The Definitive History of the Village Voice, the Radical Paper That Changed American Culture
by Tricia Romano
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Published Feb 2024
608 pages
Genre: History, Current Affairs and Religion
Publication Information
A rollicking history of America's most iconic weekly newspaper told through the voices of its legendary writers, editors, and photographers.
You either were there or you wanted to be. A defining New York City institution co-founded by Norman Mailer, The Village Voice was the first newspaper to cover hip-hop, the avant-garde art scene, and Off-Broadway with gravitas. It reported on the AIDS crisis with urgency and seriousness when other papers dismissed it as a gay disease. In 1979, the Voice's Wayne Barrett uncovered Donald Trump as a corrupt con artist before anyone else was paying attention. It invented new forms of criticism and storytelling and revolutionized journalism, spawning hundreds of copycats.
With more than 200 interviews, including two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, Colson Whitehead, cultural critic Greg Tate, gossip columnist Michael Musto, and feminist writers Vivian Gornick and Susan Brownmiller, former Voice writer Tricia Romano pays homage to the paper that saved NYC landmarks from destruction and exposed corrupt landlords and judges. With interviews featuring post-punk band, Blondie, sportscaster Bob Costas, and drummer Max Weinberg, of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, in this definitive oral history, Romano tells the story of journalism, New York City and American culture—and the most famous alt-weekly of all time.
"Romano debuts with a phenomenal oral history….Brimming with riveting anecdotes and capturing its subject's rollicking spirit, this is a remarkable portrait of the "nation's first alternative newspaper." ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Journalist Romano makes a zesty book debut with a polyphonic oral history of the iconic Village Voice...Eyewitness testimony makes for a vibrant media history." ―Kirkus Reviews
"An exceptional resource in which readers get a real flavor of the exciting and troubling times throughout the Village Voice's run and the opportunity to draw their own conclusions about its rise (and fall in 2017). Recommended for academic libraries and comprehensive journalism collections." —Library Journal
"Some writers give voice to the voiceless. Romano gives voice to the Voice. For more than six decades, the Village Voice not only had its finger on the pulse of New York, but quickened that pulse with its cultural criticism, investigative reporting, columns, cartoons, and more. I love this book!" ―Questlove
"A brilliant oral history that chronicles not only the Village Voice, the most important alt-weekly of our time, but also the history of New York City during the latter half of the 20th Century. One of the best narrative oral histories I have ever read—seamlessly edited, with anarchy on almost every page." ―Gillian McCain, co-author of Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk
"An uncensored look at the freewheeling, kaleidoscope lives of the people who wrote for the Voice. This book is essential reading for anyone who cares about politics, culture, history, or democracy. Romano makes me wish I was twenty again, reading the Voice while trying to score a futon." ―Gary Shteyngart, author of author of Our Country Friends
"This book reads like a garrulous night at the bar with the most brilliant, quarrelsome, passionate, and funny writers and editors of the Golden Age of insurgent media. The gossip! The fist fights! The passion! The fury! These collective voices and tales remind us not only of what writers once did, but what they can and should do RIGHT NOW. Hallelujah." ―Joe Hagan, author of Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine
This information about The Freaks Came Out to Write was first featured
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Tricia Romano began her eight- year career at the Village Voice as an intern. As a contributing writer she wrote features and award-winning cover stories about culture and music. Her reported column, Fly Life, gave a glimpse into the underbelly of New York nightlife. She has been a staff writer at the Seattle Times and served as the editor in chief of the Stranger, Seattle's alternative newsweekly. A fellow at MacDowell, Ucross and Millay artist residencies, her work has been published in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, the Daily Beast, Men's Journal, Elle, Alta Journal, and the Los Angeles Times, among others. She lives in Seattle, Washington. This is her first book.
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