Tompkins - Forest Green

Tompkins Square Park located between in the middle of the Alphabet City, between Avenue A and Avenue B on the East and West and 10th and 7th streets on the North and South Side was first opened in 1850 and quickly became a place protest and subsequent attacks by the police a “tradition” that continued well in the 1980s.

The park was also the center of the counterculture movement of the 1950s, 60s and 70s. “Howl” author, Allen Ginsberg lived around the corner, whose beginning lines “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness”. Ginsberg was later involved with the early days of the Hare Krishna movement walking over with Srila Prabhupada, the movement’s founder, to Tompkins and sitting under a large oak tree in the center for the first public chanting session of the fledgling movement.

The benches and surrounding areas have been a home to generations of artists, (like Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith) and skaters (T.F), along with punks and skins with music venues like A7 and the Pyramid Club, as well as Ray’s Candy Store as a place to hang out after and during a show and get an egg cream in the early days of New York Hardcore, as well as the free shows in the park itself, some of which commemorated the ’88 "riot" annually.

Shirt Info:
2 color front, 2 color back Forest Green Alstyle Tee
100% ring spun cotton

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