Some information about the setting of RENT
RENT is set in a part of New York City called the East Village. Making up the Easy Village is the neighborhood of Alphabet City, consisting of Avenues A,B, C and D which through the middle of the 1900’s established itself as a bohemian society that would influence culture throughout America.
St. Mark’s street, a street known for its bohemian shops, became the center of culture in the East Village. Bohemians roamed the sidewalks performing songs and reciting poetry to anyone who would listen. Experimental theatre gained prominence during the time with theatre groups performing in any space available. Small productions were being performed in church basements and vacant buildings, anywhere that a crowd could gather to participate.
A shift in culture began in the 1950s when members of the Beat Generation began to gather in the area. The migration continued and soon the citizens of the East Village began to count poets, philosophers, singers and actors among their numbers. The inhabitants of the Village adopted a wide variety of causes including women’s liberation, gay pride and anti-war protests.
The Beat Generation consisted of a
group writers, poets and artists lead by
author Jack Kerouac, the Beat Generation
rejected the established academic attitude
towards poetry emphasizing that verse
should be brought to the masses through
public readings. Their members were called
Beatniks and embraced non-conformity and
unconstrained creativity. Beatniks wrote
against mainstream American ideals and
used their verse to offer solutions to the
country’s problems as they saw them.
The East Village reached its creative
zenith in the decades of the 70’s and 80’s.
The East Village felt like a safe haven to
artists considered non-traditional. Uptown
art galleries featured “corporate art” and
wanted nothing to do with the bohemians
that existed downtown. Makeshift galleries
began to spring up throughout the East
Village often occupying spaces like
storefronts or apartments. Art bars began to
emerge mixing fashion, music, performance,
video and painting.
With the increasing media spotlight on the
East Village, the general public romanticized
about the idea of living in a landscape filled
with dilapidation. Perceptions of the area
that were once negative began to change.
The borgouise middle class that was the
antithesis of everything the bohemians
believed in began to move in.
Known as gentrification, real estate
developers were quick to adopt an artistically
driven phase of redevelopment but the East
Village would ultimately lose some of its
charm and force the displacement of the
lower income people who had already been
residing there.
The streets are still lined with cafés and
shops and although the creative souls who
helped to form the neighborhood are no
longer able to afford to live in it, the vibe
and energy they helped to establish still
exists to this day.
