Right place at Right time

Right place at right time. By 1980 the East Village in NYC was the place to be for most up and coming artists, musicians and writers all gathered there. Making it the new hot spot and becoming the talk of the town!

Saint Marks Place was the street considered to be the center of the new scene.

On any given day walking around the neighborhood you would see people  like Keith Haring, David Wojnarowicz, Joe Strummer, Joey Ramone, Tama Janowitz, Rene Ricard, Patti Astor to name a few.

This became our inspiration and main reason we decided to look in the East Village for a storefront as an artists run studio/gallery.

At the time a lot of storefronts were available with a very affordable monthly rents.

Luckily we found one located right on St Marks Place and were very fortunate to be in the right place at the right time.

Even more fortunate the apartment right above the storefront was occupied by Gerb and FUTURA 2000. Gerb was very influential and an Important person to the East Village Scene. He knew everyone, or I should say everyone knew him. Gerb introduced me to many of the people from the downtown scene and always supported 51X.

(Above photo) Joe Strummer and Richie

Gerb and Rich on 51X stoop

 Photo Credit: Eddie Kurpell