­ing the per­fect space, to W.W. Nor­ton for chip­ping in on the AV and insur­ance costs, to Jim­my Webb for bring­ing me flow­ers, to McNal­ly Jack­son for sell­ing 150 books, to Yuko, who sold every last T‑shirt, to ace helpers Dori­an, Ula, and Made­line, to my dad (who went with a hand truck to Wal­greens on a last-minute ice run), to Eri­ca for keep­ing tabs on the kid, to Alice for bring­ing the posters, to Tara and David for get­ting food, to Pete at Bar­cade, who host­ed a great after-par­ty with the best tater tots ever, and to my son, Oliv­er, for play­ing a mean cow­bell on We Are From the Low­er East Side,” to every­one for coming.

Some­one post­ed a video of the whole speech and per­for­mance. Below is a gallery of pho­tos I’ve come across online. Mean­while, enjoy this video of the Zeroes cov­er­ing The Dic­ta­tors’ Avenue A,” or Kath­leen Han­na singing John Waite’s Down­town.”

There will be lots more book events this month and next, but that one set the bar pret­ty high. Long live St. Marks Place!

P.S. For pos­ter­i­ty, here is the band’s line­up and setlist:

The St. Marks Zeros:
Neal Med­lyn aka Cham­pagne Jer­ry (bass, vocals on Detach­able Penis & Avenue A)
Oliv­er Medlin (cow­bell We Are from the Low­er East Side)
Adam Horovitz (gui­tar, vocals on Judy is a Punk &. Wel­fare City)
Carmine Cov­el­li (drums, vocals on We Are From the Low­er East Side)
Julian Maile (gui­tar, back­ground vocals)
Kath­leen Han­na (sang Down­town by John Waite)
Brid­get Everett (sang Per­son­al­i­ty Cri­sis by NY Dolls)
Erin Markey (sang St Marks Place by Lydia Lunch, with sto­ry by Adam Horovitz about how the But­t­hole Surfers saved his life on St. Marks Place)
And at end Jim Andralis and Lar­ry Kro­ne sin­ga­long Wel­fare City

And here’s a half-hour-long video the great Jose Tapia put on YouTube of all the songs.