Three New Projects Revive Interest in Famed Greenwich Village Cultural and Culinary Landmark
NEW YORK, March 11, 2025 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- In December of 2018, news spread quickly that the Cornelia Street Café was to close its doors after 41 years of being a signature part of the Greenwich Village arts community. On January 2nd, "the usual suspects of artists" who had long been part of the Café's alumni roster, gathered for a grand farewell in the underground space that Nobel Laureate Roald Hoffman once proclaimed, "The bohemian café of your dreams."
The Café opened in 1977, the brainchild of three self-described starving artists – Charles McKenna, an Irish American actor: Raphaela Pivetta, an Italian-Argentinian-Canadian visual artist, and Anglo-German-Jewish writer/actor/director Robin Hirsch. Eventually the face and name most often affiliated with the Café became Robin's. The former Oxford, Fulbright and English-Speaking Union Scholar, who arrived in New York in the late 60s to write about avant-garde American theatre, was dubbed by loyalists of the Café: the Minister of Culture, Wine Czar, and Dean of Faculty.
A published author whose memoir, Last Dance at the Hotel Kempinski, received a host of positive reviews for its brilliant depiction of "Jewish dislocation and exile" (New York Times), and growing up in the shadow of Hitler's reign of terror, Robin became a true champion of artists in every conceivable genre (and quite a few inconceivable ones).
Until 2023, the space at 29 Cornelia Street, once occupied by the Café, remained vacant, a sign that the city's skyrocketing rents showed little sign of leveling out. The very thing that once set New York City apart from other big cities, continued to disappear. New York City's reputation as the cultural melting pot of the world, and a center for arts and entertainment is dealt a significant blow each time a Cornelia Street Café art-friendly establishment is allowed to be swallowed up by gentrification and high-priced real estate.
Even after its closing, Robin and friends have kept the Café's cultural influence alive, through what has become known as Cornelia Street Café in Exile – a series of live performances orchestrated by Robin Hirsch with the support of the long roster of artists who performed regularly at the Café .
Now a confluence of good fortune promises to resurrect interest in Robin and the Café and shine a light on the losses that the New York art scene continues to suffer.
LIVE PERFORMANCE CONCERT
On March 31 a gathering of Cornelia Street Café's usual suspects from every era in the Café's history, will bring Cornelia Street Café in Exile to The Triad (158 West 72nd Street). Doors open at 6:30pm. Cliff Eberhardt and David Massengill, two of the musicians who contributed to the album, Cornelia Street: The Songwriters Exchange, the first and only non-jazz album put out by the long defunct jazz label, Stash Records in 1980, will be among the featured performers. Other musicians, writers of prose and poetry, who have signed on to appear include Daniel Cainer, Jed Distler, John Forster, Michael Harmon, Ellen Mandel (with Jessica Crandall and Melanie Haskins), John McWhorter (with Diana Bertolini and Dahlia McWhorter), Mark Mitton, Arturo O'Farrill, Cilla Owens, Jennifer Rawlings, Hannah Reimann, Nathalie Schmidt, Paul Shapiro, and a few surprise guests. Robin will host the evening and contribute to the performances.
AN INDIE FILM
Cornelia Street Café in Exile, a remarkable documentary by indie filmmaker, Michael Jacobsohn, pays homage to the Café's 41 years of existence in the heart of Greenwich Village. Mr. Jacobsohn became a permanent fixture at the Café over the years, capturing many of the most memorable moments, and some not so memorable ones. The film features interviews and recollections by Eve Ensler (The Vagina Monologues was first introduced at the Café), singer/songwriter Suzanne Vega, legendary music icon, David Amram, the prolific Latin Jazz musician/pianist Arturo O'Farrill, founder and Artistic Director of the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance, and American Nobel Laureate Roald Hoffmann, as well as moving interviews with members of the Hirsch family including Robin Hirsch himself, for whom Cornelia Street Café became his eldest child.
The film will premiere at the New Plaza Cinema (35 West 67th Street), on April 5th at 5:00pm and will have a second showing on April 6th at 2:30pm. Plans to have repeat showings once a month are currently being explored.
Mr. Jacobsohn, an award-winning filmmaker is a product of the famed Henry Street Settlement Movie Club workshop, where he fell in love with filmmaking. His early 16mm films received both national and international attention and are now part of the Lincon Center for the Performance Arts permanent collection. For 28 years, Mr. Jacobsohn was a staff editor with ABC News and ABC Sports. He is the recipient of a DuPont-Columbia award and a George Polk award, as well as an Emmy for his work.
A BOOK
London-based publishing house Wordville Press has signed with Robin Hirsch to publish his book of café stories titled, The Cornelia Street Café: The Whole World Passes Through.
The book will be packed with pictures from the Café through the years, and the stories touch on everything from Senator Eugene McCarthy reading his poetry to Dr Oliver Sacks reading his prose; from Terry Jones of Monty Python reading his stories to local kids to members of the Royal Shakespeare Companyreciting the works of long dead poets on their birthdays; from the Nobel Laureates who gathered every month for Roald Hoffmann's series, Entertaining Science, to a bum whom Robin scrapes out of the doorway and ends up feeding and discussing Shakespeare with for two and a half hours.
An official publishing date is forthcoming.
Media Contact
Sam Mattingly, SMC Solutions, 1 917-331-9375, [email protected], www.smcommunicationsolutions.com
SOURCE SMC Solutions
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