Greenwich Village was a Mecca for misfits and refuge for outsiders for a very long time. Blacks, Italians and Irish, artists across the genres, anarchists and communists, gays and lesbians, intellectuals, eccentrics, visionaries and life's adventurers were all drawn there. An astonishing Who's Who of world culture made the Village at least a temporary home in the 20th century. Some came as refugees, but most were self-exiles who came because this tiny speck of real estate, a neighborhood they could stroll through in twenty minutes, was the one place in America where they were not only allowed but encouraged to live and express themselves freely.
Greenwich Village was a Mecca for misfits and refuge for outsiders for a very long time. Blacks, Italians and Irish, artists across the genres, anarchists and communists, gays and lesbians, intellectuals, eccentrics, visionaries and life's adventurers were all drawn there. An astonishing Who's Who of world culture made the Village at least a temporary home in the 20th century. Some came as refugees, but most were self-exiles who came because this tiny speck of real estate, a neighborhood they could stroll through in twenty minutes, was the one place in America where they were not only allowed but encouraged to live and express themselves freely.