Since 2008, First Street Green (FSG) has converted a derelict building lot at 33 East 1st Street in Manhattan into an open art space and garden serving the Lower East Side community. Working with NYC Parks and Partnership for Parks, FSG has successfully incorporated the lot into First Park. After collaborating with the BMW Guggenheim Lab in 2010 to hold a series of visioning workshops with the community, FSG launched its first season of cultural programming on Earth Day in 2011 with a public sculpture.
Today, FSG provides ongoing cultural activity in First Park by engaging with artists, the community, and cultural groups through a series of programs that activate this public space. Each year, volunteers and artists gather to host events, art workshops, and continue with the park’s stewardship and beautification efforts. To date, FSG has hosted more than 300 events in the park, and is looking to provide a community resource even further going forward.
TAXI: Journey Through My Windows 1977–1987 is a portrait of the gritty chaos and community of New York in the 1970s. The book is composed of photographs captured from the driver’s seat of documentary photographer (and cab driver) Joseph Rodriguez’s taxi—including scenes of night workers getting off their shifts, children jumping through the spray of open fire hydrants in the summer, and S&M partiers leaving clubs, zipped in leather, in the early hours of the morning.
Learn MoreGrab your morning coffee and come join legendary photographer Joseph Rodriguez as he shares his memories and stories behind the images in his exhibition and book “Taxi: Journey Through My Windows 1977-1987,” a collection of snapshots that are on display along the fence of First Street Green Cultural Park on Houston Street.
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