The East Village Eye was a monthly publication documenting the various scenes (Punk, disco, new wave and hip hop) of the neighborhood from 1979 to 1987. Leonard Abrams, the magazine’s publisher covered art, music and street culture of the 80s and discussed political and social movements that shaped the years in which “The Eye” was alive.

When hip hop started to emerge in New York, the Eye was there with early stories on historical figures like Afrikaa Bambaataa, Fab Five Freddy, Futura 2000, Run DMC, the Rock Steady Crew and many others. How early? The East Village Eye was the first publication ever to print the words “hip hop.”

Seminal avant garde writers including Richard Hell, whose “Slum Journal” explained how he “invented punk;” Cookie Mueller, who dished out bold and often hilarious health advice; Glenn O’Brien, the leading avant-pop writer and media figure who chose the Eye to expound on the New York Yankees; and the aforementioned David Wojnarowicz, who wrote about his harrowing past and present as a street hustler and later as an artist living with HIV.

Groundbreaking small clubs and performance spaces like 8BC, ABC No Rio and Darinka, which developed such artists as Karen Finlay and Ethyl Eichelberger, advertised and were written about in the Eye and often nowhere else. Many such artists actually moved to New York because of what they read in the Eye, which in this pre-Internet age was one of the few sources of news on independent culture during one of the most important decades for the arts in New York.

The Eye featured artists such as Keith Haring, David Wojnarowicz, Barbara Kruger, Colab and Kiki Smith; musicians like Run DMC, Rock Steady Crew, Beasties Boys and Iggy Pop; and fashion designers and influencers Animal X, Patricia Field, Betsy Johnson and Manic Panic. Many such artists made work specifically for publication in the Eye.