By Patrick Hedlund
DNAinfo News Editor
LOWER EAST SIDE — Though the Bowery is better known for its sordid history of "flop houses and skid row bars," an event Tuesday night will highlight the thoroughfare's contributions to American art and culture.
"Bowery History: A Celebration," hosted by Kent Barwick, the former Landmarks Preservation Commissioner and current president emeritus of the Municipal Art Society, will delve into the stretch's origins as home to the city's first entertainment district by highlighting its contributions to theater, dance, music, literature and contemporary art over the past two centuries.
New Yorkers may not realize that the Bowery, which stretches from the East Village to lower Manhattan, gave birth to tap dancing, housed the Yiddish Theater's first American home and hosted the premiere stage adaptation of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," said David Mulkins, co-founder of the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors.
"One thing that's very important about the evening is it helps make clear that the Bowery is much more than just an area where there were flophouses and skid row bars," he said, noting the waves of artists who populated the strip even during a period of decay.
"It's quite amazing that even though it was ostensibly in decline, it was still able to nurture so much cutting-edge music and art," Mulkins added.
Before 1970s and '80s punk bands played the now-defunct CBGB and artists like Mark Rothko and Robert Mapplethorpe populated the stretch, a young Irving Berlin performed there while vaudeville and minstrel shows took center stage, Mulkins said.
"The [Bowery's] truly astonishing historical and cultural significance — it is as sweeping in its significance as any street in American history," he noted.
The event — which also features a vaudeville act, rare film presentation, and comments from writers and historians — comes as part of a broader push to preserve the Bowery through rezoning or landmark protections.
The strip was recently nominated for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places, but advocates have emphasized the growing need to rezone the east side of the street — the west side already has height restrictions — to ensure that overdevelopment doesn't wipe away its storied past.
"We're talking about one half of one street, and that one half has as much cultural and historical significance as most neighborhoods in the city," Mulkins said. "What we're asking for is very little."
"Bowery History: A Celebration," which costs $20 for general admission and $15 for students and seniors, kicks off at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Dixon Place, 161A Chrystie St. Tickets are available at www.ovationtix.com/trs/pe/8404705.
