Hot Topic
Ever since Edward VIII abdicated the British throne to marry the American divorcée Wallis Simpson, there has been speculation about their relationship. A new book attempts to set the record straight
Leave the Gun, Take the Cocktail
In an excerpt from his upcoming memoir, a maître d’hôtel for Brooklyn’s River Café recalls getting on the wrong side of a mobster from the Gotti crime family—and how he lived to tell the tale
Otello in Athens
Robert Wilson tackles Verdi in the birthplace of tragedy
A Night at the Odeon
Jay McInerney, Emma Cline, and Iké Udé gathered at the Tribeca restaurant in celebration of AIR MAIL’s Downtown Set
Sunglasses After Dark
A guided tour of CBGB, the Mudd Club, Tunnel, and downtown’s other lost nightlife haunts
Go Big or Go Home
A new generation is discovering the pleasures of classic movies at Alexander Olch’s Lower East Side revival house, Metrograph
How Hip-Hop Was Made
After photographing London’s nascent punk scene, Janette Beckman moved to New York to chronicle hip-hop’s early days and founding artists—A Tribe Called Quest, Run-DMC, and LL Cool J among them
“Why Can’t You Write Normal?”
Kathy Acker’s journey from daughter of Sutton Place to genre- and gender-bending cult novelist
Bohemian Rhapsody
The artist Duncan Hannah’s unpublished 1980s diaries chronicle his run-ins with everyone from Bowie and Basquiat to Warren Beatty and a precocious call girl
Singing the Lady Electric
In the five decades since Jimi Hendrix founded Electric Lady, on West Eighth Street, the music studio has kept its look—and caliber—intact
Ludlow, Lady Gaga, and Me
In 2006, Pianos, on Ludlow Street, was a divey service-industry spot attracting the likes of Sweetbitter author Stephanie Danler—and a pre-fame Lady Gaga
Neighborhood Watch
Michael Kimmelman, the New York Times architecture critic and lifelong New Yorker, discusses the old Village and new downtowns
Isaiah Barr
The saxophonist and co-founder of Onyx Collective, an experimental group of artists, is taking on fashion and filmmaking
Yoko Before John
To understand the most misunderstood woman of the last half-century, you have to go back to the beginning
Songs with Atmosphere
A selection of 14 songs that defy description
The Downtown Set
A list of the 50 young New Yorkers who are remaking Lower Manhattan in their own image
What Makes a Neighborhood?
Debbie Harry, Woody Allen, Cat Marnell, Ian Schrager, Diane von Furstenberg, and others weigh in
Take a Walk and Talk on the Wild Side
This week’s podcast celebrates what makes downtown New York great
Metaphysical Graffiti
For the last decade, Blake Kunin has photographed members of the city’s prolific tag crews at work. His pictures memorialize their conquests—and a city whose street-art scene lives on
Street Scenes
A collection of Saul Leiter’s newly discovered color photographs offers a rare look at his pioneering, painterly vision
