New York City|Local Event
Book Launch for HYSTERICAL CONEY ISLAND an Art Memoir by Richard Eagan and Philomena Moreno
Event Details
City Lore is pleased to host the book launch for Hysterical Coney Island by visual artists Richard Eagan and Philomena Moreno on Sunday, June 7th, 3pm – 5pm. City Lore is located at 56 East First Street, Manhattan. Admission is FREE.
About Hysterical Coney Island
Hysterical Coney Island is a unique, personal story of how two artists and their colleagues made an impact on the cultural life of New York City, and helped pull America’s great historic amusement beach out of a nosedive. It is a chronicle of a “handmade” time in the worlds of art and amusement that will never be seen again.
As the 1970s came to an end, Coney Island was at its worst—the old timers were retiring or dying, and the beloved Pavilion of Fun at Steeplechase Park had been torn down by speculator Fred Trump in his race against the Landmarks Commission.
The authors, both native Brooklyn visual artists, formed the Coney Island Hysterical Society in 1981 as a response to this community in crisis. In concert with Dick Zigun’s Coney Island USA, the Hysterical Society struck a spark that would grow to become what historian Charles Denson calls “The Artists’ Renaissance” in Coney Island.
Eagan and Moreno summed up their motivation this way, "Do we want to simply retreat to our studios and make art, or do we want to jump in and try to do something about this?”
With contributions from playwright Harvey Fierstein, historian Richard Snow, and critic/curators Ann Aptaker and Aaron Beebe, Hysterical Coney Island is a personal account of the authors’ years working in both Coney Island and in the studio-work that took on greater depth and resonance for having been seasoned in the daily life of Coney Island itself.
For more info on the Hysterical Society: http://philomenamoreno.com/coney-island-hysterical-society
To learn more about actor, writer and artist Richard Eagan visit:
https://richardeagan.com/about/
To learn more about artist Philomena Moreno please visit: https://www.philomenamarano.com/bio
About City Lore - Founded in 1986, and now an Affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, City Lore’s mission is to foster New York City – and America’s – living cultural heritage through education and public programs. We document, present, and advocate for New York City’s grassroots cultures to ensure their living legacy in stories and histories, places and traditions. We work in four cultural domains: urban folklore and history; preservation; arts education; and grassroots poetry traditions. In each of these realms, we see ourselves as furthering cultural equity and modeling a better world with projects as dynamic and diverse as New York City itself. For more info: http://www.citylore.org.