The Downtown Pop Underground: New York City and the Literary Punks, Renegade Artists, DIY Filmmakers, Mad Playwrights, and Rock 'n' Roll Glitter Queens Who Revolutionized Culture

by Kembrew McLeod

The Downtown Pop Underground presents an artistic history of New York City and the literary punks, renegade artists, DIY filmmakers, mad playwrights, and rock ‘n’ roll glitter queens who revolutionized culture.

Award-winning author Kembrew McLeod takes a kaleidoscopic tour of the city during the 1960s and early ‘70s and focuses on how deeply interconnected all the alternative worlds were that flourished in one square mile of downtown. These pages give life to the beat artists, gonzo filmmakers, punk musicians, and rock-and-roll drag queens who created change, and while some aren’t well known, others like Patti Smith, Andy Warhol, and Debbie Harry did become icons.

Ambitious in scope and scale, the book is largely fueled by the actual voices of many of the pivotal characters who broke down the entrenched cultural divisions between high and low, gay and straight, and art and commerce—and whose impact is still largely felt today.

“A must-read for anyone who wants to know how American Bohemia really happened.” —Ann Powers, critic, NPR Music

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, History, New York, Art, Cultural, 20th Century

362 pages, Paperback

First published October 23, 2018

About the author

Kembrew McLeod is Associate Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa. He is the author of Freedom of Expression: Resistance and Repression in the Age of Intellectual Property and Owning Culture: Authorship, Ownership, and Intellectual Property Law, and co-creator of the documentary film Copyright Criminals.

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Downtown Pop Underground: New York City and the literary punks, renegade artists, DIY filmmakers, mad playwrights, and rock 'n' roll glitter queens who revolutionized culture by Kembrew McLeod is an Abrams Press publication.

The storied creativity, the bohemian lifestyle, and the open sexual freedom and expression of Greenwich Village beginning in the late 1950s and continuing well into the late 1970s may have been underground, but the art, theatre, movies, magazines and music influenced the country in ways that may only be fully appreciated in hindsight.

I’m a little too young to have known much about how this area in New York blossomed into such an artistic community, and with my conservative upbringing and regional location, if it wasn’t making headlines, I remained large uninformed. While I was always fascinated by the Sixties decade, and the bulk of my childhood memories stems from mainstream 1970s pop culture, the influence of the underground didn’t start to sink in for me until I was much older. I knew the main players- Andy Warhol, The Velvet Underground, Deborah Harry, and the CBGB-OMFUG club and of course, “The Village Voice”. But, that’s about it. Although, I have always studied the sixties, and to some extent, the seventies, the bohemian lifestyle of Greenwich Village didn’t interest me as much as all the other huge happenings in music and politics, and other avenues of pop culture.

So, while some may be well versed on the major contributors, inventors, pioneers- or in some cases, ‘populizers’, I have never scratched too far beneath the surface to get a clear picture of Greenwich Village, and honestly didn’t know many of the influences mentioned in this book or the extent of their contributions to pop culture.

I did get a good sense of location and atmosphere which transformed art, stage, film, and journalism, and music in ways we never dreamed. Some of the people, places, events, and publications crossed over into mainstream consciousness, while other areas were contained within “The Village” or lower east side.

There are some infamous landmarks and notorious figures from this time who have gone down in history like Jackie Curtis- who Lou Reed immortalized in his most famous song, “Walk on the Wild Side,” and may have influenced David Bowie’s pansexual persona.

La MaMa and Café Cino theatres, coffeehouses, folk music, then Patti Smith, Deborah Harry, Glam rock, The Ramones, The Mumps, and a continual regeneration, reinvention, and sense of community radically changed and inspired pop culture not only in America, but all over the world.

While many may view this book as a homage to the gay community for their unrequited contributions and influence on mainstream pop culture, it also captures the essence of New York and the raw atmosphere that paved the way for the emergence of this community. It was a place where outsiders, artist, and other nonconformists could feel at home, and free to express themselves, something that would be very hard to do in this way, in most other places in the country at that time. Thus, a sexual revolution was born, spawning the counter -culture, in an explosion of vivid colors, sights and sounds that has never been matched since.

The layout of the book is a little scattered, in my opinion, and not as cohesive as I’d have liked, but those who are more informed on this subject than I, may find there is a method to the madness. The dark side of these times is not studied or mentioned a great deal, as this is more of a celebration of the pioneers, artists, and trailblazers, who may not have gotten the credit they deserved.

It is kind of ironic that just as I picked this book up it was announced that ‘The Village Voice’ was ceasing publication, with John Wilcox passing away shortly thereafter.

This book is one I recommend to those who are pop culture enthusiasts, fans of nostalgia and history. It’s an eye popping, mind boggling experience for sure. I can’t say that I always understood or was effected by the cutting-edge art or performances, nor was I able to conjure much of an emotional response to some of the material highlighted in this book, at least not in the same way I would with the pop culture I’m more familiar with, but this was still an interesting book, giving credit to the pop underground which is perhaps overlooked and rarely remarked upon in comparison to Woodstock or Haight Ashbury, and other places and people we tend to associate with pop culture.
4 stars

[John Spiller · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Downtown Pop Underground" has an ambitious remit: explaining how disparate, marginalized communities in Downtown and Midtown Manhattan in the 60's and 70's blossomed, cross-pollinated, and created aspects of today's popular culture that now seem almost inevitable. McLeod makes a convincing case that something that seemed like a spontaneous culture watershed moment -- punk rock -- was actually the confluence of different cultural currents sluicing through lower Manhattan.

The scope of the book creates some drawbacks. Certain cultural subsets -- think the Warhol/Factory scene or the Max's Kansas City/CBGB's scene -- could fill multiple books, such that McLeod's discussion of them can seem shallow and incomplete by comparison. (In fairness, he states upfront that he did not intend his book to provide the definitive portrait of the scene but rather connect the dots between cultural happenings that appear unrelated.) After exploring different communities in the 60's (theater, art, film, poetry, underground publications), by the time he arrives at the early 70's, he discusses music almost exclusively to the exclusion of anything else.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stumbled upon an advance copy of this book by pure happy accident at the Abrams Books booth at the Brooklyn Book Festival last weekend and, intrigued by its subject matter, started reading it as soon as I got home. I read this fantastic book with great pleasure and will be recommending it to all my friends who are fans of boundary-pushing downtown theatre and punk rock.

The book tracks the downtown underground scene in New York from the late 50s through the late 70s, focusing on a number of well-known and lesser-known figures, like:

- Andy Warhol
- Debbie Harry (of Blondie)
- Patti Smith
- Hibiscus (a drag performer)
- Shirley Clarke (filmmaker)
- Ellen Stewart (founder of La MaMa)
- The Ramones
- Joe Cino and his Caffe Cino
- Jayne County (formerly Wayne County)

With cameos from many others — Lou Reed, Bernadette Peters, Harvey Fierstein, Bette Midler, Barry Manilow, Divine, John Waters, Basquiat, etc.

McLeod does a fantastic job of making the reader feel like a wide-eyed seventeen-year-old kid who’s just stepped off the bus/train/plane in Greenwich Village and is experiencing the scene for the first time. Another reviewer mentioned that they rarely read scholarly works, but that’s really not what this book is — it’s a masterful (and relatively conversational) history of a time and place that aims to be an oral history while at the same time drawing conclusions about how the downtown scene gave birth to a broader pop culture movement, especially with the explosion of Blondie onto the international scene and the birth of the punk rock movement (which the final section of the book covers). At the time, alternative (and often queer/trans) performance was sparking a revolution downtown, but because of the Village’s proximity to the seats of media power, the major TV networks and record companies, the scenes cross-pollinated generously at times despite being at odds.

I loved reading about the off-off-Broadway theatre scene that was such a big part of the downtown experience. Despite the fact that Debbie Harry and Patti Smith went on to successful music careers, both started as actors/singers in downtown productions and built their careers from the ground up with their collaborators.

The time described was a period in New York where rent for a month might be $33 (low even considering inflation), so a fledgling artist might pick up part-time odd jobs and still make enough to live and support their art. The 1980s real-estate boom (epitomized by Donald Trump) signaled an end to the artistic possibility presented in McLeod’s book, but the figures described nevertheless provide inspiration for the DIY artists, musicians, and theatre-makers of today who aspire to stay weird and create art, writing, film, etc. that pushes boundaries.

Kudos to the author for putting together a book that I think will be treasured by culture vultures for years to come. It’s an impressive synthesis of a time and place that readers will hopefully enjoy venturing into, as I did.

[Liz]

What FUN 🤓

[Laurine Payet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Basically we wouldn't be here without trans women

[Bob Schnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most comprehensive book on the downtown NYC cultural scene, from the beatniks to the punks, that I've read. Much about the Off-Off Broadway scene was new to me, yet such an essential piece of the puzzle. If I knew in 1980 what I know now from reading this book, I would have not spent so much time looking for, and often not finding, the "in" places.

The author, Kembrew McLeod, spent 17 years researching this book and it shows. His craft is trying to include as much as possible without making it read like a list of names, places and dates. He even managed to add some details to stories I thought I already knew in depth. The main gist is that every downtown artist, no matter the medium, was influenced by everyone else and this book puts it all in perspective.

Highly recommended.

[ava · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book is hard for me to review. i thoroughly enjoyed the attention to detail and interesting lens the author had. however, i think that it was a bit scattered and was not as cohesive as i was hoping it would be. overall, it was a good read that had a lot of insight i have not found in other books about new york and waves of certain cultural movements.

[Carla · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sujet super intéressant mais doux jésus c’est super mal écrit! L’auteur nous bombarde de noms sans jamais en expliquer aucun! Tu ne peux pas citer 5 personnalités différentes dans chaque phrase sans que le lecteur soit perdu. L’énoncé de chaque chapitre ne correspond jamais à son contenu. Au final on n’apprend que dalle, que du blabla et on en ressort avec pas spécialement plus de connaissances sur le sujet. Ravie d’avoir dépensé 25 balles pour cette merveille ❤️

[Steve Erickson · Rating 4 out of 5]

There have been many books about the '60s counterculture and the beginnings of the New York punk scene. THE DOWNTOWN PUNK UNDERGROUND doesn't break completely new ground here, but it approaches the area from a different POV, both in terms of the artists it focuses on and its structure. It covers a period of roughly 20 years ago, from the late '50s to the late '70s. Most of the artists it centers on are gay men or women; while some of them are famous, like Andy Warhol (whom it depicts mostly through unflattering remarks from actors and playwrights in his circle), Patti Smith and Debbie Harry, others are relatively unheralded. Rock bands like the Holy Modal Rounders, Silver Apples and Fast don't get t as much focus as the Velvet Underground. Blondie and Ramones, but McLeod doesn't let the (ultimate) winners dominate this history. The point of all this is demonstrating the continuity from one counterculture to another and emphasizing the contributions of women and/or queers to a scene that often gets reduced to straight male rebellion. The way the book is organized into short, jumpy chapters isn't always effective, but it does cover a lot of ground in a relatively short space. (McLeod says that he spent 17 years working on it in some form.)

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Popular culture would be pretty dull without the influence of talented creative people who live and work on the margins of mainstream society. The Downtown Pop Underground is a celebration of those outsiders - performance poets, drag queens and gender-fluid performers, makers of experimental theater and underground film, punk rock musicians - who challenged conventional culture and produced some of the most exciting artistic expressions to emerge in New York in the 1960s and 1970s.

McLeod guides the reader through various overlapping downtown communities, ably showing how the worlds of Off-Off-Broadway theater, underground film, independent media, and music were in constant conversation with each other. While some people, like Harvey Fierstein, Patti Smith, and Blondie, broke through to mainstream success, others, including Hibiscus and Jayne County, remain largely unknown.

It is impossible to write of this period in New York without focusing on the pivotal role of Andy Warhol and the Factory in both creating and manipulating scenes. As some of McLeod’s interviewees indicate, Warhol’s influence was not always benign or positive.

The Downtown Pop Underground is an enjoyable and fascinating excursion into New York’s artistic subcultures over two decades.

[Marti · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book really demonstrates that many of the huge pop cultural phenomenons of the '70's and 80's (such as the musical Hair, the gay kitsch aesthetic, and "punk" rock), really did stem from a group of less than 200 misfits who started the Off-Off Broadway movement in the West Village in the late 1950s.

Of course everyone knows about Warhol, Candy Darling, Jackie Curtis, Patti Smith, Yoko Ono et al. (who were indeed integral parts of the movement), but there were so many more people involved that I never heard of like the Harris family (an East Village theatrical version of the Brady Bunch), playwright Harry Koutsoukis, and filmmakers Shirley Clarke, and Jack Smith, to name just a few.

It covers a lot of the same ground as a book I recently finished called St. Marks is Dead, but it does it in a less superficial way. The author spent a lot of time interviewing many of the key players and it shows. It also makes the case that AIDS enabled the hyper-gentrification that wiped out all this creativity.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won a copy of this through a Goodreads giveaway. Based on the title, I was quite excited to read a gritty, outrageous account of the underground artists who influenced so much of our culture today. Instead, it was a dense and long book that somehow made this exciting era seem, well, not exciting. I applaud the author for tracking down so many long-lost people and artists who were part of the various New York art scenes. And the author was quite thorough in piecing together the connections between the different scenes that were happening simultaneously. However, I ultimately gave up reading because, while the information was right, the spirit was not. The account was too straightforward, without the artistry needed to truly capture the "glitter" that was promised in the title. I was bored.

[Jehnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

So very in the weeds.
This book uses the off-off-off-off Broadway scene to pave the way for punk, new wave, and LGBT/Stonewall acceptance. It is well-researched and really likes name dropping everyone from Bowie to Patti Smith to Marsha P. Johnson.
But I just don't have the patience for the detail of a small small group of people.

[Trevor Seigler · Rating 4 out of 5]

New York in the Sixties and Seventies was the place to be if you were an artist interested in digging beneath the surface of pop culture for something real. From the Velvet Underground to the first stirrings of punk rock at Max's Kansas City and CBGB's, the downtown scene was exploding. But it wasn't just the names you might know who contributed to modern culture. Some of the most important figures in Manhattan's art scene didn't have the brand recognition of Andy Warhol or Lou Reed.

"The Downtown Pop Underground," by Kembrew McLeod, shows how wide-ranging and diverse the art scene was in NYC, and how much of an impact it made. From off-off-Broadway shows to musical happenings, Andy Warhol to Ed Sanders, the downtown art scene embraced rebels who didn't always fit into mainstream American life and gave them a boost to be their true selves. A running theme in the book is the presence of gay and trans people in the different art movements of the time, and how those scenes welcomed people who otherwise would have been "outcasts." The queer artists who came to some sort of prominence or renown at that time wouldn't have done so if NYC hadn't been so cheap to live in (if you were in a rundown neighborhood) and so open to different kinds of people.

The book is an education when it comes to theatre in NYC; I was already very knowledgeable about the Velvets and the early punk scene, but off-off-Broadway was a blindspot for me. And while I think some of the book can be repetitive at times, I did enjoy circling back to some of the other aspects of the scene in order to provide context.

"The Downtown Pop Underground" is a fascinating look at a time when, just under the surface of Pop culture, new movements sprung up to highlight different voices and views. Now, more than ever, much of that history is under assault. But the story of drag queens and punk rockers will never be erased from our collective history, not so long as books like this exist.

[Amelia Valentino · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Downtown Pop Underground looks at the theatrical and musical culture that inspired the punk movement in the East and West Villages. The scope was a tad too big, resulting in too many characters when it should have been focused on Ellen Stewart, Harry Koutoukas, Patti Smith, and Debbie Harry.

There is something so tragic about this book. While reading this book, I walked along the streets McLeod describes, and there's so much absent from them. New York is always changing, but I am not sure it will ever be able to recapture the fostering of a cultural and artistic identity the way it is headed. Too many artists and musicians aren't able to afford to live here and those that can, are slowly being forced out, losing a sense of artistic identity. Overall it begs the question-Who is the city for?

It made me feel nostalgic for something that was before my lifetime.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fantastic read. I do agree with some other reviewers as this book is a bit dense, but cramming 30 years of history into 350 odd pages, I'd expect nothing less. I've dug into it for a research paper I was writing and the wealth of resources on the mindsets and personalities that informer the New York Downtown art scene in the 50s to 70s in unmatched. That it was written by an "outsider" that is both out of time and place and manages to spin these narratives back and forth through each other to show interconnectedness without making the reader dizzy is an incredible feat.

[Ashley Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whatta scene!
Phew. What do we got, present day?

"'I'll give you the key to your apartment,' Cox said, 'but first I want to show you my wife and kid.' The eleven-year-old Persky followed her mother into the apartment, where she saw a pull-down bed with a woman lying facedown with black hair spread out across the white sheets. 'It was quite a moment,' Persky recalled, 'the baby lying in the bed, and Yoko, black hair spread out. But I didn't know who Yoko Ono was. I certainly did not understand that as a kid, so I was like, 'Okay, we saw that. Can we get in our apartment now?'"

[Kimmo Sinivuori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written introduction to the Downtown scene. The sixties and seventies NY underground scenes have been documented exhaustively over the years but there are still some good nuggets here to make the more seasoned fans/students entertained as well. My only real issue is with the illustrations. As the Downtown scene was very visual, I would have liked the book to have much more illustrations to support the story. The maps with key location were helpful though.

[David Macpherson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great look of the march to punk rock 70s New York by way of off-off-broadway, drag shows and indi filmaking. It has a large cast of characters who are making art in the 50s and 60s. They are making shows and magazines. It focused on the importance of the LGBTQ community and women makers to create the scene. I really loved the book but I just hate the title. Downtown Pop Underground is such a lame title. It takes away from my enjoyment slightly

[Rupert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic subject, time period, geographical place I can’t get enough of and well written and arranged. So great to see some fairly obscure visionaries brought back to light along with the more well documented heroes.
Will be reading this one again soon to nail down more of the info in my porous brain.

[kory. · Rating 4 out of 5]

“the downtown new york scene paved the way for everything from punk and disco to the gradual acceptance of gay and transgender life.”

content/trigger warnings; sexism, queerphobia, f slur, racism, ableism, drug use, addiction, suicide, self-harm, death, hiv/aids,

[Brenda Schneider · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating history of the 60's music, art and theatre scene in lower Manhattan. A really good and fun read. I won this book through Goodreads.

[Waylon · Rating 5 out of 5]

An insightful look at one of the greatest creative periods in American history. Made me feel like I was there with all the artists, poets, playwrights, and queens who brought the magic to life.

[Melissa MacKenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really brilliantly piece of work.

[Will O'Hara]

nice

[Demi Takahashi · Rating 3 out of 5]

's important for me 'bout from beatnik to punk era.
and i didnt even know how great Andy is.
He's very underrated in Japan.

[Donald · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book It was well written and entertaining.

[Donald Robertson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting connections explored.

[Syd Vicious · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect read for anyone wanting to truly learn about Bohemia, Punk Rock, and Theater in New York City

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in ARC, and I truly hope it has a good index in the final version. This is a very dense book, dealing with the influences and interconnections of a small town's worth of characters, and it traces their personal and artistic relationships through a couple of generations, from the late 1940s to the early 1980s. It doesn't cover everything and everyone, but I haven't seen a book that did more, and it includes a substantial bibliography. A lot of it radiates out from the influential and prolific theater, La MaMa, founded by Ellen Stewart in 1961. Plenty of famous names appear, certainly, but I was much more interested in the people I hadn't heard all about before, such as the Harris family, who moved from Florida to get into the theater, parents and children, and wow, did they. If you're interested in this particular scene, or in bohemian artistic life more generally, you should absolutely pick this up.