I had not been to the Feast of Gennaro in about fifteen years, not since my father got sick. I think 2010 was the last time I came to Little Italy for the Feast. The crowds were just as nuts as they were then.
The place was mobbed and made worse by everyone Instagramming the whole event.
The History of the Feast:
(From the Feast website)
At the turn of the 20th century when Italian immigrants settled on the lower east side of Manhattan each region settled on a different street. The Neapolitans settled on Mulberry Street. In 1926 with keeping their Neapolitan traditions they decided to have a one day block party for their patron saint and protector of Naples, San Gennaro, which continued year after year something that has now and for decades become not only a New York icon. This world renown 11 day event, which stretches throughout 11 blocks of the Little Italy neighborhood.
For generations this feast has always been an important part of our neighborhood not only representing the Saint Himself but also representing our ancestors, our culture and our traditions. This collection of booths of food and merchandise is enjoyed by both locals and tourists alike.
The patron Saint of San Gennaro sits in front of the condo building where the old church one stood. I still can’t believe they knocked the church down.
The Story of San Gennaro:
(from the Feast website)
Saint Gennaro was Bishop of Benevento, Italy, and died a martyr in 305 AD during the persecution spearheaded by Emperor Diocletian. He signed his death warrant when he visited the deacons, Sosso and Proculo, and the laymen, Eutichete and Acuzio, in jail.
The Proconsul, Timothy, had Gennaro arrested. He underwent torture without wavering in his resolution to remain loyal to Christ. He was thrown headlong into a furnace, but by the grace of God, he come through unscratched.
Furious, the agents beheaded him. His body and the severed head still dripping blood were gathered up by an old man who wrapped them reverently in a cloth. An old Neapolitan lady collected the blood with a sponge and filled a phial with the precious liquid. The body of Saint Gennaro is preserved in Naples, where he is honored as the city’s principal patron.
The Neapolitans pray to him for protection from fires, earthquakes, plagues, droughts and the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. In every emergency Saint Gennaro is their powerful champion and universal helper.
Things have gotten worse with the foot traffic between everyone filming and photographing and Tik Toking it and the excessive amount of baby carriages (who would bring an infant to these things? It’s noisy, crowded and late!) makes getting down Mulberry Street even harder.
The crowds on the side streets were just as bad
The food is the same as usual with sausage sandwiches, meatball subs, rice ball’s and plenty of Zeppole.
Pozzuoli Pizza was one of the vendor’s at the feast
Looking at all the food and sandwiches, I heard music in the back of one of the side streets and stopped to listen to the music of Jenna Esposito, who was performing that evening.
Jenna Esposito performing the night
Jenna Esposito sign and contact information: What a Talent!
Before she left on break, she sang ‘Volare’ which brought down the house. It was great way to end that part of show.
Jenna Esposito and her band singing ‘Volare’
The Feast as it started to get dark
I continued to walk down Mulberry Street and was dying for some zeppole, small pieces of fried pizza dough ladened with powered. I found a place and they looked like they were freshly frying them.
It was not until I ordered them and they were lukewarm and a little greasy. The woman said the were closing up shop and she gave me what seemed like twenty. Even though they were large and tasted good nothing is worse than zeppole’s when they get cold.
I thought these had been freshly made but were like warm. The only benefit was she gave me about 20 for $5.00. I was stuffed when I finished the entire bag of them. It must have been two pounds of fried dough that I consumed.
I walked through the mountains of crowds as this was the last night of the feast and a beautiful night. I took it as tourists and locals alike wanted to enjoy the evening. Again the worst was people pushing baby carriages through the streets of the feast.
I am sorry everyone, I do not think infants should be subjected to this type of noise and light this late into the evening.
The crowds around 8:00pm
The organizers of the feast brought the festival back to its original border of Houston Street so the there was room to stretch. These later blocks were not as crowded as those closer to Canal Street and had more retail vendors than food vendors.
Reaching the border of the feast at East Houston Street
When I used to attend the feast back in the 1990’s, the Feast would stretch the entire length of Mulberry Street straight into Chinatown and the whole street from East Broadway to Houston Street would be packed with food vendors, games and retail vendors. It shows how both the neighborhood and the Feast have changed.
Passing the Sausage and Pepper vendors walking back to Canal Street
The sausages always look so good
I was not too sure how many people were going to eat this much sausage at 8:40 pm at night.
All good things have to come to an end as the evening got late and by 8:15pm, a lot of vendors started to close up as the feast was closing by 9:00pm on the last night.
The crowds started to thin out by the time I got to Canal Street and it was easier to walk through the Feast. It was a lot of come to come back after all the years. I just forgot how crowded it was on Mulberry Street.
Walking back to the E subway on Canal Street
The Feast of San Gennaro takes place every year the week after Labor Day in New York’s Little Italy
I could not believe how fast the Summer came and went. It was like a blink of the eye. I had covered a lot of ground over the last three months that included many neighborhoods in New York City, many Upstate New York and New Jersey towns plus updating older blogs that needed some work. They needed new pictures and updates in the businesses I had featured in the past. A lot has changed since COVID.
I started Alphabet City just before the Labor Day Weekend and a lot has changed here since the 1960’s and 70’s. The whole hippie movement is now over only to be replaced by the current hipster movement where men are wearing knit head coverings in almost 90 degree and still wearing ‘man buns’ that are ‘so 2010’. To each his own.
Looking down Avenue C on a sunny afternoon
I just ignored everyone and started my walk on the Avenue’s of the neighborhood. The neighborhood is broken up that the closer you are to public housing the less gentrified it was on the block. The border seemed to be around 10th Street. The lower the street, the nicer the bars and restaurants.
The one thing I did notice about the neighborhood was the amount of community gardens that popped up in corners all around the blocks. This was the result of the community efforts in the 1970’s and 80’s that saved the neighborhood and what has made the neighborhood as desirable as it is now. It seems you can’t stop gentrification. Even so, these hard working gardeners are setting the tone for the neighborhood.
The signs of the times on top of the old tenements on Avenue C
The other thing I noticed about Alphabet City are the tagging and outdoor murals that line all the blocks. The people who creat this street art are so clever and creative. They really have an eye on color and design.
Some of the art cleverly tucked along the walls and columns in the neighborhood
Some of the art close by
I liked this design
The first of the Community Gardens that J toured that afternoon (they all seemed to be open the Saturday that I visited) was the Francisco ‘Pancho’ Ramos Community Garden at 709 East 9th Street. The garden showed the creative spirit of the people who volunteered there.
The sign for the Francisco “Pancho” Ramos Community Garden at 703 East 9th Street
(The History of the Park from its website)
The Lower East Side of the 1970s was a hard place with little green. Local residents noticed the abandoned, littered lot at the corner of Ninth Street and Avenue C and began to sow seeds and plants along the chain link and among the debris, and so the Ninth Street Community Garden & Park was founded in 1979. Today Pancho’s Garden hosts community events including music, art, and gardening workshops.
The pathways were lined with flower beds and some with vegetable gardens with the latest crops coming in. Here and there were pieces of artwork such as sculptures and paintings.
Walking through the gardens at the end of the summer
Following the paths
Walking through the flowering arbors
Some of the creative artwork that lined the paths
The raised flower beds
Some of the creative touches of the gardens
The Vegetable Gardens in full growth
Even the shed and play areas were colorful
This is what the community spirit of hard work and dedication can create in a neighborhood
Another interesting mural that I came across on the walls of the buildings
Just a reminder that the Alphabet City name is not a negative one anymore
The Alphabet Wine Company at 100 Loisaida Avenue (Avenue C)
Walking through Alphabet City today reminded me of years ago when I toured Bushwick in Brooklyn. The negative connotation of the name was now synonymous with ‘hipster’ cool. When I started to see signs like Alphabet Wine Company, you know times have changed for a neighborhood with not such a great past.
Passing the Lower East Side II still reminds you that public housing is a big part of this neighborhood
The next set of street art I admired was 15C Cultural Center building at 68 Loisaida Avenue (Avenue C). The shop was closed that afternoon so I got to see all the interesting art work on the metal gates.
This was on one side of building of the 5C Cultural Center at 68 Avenue C and 5th Street
Danielle Mastrion is a Brooklyn-born, New York City based painter and muralist who specializes in large scale, brightly colored murals. She holds a BFA from Parsons School of Design (Artist website)
This mural was around the corner dedicated to Puerto Rico
The changes to Avenue C start around East 10th Street as you leave the area around the public housing and walk closer to the areas that cater to a younger NYU/Pace student population. When I visited the neighborhood originally walking the borders of the neighborhood and even this evening, the bars and restaurants exploded with students whose first weekend in New York City was filled with excitement.
They chatted on their cellphones and yelled to their friends and acted like a scene in early ‘Sex and the City’ episodes. I can always tell when an out of towner is trying too hard.
The rebuilt section of Avenue C
I walked through my next community garden, Gustavd Hartman Square. Some of these patches of green were really small and just required a peek inside.
This plot of land, located at Second Street and Avenue C, is named for Gustave Hartman, a municipal court judge and philanthropist who spent most of his life in this neighborhood. Gustave Hartman was born in Hungary and immigrated to the United States with his parents while still a young boy. He attended P.S. 22 on Sheriff Street (now Columbia Street), the College of the City of New York, and received his law degree from New York University in 1905.
This plot of land, located at Second Street and Avenue C, is named for Gustave Hartman, a municipal court judge and philanthropist who spent most of his life in this neighborhood.
The growth of the garden needed a little pruning
I then started my walk back up Avenue C from the border of East Houston Street, which itself on all sides of the street has been knocked down and rebuilt. I have never seen a street go from shabby to chic more in the last fifteen to twenty years. Here the upper parts of the old Chinatown and Little Italy and the Lower East Side have merged with the Village. The lines have been blurred.
The changes to Avenue C start in the lower part of the neighborhood
The next set of public housing is the Bracetti Plaza
The next community garden I visited was the Secret Garden, a tiny park at 293 East Forth Street. Volunteers were hard at work weeding and planting while I walked around
Charlie Doves is a graffiti and fine artist from New York City’s Lower East Side, known for his work inspired by graffiti’s Golden Age and Japanese art. A master of his craft, Doves has moved from street art to fine art, fusing different techniques and styles to create a timeless body of work (Arts AI).
The Secret Garden Community Garden at 293 East Fourth Street
Alfredo Bennett, professionally known as The Royal “Kingbee” is a NYC artist. He was born in Harlem and raised in The Bronx in the early 70’s. He began his career painting graffiti on walls until gathering recognition and eventually being commissioned to perform his artistic abilities all throughout the city of New York. The artist went to JF Kennedy High School in the Bronx (BX 200 Artist.com).
The art was not just limited to the murals that looked more professionally done. The taggers showed their creativity on the closed gates of the businesses and the walls of the buildings around the Avenue.
Tagging art on Avenue C
Tagging art on Avenue C
The next community gardens I visited and one of the original is the Carmen Pabon Del Amanecer Jardin, dedicated to Carmen Pabon.
The sign for the Carmen Pabon Del Amanecer Jardin at
Carmen Pabón, ‘la madrina del Lower East Side,’ was a Puerto Rican community activist, gardener, poet and actress who founded a community garden as an urban sanctuary for children, local artists, Nuyorican poets and the elderly. Carmen helped thousands to create a better life for themselves and fed multitudes of Lower East Siders experiencing homelessness.
While a lot of the neighborhood is low rise and tenement housing, I stopped to admire this unique brick building at 116 Avenue C, with its interesting faces on all levels staring back at you. It reminded me of the many buildings I had passed recently in Lower Chelsea.
Each window had a demonist look in its eyes as you passed it. This building was built in 1900 (Streeteasy.com).
These menacing demons stare back at you from every window
I spent some more time cross crossing through more gardens admiring the work of dedicated gardens. The next I visited was the Flower Door Garden at 135 Avenue C.
La Plaza Cultural de Armando Perez Community Garden was founded in 1976 by local residents and greening activists who took over what was then a series of vacant city lots piled high with rubble and trash. In an effort to improve the neighborhood during a downward trend of arson, drugs, and abandonment common in that era, members of the Latino group CHARAS cleared out truckloads of refuse.
Working with Buckminster Fuller, they built a geodesic dome in the open “plaza” and began staging cultural events. Green Guerillas pioneer Liz Christy seeded the turf with “seed bombs” and planted towering weeping willows and linden trees. Artist Gordon Matta-Clark helped construct La Plaza’s amphitheater using railroad ties and materials reclaimed from abandoned buildings.
What I liked about this particular garden was all the interesting metal work along the fencing. It popped all around the fencing like you were living in ‘Whoville’.
One of the entrances of the gardens
Walking around the inside along the paths
The whimsical ironworks on the top of the fencing
As I made my way back up Avenue C, J came across a small museum that I had never heard of before, the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space at 155 Loisaida Avenue (Avenue C).
The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space at 155 Loisaida Avenue (Avenue C)
The museum is a time capsule of information from the late 1960’s through the 70’s when the neighborhood had really hit rock bottom with the City’s almost bankruptcy. The neighborhood and its residents banded together to save the neighborhood and clean up all these empty lots of garbage and debris.
The entrance of the museum
The description of the museum’s purpose
The museum has pictures of the neighborhood at various stages of its development. There are the ups and downs of this section of the City and how its residents maintain it. The neighborhood has seen so much change and much of it due to the volunteers who keep improving it.
The inside of the museum
How the changes took place in Alphabet City
The masks and decorations that line the walls
The history of the neighborhood and its triumphs
After my trip through the museum, I continued the walk up Avenue C. Above 10th Street is was a little patchy but you can tell the neighborhood is getting better. I never felt unsafe walking around the ‘Alphabets’.
For the rest of my walk, I enjoyed the ‘open-air’ museum that the sides of the buildings offered me. There were many interesting murals to admire.
I think this one was in honor of the island of Puerto Rico.
Artist Antonio “Chico” Garcia is a New York City based Graffiti artist. He is well known in the neighborhood and has been featured in several periodicals (Wiki).
I saw this on the side of a Chinese restaurant
Then when I got to the top East 14th Street and I came across this mural on the side of a school and I admired the different styles of art in each panel.
The panel that lined the school created by artists from the Thrive Collective
Danielle Mastrion is a Brooklyn-born, New York City based painter and muralist who specializes in large scale, brightly colored murals. She holds a BFA from Parsons School of Design (Artist website)
I loved this whimsical school painting by artists Savannah Zambrano and Andrea Amanda
Savannah Zambrano is a freelance sequential artist that hosts workshops and panels, does face painting and caricatures, and works with Traditional and Digital Media (Artist Bio website).
The artists sign with the Thrive Collective
I loved this mural with the Puerto Rican flag by artist Miki Mu
Michela Muserra is an international muralist and illustrator based in Brooklyn. A graduate of Accademia di Bella Arti in her hometown of Foggia, Italy. The artist has worked as a teaching artist with Thrive Collective since January 2017 (Thrive Collective website).
I love this colorful display of positive behavior of Frank Ape by artist Brandon Sines
Artist Brandon Sines was exposed to many cultures while growing up simultaneously in New York City, Toronto, and Los Angeles. He mixes Pop Art’s mass culture, Surrealism’s private associations, and inventive paint handling to create dreamlike environments. His mark making ranges from experimental techniques to illustrative precision. Parts of the paintings are crystal clear, and other parts reach abstraction.
This was another great mural on the school but I could not find the artist
The piece of art that I noticed was as I was walking down East 14th Street and I came across this taggers work. To me it looked like a surreal ghost.
The piece of street art was East 14th Street
I turned the corner to Avenue B and started my journey down the street. Being closer to the colleges and further from the projects and around Tompkins Square Park, the vibe is different on Avenue B. The restaurants are a bit more expensive and there are more bars.
Walking down Avenue B
Walking through the neighborhood that offers so much to a visitor
I saw this ‘Love’ mural on one of the businesses
On the corner of Avenue B and East 13th Street I saw all this great street art on top of murals
As I continued the walk through this part of the neighborhood, I came across another series of community gardens that dot the street.
The Relaxation Garden was the first of the gardens I passed and this really had nothing to it. It looked like a garden waiting for something to happen to it.
The inside of the Relaxation Garden needs some TLC
I stared up at one of the buildings on Avenue B and this face from above was staring back at me. I thought this was really interesting but do not want to know how this artist did this without falling off the roof.
I thought this face staring back was really cool but I do not want to know how the tagger did this.
While I was walking, I stopped at the various restaurants and bars to look at their menus. I have to admit, they are not cheap. For a neighborhood known for poverty in its pockets, the places are pricy.
Passing the outdoor cafes on Avenue B
I then passed one of the community centers in the neighborhood and came across this series of panels. These were very retro 1970’s.
Panel One ‘Resist’
Panel Two ‘People Power’
Panel Three ‘Educate’
I thought they were profound and reminded me of works from the 1970’s.
Avenue B like Avenue C has its share of landscapers and gardeners and you see this in the creativity of the small community gardens.
The first one I walked through and admired was in front of the Trinity Lower East Side Church at 602 East 9th Street on the corner of Avenue B.
The Trinity Church Lower East Side at 602 East 9th Street
In 1839 German Saxon immigrants began to meet for worship in the home of a baker. By 1843 they were sufficiently strong to incorporate The Evangelical Lutheran Trinity Church of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession in the City of New York, since changed to Trinity Lower East Side Parish. In 1850, the congregation built a new church with four apartments below and a one-room school in the back. The present church was designed by Robert Litchfield and built in 1993. Dedicated on July 9, 1996, the facility includes a 100-seat chapel, community center and parsonage (Trinity Church website).
The gardens in front of the old church were a bit over grown but very colorful.
The fenced in garden in full bloom at the height of the summer
The one thing I like about this garden is how tranquil it was that day. Services were over so the church was quiet. It is the perfect place to just sit and think and relax.
Avenue B lines the eastern side of Tompkins Square Park and the park was alive with joggers, musicians, dog walkers and groups of college students stretching across the lawns talking, reading and sunning themselves. This is a far cry from the homeless camps of the early 1980’s.
Tompkins Square Park was extremely busy that afternoon
It’s fun to just walk through the borders of the park and see the neighborhood just conversing with each other. Community is not dead in New York City. Someone had tagged over this mural but I still thought it was interesting. The colors really stood out in the mural,
Romero, is a Korean and Spanish, first-generation American artist, and muralist . She is a New York City based artist. Her art is a contemporary representation, inspired by her mixed cultural background and layered complexities of the human experience. Her work is inspired by human emotion, identity, women’s empowerment, and New York City (Artist bio from website),
YouTube video on Artist Bianca Romero
Some of the community gardens are more creative than others. The next one I visited was the East 6th Street and Avenue B Garden at 84 Avenue B
The East 6th Street and Avenue Garden at 84 Avenue B
All the community gardens seemed to be open the weekend of my walk so I got to see all the gardeners at work. People were digging, pruning and cutting shrubs and trees and cleaning the beds of weeds and then composting.
History of the Garden:
(from the garden website
Throughout 1983 and 1984, garden members surveyed the site, drew up the plans for its optimal use, built over 100 4’ x 8’ plots and a large communal plot (“the Circle”), laid pathways, prepared for the installation of a fence, and laid out ornamental borders. In April of 1984, Green Thumb issued a one-year lease. Garden members were busy planting ornamental shrubs and trees. The Garden received important early technical assistance from the Citizens’ Committee, Green Guerrillas and the Trust for Public Land .
The welcoming French at the entrance of the Sixth Street and Avenue B Gardens
This was one of the larger community gardens and it was fun to stroll down the paths of flowers and vegetables and watch everyone hard at work.
The inside of the entrance of the gardens
Walking along the paths
The Vegetable gardens
The gardens at the height of the summer
The pathways in the gardens
The sitting area in the middle of the garden
The Weed Library and composting area
The tree has been part of this garden for years
I loved the ironwork along the fencing of the garden as I walked up Avenue B
The neighborhood reaction to a empty storefront in a gentrifying neighborhood
The garden was established in 1993/1994 soon after a building there was demolished. The building’s address was 194 Ave B which is also the garden’s address, but the garden’s entrance is at 546 E 12th St (NYC Parks/GreenThumb will eventually replace the garden sign. Down to Earth Garden, which changed its name on July 1, 2020 from Children’s Garden, is a Green Thumb community garden in the East Village/Lower East Side of Manhattan, NYC.
We’re a small community garden, 1261 sq ft, on 12th St, by Ave B, southwest corner. However, we have been very active in composting (in combination with El Sol Brillante’s composting activities) since the fall of 2009
The flowering beds of the garden
The side beds
The artwork against the building was covered with vines and new growth
There was one last garden I visited but is was closing for the evening and that was the Vamps A Sembrar at 198 Avenue B.
The small Vegetable beds and visible art in the garden
The History of the garden:
(from the garden website)
The garden used to be two separate GreenThumb community gardens (Vamos A Sembrar and 200 Ave B Association Garden) until 2019, when they were combined as Vamos A Sembrar under the guidance of GreenThumb
This community garden had just closed for the afternoon so I could only see if from the fence. I could see the beds of vegetables growing. I really admired the artwork on the walls of the building. I will be returning on a future weekend to really explore all of these gardens, which I find are open on the weekends for the members and outside people.
I passed Pop’s Pizzeria at 223 Avenue B that I had eaten at when I walked the borders of the neighborhood. I had gotten at the restaurant late at night so I had not noticed the outside of the restaurant that evening.
When you look up above the restaurant, you see this Skelton painting smiling above the entrance.
The Skelton face that I did not see before when dining here on my last trip to the neighborhood
I finished for the evening around 5:00pm and went to get some dinner.
I checked Google and Avenue D Pizzeria which I had passed when walking down Avenue D was still open. So I walked down one of the side streets to give it a try.
The pizza selection was really good that night and the slices were reasonable at $1.50 for a Cheese slice and $2.50 for a Sausage slice.
The pizza selection that night
The hot food selection is $10.00 for a plate
The pizzeria also has a selection of hot entrees and sides at a reasonable price as well. There is no place to sit down anywhere near the pizzeria so I went back to Tompkins Square Park to eat my dinner. I found an empty bench and ate by one of the gardens.
My dinner that night in the park
I have to say that I was really impressed by the pizza for having to walk for blocks to eat it. The sauce was spiced so nicely and they loaded the sausage on the other slice.
After dinner I walked through the park and watched the bars and restaurants come to life. Most get a younger crowd of college students but there are a lot of family restaurants as well. I was amazed at the amount of kids who were dining with their parents that evening.
Admiring street art on the border of Alphabet City (I could not find the artist)
Since it was such a great night that I decided to walk around both Little Italy and Chinatown since they both border Alphabet City.
Walking around Little Italy on a warm late summer night
Outside the Cannoli King dessert shop a guy was singing Sinatra songs. I stopped to listen and this guy was really good. Everyone in the crowd was filming him.
Singing outside the Cannoli King at 152 Mulberry Street
It was fun to stand there and just enjoy the concert. The singer was wonderful!
The singer was great
Afree the mini concert was over, I continued my walk down Mulberry Street into Chinatown. Once upon a time there were distinct boundaries of Chinatown and Little Italy but they have become very blurred over the last twenty five years with gentrification affecting both neighborhoods.
I walked down Mott Street to Catherine Street and stopped at my favorite bakery that I know is always open late, Great Taste Bakery at 35 Catherine Street. I love the reasonable pastries and buns here and it is one of the last of the Chinatown bakeries that is still open late. This is also one of the few neighborhood bakeries left in a very gentrifying Chinatown. I come here after meals or just having dumplings up the road and finish here for dessert.
I love their Pineapple cream buns with some lemon tea at Great Taste Bakery
Since there was no place to sit down in here too I ate at one of the benches outside near the local park.
These buns are so good!
After all the walking that evening, you would figure I would be tired. There was something about the Lemon tea and the sweet bun that gave me a second wind and I walked from Chinatown to the Port Authority. It was such a beautiful warm night I figured ‘why not’? It was a beautiful walk up Broadway.
Admiring one of the old churches on lower Broadway on my long walk up Broadway to the Port Authority
Looking at Madison Square Park at night
It really ended up being a beautiful evening ing the City. For all its problems, the City really is magical at all times of the day. You just have to look at all the good things that people do that make this City better. Between the small mom and pop restaurants providing wonderful food to the community gardeners who make Alphabet City bloom, it really shows that New York City is bouncing back from COVID in its own way.
There have been many changes in the Little Italy section of Manhattan and I have been watching slowly disappear over the last ten years. When I was growing up, Little Italy went from Mott Street to Center Street and then from Houston Street to the north and just below Canal Street to the south. Chinatown in the 1970’s was pretty much relegated to Mott Street and the side streets below Canal Street. Then the 1980’s came with the explosion of immigration from all parts of China and then Hong Kong after the Chinese take over of the City in 1997.
Meanwhile most of the people in Little Italy started to move out by the mid to late 1980’s as the second and third generation of Italians went to college and…
I have been waiting to come to the Feast of Our Lady of Carmel in East Harlem to see the dancing of the Giglio for months since I had finished the walk in the neighborhood. I was not sure of what to expect since there really are not many Italians still living in the neighborhood. The church I am sure still attracts people from all over the city and I could see that my the members of the lift team.
It was a glorious day for the feast. Warm, sunny and no humidity. You could not have asked for a better day to be outside. The Dance of the Giglio started at 1:00pm and wanting to get into the city early, I took the 10:00am bus into the city. Who knew that I would get uptown two hours early.
I started my day with a Bacon, Egg and Cheese Sandwich at Blue Sky (now Harlem Taste) Deli at the corner of 110th and First Avenue at 2135 First Avenue, home to the famous ‘Chopped Cheese Sandwich’ (see review on TripAdvisor & DiningonaShoeStringinNYC.wordpress.com). I swear, I don’t know what it is about this little hole in the wall deli but the food here is so good!
The Bacon, Egg and Cheese at Chopped Cheese Delicious is delicious
The sandwich was one of the best breakfast sandwiches I had eaten outside my absolute favorite one, the Sausage McMuffin with Cheese at McDonald’s. The sandwich was loaded with freshly cooked eggs, turkey bacon and American cheese. It was put on a hoagie roll and then pressed. For $4.00, it was a steal.
I took my sandwich and sat in Jefferson Park as I have had many times with my lunch and watched the world go by. A lot has changed since March and April. The park was in full swing and all over the place people were playing soccer, baseball, handball or swimming in their giant pool. It was a perfect day to be outside and relax.
All over the park, there were all sorts of birthday parties and family barbecues going on. Families really use this park and it was nice to see multi generations eating together. As I have said before, it is nice to see people socializing without a cell phone glued to their hands. There were lots of balloons and decorations and the boom of Spanish music to entertain them. Its fun to sit and watch people have a good time.
The Feast of My Lady of Carmel started around 1:00pm but the dance started late and everyone finally started to gather around the Giglio around 2:15pm. I give these men and women a lot of credit. The Giglio looked really heavy considering it was the structure itself plus about five musicians and the lead singer. One of the trumpet players was a little ‘zaftig’ to say the least. I will not be participating in this anytime soon.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church at 448 East 116th Street
The program started off with a prayer the patron saint, St. Anthony:
(from the prayer sheet):
Sant’Antonio of Padua: “The Wonder Worker”
St. Anthony is know as “The Wonder Worker” for the many miracles and conversions attributed to him. Although quiet and unassuming he was regarded as a sensational preacher in his time. A Franciscan priest and professor of theology, he gave up teaching to be assigned to preach all over Italy, attracting huge crowds wherever he went.
St. Anthony is often depicted as holding the infant Jesus as it is said that the Christ child appeared to him in visions.
He is known as being of particular help in retrieving lost articles because of a story in which a book of psalms that had been stolen was returned due to his intercession.
He died June 13th at the age of 36. He was canonized the following year and declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XII in 1946.
The Giglio Society of East Harlem’s roots can be traced to a town several miles from Nola called Brusciana. The annual dancing of the Giglio began in 1800’s inspired by Francisco Vivolo’s vow to St. Anthony, the patron Saint of Brusciana. Francisco vowed to dance the Giglio annually if St. Anthony would help his gravely ill son recover from a very serious illness. The prayers were answered and the dancing of the Giglio in honor of St. Anthony began in Brusciana and still continues today.
The carnival on Pleasant Avenue
Immigrants from Brusciana continue the feast and uphold this grand tradition brought to this country by our forefathers. Our objective is to pass onto our children, as was done with us, the tradition of o’Giglio, truly one of the greatest wonders of the world!”
The carnival and the Giglio on Pleasant Avenue
After the prayer was over, the crowd went wild and the ceremony began. These handlers really worked hard as they broke several boards lifting this structure. It was amazing as some of them were smoking cigars or drinking a beer while they were doing it. The guys all looked like military, construction workers, police and firemen. Some did their job with ease, others looked like it was going to be a long day.
Getting to the Giglio
After the prayer, their master of ceremony, Jimmy Alleva , sang a few songs in Italian and I swear that his guy had the most beautiful singing voice. I read his bio online and it seems that he sings in feasts all over the tri-state area. Even though the guy is self-taught, you would swear he is a classically trained opera singer.
Singer Jimmy Alleva (in the blue shirt) leading the songs at the ceremony.
This video of him singing is from the feast in 2023:
After he sang two songs in Italian, he ‘brought the house down’ with the crowd and there was a massive applause. Talk about bringing you closer to God when someone can touch a crowd like this. People were giving him ovations. Then came the lifts.
The Dance of the Giglio 2017
Don’t miss this video of the feast:
The ceremony from 2017 was the same as it was in 2023.
Like I said, some of these guys were experts and did it with ease and others were really struggling. They lifted that Giglio all over the neighborhood, up and down the street then to the church and back and then the Ladies of the Giglio did there lift and credit to all the women that lifted it along with the men because these ladies held their own. The Ladies of the Giglio did there lift with some of the men and these women were strong. They did a great job as well.
The start of the ceremony in 2023
The lifts of the Giglio went on for quite awhile being dedicated to various families who must have made donations to the church. After that it was festival time. One of the announcers said that the feast just keeps getting bigger every year and you could tell by the crowd that more and more people are venturing back into this neighborhood for the afternoon. The place was packed.
The best part was the fresh zeppole that were cooked right in front of me. There were not that many food vendors on the block so they had control of the whole crowd. For $5.00 for six, these zeppole were some of the best I have had. They came right out of the fryer and loaded with powdered sugar. I devoured those fast.
Zeppole served at the feast
I walked around the rest of the feast, looking at the small rides and the games of chance. This feast is only two blocks long but a lot of people are packed into this small space. The band kept playing for the rest of the afternoon and groups of families sat under tents on the sidewalks catching up with old friends and members of the church.
The games at the carnival
It is going to be interesting the fate of this festival in an ever gentrifying neighborhood that has switched from Italian to Spanish to Hipster. The neighborhood is changing fast even in the time I have walked it. More and more is under scaffolding.
I stayed for about two hours and then decided to walk around the neighborhood. My walk took me past the Jefferson playground, down FDR Drive to the dreaded East River Houses (they still have not finished that playground facing the drive) and I walked across the pedestrian bridge to Randalls-Ward Island and walked across the explore the island. I walked the entire length of the island and it took about two hours.
Randalls-Ward Island is a island in the East River bend off Hell Gate and is connected to Manhattan by two pedestrian bridges one on 105th Street and the other on 125th Street plus the bridges leading you to the South Bronx. The island is part of New York County which is where Manhattan is located but it is truly one of those hidden ‘gems’ of the city that most people don’t know exist. I never knew it was there. When I crossed over the pedestrian bridge, I never knew of islands and their dark past. You would never know it from the new playgrounds and ball fields.
From what I had read online, the islands were once separated by a stream called ‘Little Hellgate’ that was filled in years ago to create one island. The reconfiguring of land that you see all over Manhattan, like in Marble Hill and in Battery City. The islands were originally used for farming by the American Indians, Dutch and English but it was during the Civil War, they started being used for a dumping ground.
At various times up until World War II, the islands housed a potter’s field, homeless shelters, a ‘Insane Asylum’, small pox ward and a dumping ground for orphans. They were considered ‘islands for the undesirables’ and most of the city’s problems were shipped to the island, similar to the role that Riker’s Island plays today.
The Ward on Ward-Randall’s Island:
You would never know it now with all the new playgrounds, picnic sites, ball and soccer fields, concession stands and thank God, new bathrooms and water fountains. When I got to the island, everything was in full swing on a beautiful sunny day.
You thought the parties were in full swing in Jefferson Park, you should come to Randalls-Ward Island. All over the edges of the island were barbecues with meat sizzling on the grill, birthday parties with balloons with pink and blue all over the place and Spanish music blasting over their heads. These were not small parties but big family get-togethers. Its nice to see people having such a good time.
Even the ‘hipsters’ are discovering the island mostly hanging around that southern part of the island that faces the Upper East Side and the rapidly developing Queen’s waterfront. Theirs is the quieter section closer to the pedestrian bridge with the better vantage points over-looking the new ‘hipster’ enclaves.
Walking the island took me close to two hours as I walked through the parks and ball fields and under the bridges that crisscrossed the island. There were many natural flower gardens on the northwestern part of the island overlooking Astoria Park on the other side of the river. The Wildflower Meadow was in full bloom and was attracting all sorts of butterflies and honeybees. As you walked in there were all sorts of benches to relax and just watch the view.
The entrance to Ward-Randall’s Island
The island is still has remnants of its past. I passed the water treatment plant, a much needed addition to an ever growing city that seemed quiet that day and the FDNY Training Academy which was closed for the afternoon. You could see from the street the size of the academy and how much training these guys really get. It is isolated from the rest of the island.
On the most Northern part of the island , the police have their back offices and training facility and in between both of these are ball fields in which many leagues were playing that day. The nice part was when following the paths there were plenty of new bathrooms and places to just relax as well as snack bars where the prices were not unreasonable.
The New York Psychiatric Center still sits on the northern part of the island like a fortress. The ironic part of this is that it is surrounded by paths of flowers, marshes and lagoons that have been built around the island to clean the water. The Water’s Edge Garden sits just past the Center and offers the nicest views of the new Harlem being built.
The western part of the island has the nicest walking paths by the water and many different gardens that are in full bloom. I passed the Icahn Stadium, where a small game was going on and could hear the cheers in the background. I kept wondering why such a great set of parks was not being better taken advantage of by the entire city.
I rounded the path back to the pedestrian bridge and while walking across tried to spot the ‘spotters’ that everyone talked about at the East River Houses. I saw a lot of open windows on the top of the complex but not a sole in sight. I will avoid this place in the future now.
I walked back to the Q subway on East 96th Street going full circle since my day at Coney Island and took it down to Little Italy downtown. I had such a craving for Italian food that needed to be filled.
Little Italy now is just three blocks by one block and its barely that anymore. Even in between the famous restaurants that still exist, new boutiques are opening. The area is now squeezed into Mulberry Street from Canal to Broome Streets with a smidgen of restaurants up to East Houston, the original border of the neighborhood. Anything above Broome Street is not longer ‘Little Italy’ but ‘NoLiTa’ (North of Little Italy).
Little Italy Manhattan along Mulberry Street at night in 2025
This area has been becoming trendy for about twenty years. Most of the old Italian businesses have closed by the late nineties and have become boutiques and non-Italian restaurants. If my grandfather who was raised here had a crystal ball and had owned one of these buildings, we would have been set.
There is even a change from the ‘red sauce’ restaurants of the past to more sophisticated Italian dining leaving the old restaurants to the tourists. One by one they are closing down or changing hands. It shows in the food quality.
I went to the Grotta Azzurra at 177 Mulberry Street (See reviews on TripAdvisor), where I have been eating for years and the food quality and service have gone way down. While I ordered my dinner, the table next to me the guest was fighting with his waiter on a glass of wine that he had ordered that he was not happy with and the waiter was giving him attitude. Not smart in an economy like this.
Grotta Azzurra at 177 Mulberry Street in Little Italy
The food was mediocre at best that night. The fried Mozzarella was cooked perfectly on the outside and not cooked on the inside and I had to send it back. The second batch was better. The manicotti was good and the sauce was decent but the runner who served me the dish dumped so much Parmesan cheese on top all I could taste was the cheese. It was such a waste. The service was good but not great. All of this reflected in the amount of people eating there that night. Most of the other restaurants were much busier than here.
Little Italy at night August 2023
I walked back down Canal Street to the E subway and back to Port Authority to go home. I must have walked five miles today but got to see so much of what makes this city great. The cultural festivals of certain parts of the city have not died yet and still thrive with more attention from outlets like YouTube. It was an interesting afternoon into my own family’s past.
Another great video of that wonderful afternoon:
Video of the Dancing of the Giglio in 2017
The Giglio in 2025:
I visited the Feast of the Church of Carmel again this year after not being able to come the previous year because of classes at NYU. It was a spectacular morning and I was able to go uptown by 1:00pm. The official first lift did not start until after 2:00 pm because Mayoral Candidate Mario Cuomo would be attending the festival. That was pretty exciting since I know he really wants to be Mayor.
The festival was really busy when I got there at 1:00pm
The amusement rides were just getting started
The Giglio that afternoon had been imported in from Italy
I walked over to the Our Lady of Mount Carmel as it was letting out after the opening ceremony inside the church.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church at 448 East 116th Street
I got there just as the band was exiting the church and they started the parade to the Giglio.
The video on the Opening Ceremony that morning
After the lively band opened the ceremony, I saw many of the people who had lifted the giglio in the past and I recognized many of the entertainers from past trips to the festival.
Everyone gathering for the opening of the ceremony
Singer Jimmy Alleva was the master of ceremony again and God can that man sing! What a voice!
The video on singer Jimmy Alleva singing both the US National Anthem and the Italian National Anthem
Then the ceremony with more song and cheers as the event continued as the crowd waited for the former governor to arrive. With all the traffic and horrible parking in the area, that must have been tough for security.
The opening ceremony
The video on the opening song for the ceremony right before the first lift
Just after the opening ceremony and the lifters were getting into place the former governor showed with his security team and gave a welcoming speech to the crowd in both English and Italian.
The video on the Former Governor Andrew Cuomo’s opening remarks at the festival
I know it was a bit of a photo op but still I thought it was great of the former governor to make an appearance at the festival and I know that everyone was thrilled by this.
The first lift, Andrew Cuomo did participate in before he left for the day. I am sure he had other stops
To video to honor the former governor, Jimmy Avella sang ‘New York, New York’
Then it was time for the first lift. I swear this position is passed down from generation to generation as I saw the daughters of the lifters participating in the lift. It used to be all men and the ladies would have their own lift.
The video on the opening lift is the most exciting because all the fireworks are going off and the band is really lively
The guys moving the crowds around during the first lift
The video on the end of the first lift. I could see some of the guys were struggling through it depending on your position
The video on the second lift was happening as the former governor was leaving the festival
After the second lift was heading for the church and finished I searched out a place to eat. Most of the vendors were so expensive that I did not want to eat there. Come on, Zeppoles for $8.00 for six and a pizza for $18.00? I went to Patsy’s again for a slice and a Coke. I forgot how much I missed their pizza.
Watching the giglio after the dnd of the second lift
Patsy’s Pizza is one of the last hold outs from when this was an Italian enclave. Their brick oven pizza is still amazing but the cooks now look like they are all from Honduras.
Patsy’s Pizzeria at 2287 First Avenue in East Harlem
The Cheese pizza here is excellent and the slice was only $2.50 (very pre-COVID)
After I finished my lunch, I wanted to update some of my pictures on my blogs on East Harlem. So I walked all around this section of East Harlem and walked up and down the area between Lexington and First Avenue from 116th to 110th Street.
I found myself still hungry after walking around and I stopped at Sam’s Famous Pizza at 115 East 116th Street. I forgot how good the pizza was here too. The Cheese slice was over-sized and they have the most amazing sauce. It just makes the pie.
The Cheese pizza at Sam’s Famous Pizza is excellent
Yum!
I could not believe how delicious the pizza is here. I had not eaten here in about five years and the food is still wonderful.
I walked around the neighborhood for about an hour and took a lot of pictures to replace things I had not been to in about five to six years. It had been a long time since I explored the neighborhood. I headed back to the feast one more time stopping for a Dominican ice along the way. Talk about refreshing.
The Dominican ices are the best
By the time I got back to the feast by 4:30pm, they had just finished the last lift and everyone looked relieved. They all looked tired. The crowds continued on into the evening as entertainment would be happening later that evening. I started to head home.
mywalkinmanhattan 