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Tompkins Square Park

Tompkins Square Park

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Author: Q. Sakamaki
Creator: Bill Weinberg
Publisher: powerHouse Books
Category: Book

List Price: $31.22
Buy New: $20.83
You Save: $10.39 (33%)



New (27) Used (5) from $20.83

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars 3 reviews
Sales Rank: 141836

Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 119
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 10.1 x 8.2 x 0.8

ISBN: 1576874516
Dewey Decimal Number: 974.71
EAN: 9781576874516
ASIN: 1576874516

Publication Date: August 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: SHIPS TODAY!! BRAND NEW BOOK

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Summer 1988. Tompkins Square Park, which long served as a makeshift home for the homeless and a center for social unrest, erupted in violence when the New York City Police and hundreds of rioters clashed over ideological differences. Residents of the Lower East Side, historically home to diverse immigrant communities but facing gentrification, united to protest the 1 a.m. curfew the city was attempting to enforce on the park, in effect banishing the homeless and closing off many areas of the park that were once public. Over the humid night of August 6, protestors carrying signs that read "Gentrification is Class War" and chanting "It's our fucking park, you don't live here!" clashed with police armed with riot gear. The violence lasted until the next morning. The August 6 police riotso called because the consensus was that the police overreacted to the protestorsand subsequent Tompkins Square Park riots were the manifestation of a larger concern of the over-gentrification of the Lower East Side. The Lower East Side has a long history of liberal, and at times radical, movements that attracted artists, intellectuals, anarchists, activists, squatters, immigrants, and even exiles. Many in the community, unlike in other more passive communities facing gentrification, stood up and worked together with the homeless to protect housing rights and human rights, as well as their own lifestyle. By 1991, the estimated 300 homeless people living in Tompkins Square Park were gone and the park was forcefully closed for renovations. Twenty years after the police riots, the park now boasts one of the best dog runs in New York City. Tompkins Square Park is about the resistance and struggle of people in the Lower East Side literally to exist as the community faced drastic gentrification in the late 1980s and mid-1990s. It focuses on the eponymous park as a symbol and stronghold of the anti-gentrification movement, for the riots proved to be a trigger to further radicalize the communitys political movement. Living near the park, photographer Q. Sakamaki witnessed the change from the beginning to the end. With striking black-and-white images, he captures the scene of one of the most political and avant-garde movements in New York history.


Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Tompkins Square Park   November 25, 2008
Powerful work. To see these images in black and white is to be totally immersed in the humanity, the pain, and the struggle it reflects. Some of the gritty, blurry, and grainy images only magnifies the intensity of the battle for housing rights and human rights. Thank you for sharing us your work. Very inspiring indeed.


5 out of 5 stars East Village, NYC in late 80s and early 90s...   November 15, 2008
This is a terrific book that a captures a neighborhood in NYC before its gentrification in the mid to late 90s... Sakamaki, through a series of photos, has captured the spirit of a place and a time that I had only heard about(as a recent newcomer to NYC)...


2 out of 5 stars Leaves much to be desired   September 4, 2008
 0 out of 1 found this review helpful

Expected a coffee table book. Instead, got something more suited for an end table. Too many of the pics are horribly out of focus and/or grainy. The text was enjoyable, but there was far too little of it. Overall a disappointment and not recommended.

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