Street & Performance history

The amount of street performers grew immensely; in 1923 the NYC license department reported eight hundred organ grinders and other musicians.

On January 1, 1936, New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia banned street performance by cancelling its licensing, saying that street performance was for beggars and that the city should not tolerate it.

The busking was generally accepted in Greenwich until 1961 when the Washington Square Association and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation Commissioner Newbold Morris decided that Washington Square park should be a quiet and peaceful place.

In 1970, the street performance ban was officially lifted under Mayor Lindsey’s administration, but subway performance was still banned.

Boyle, Wickham, On the Streets: A Guide to New York City's Buskers, NY, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, 1978 A delightful guide that was funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and New York State and City Arts Councils.

From 1979 through to the present, David Cassel has travelled around the world to over 40 countries creating, presenting and experiencing a wide range of solo and ensemble street performances.

Passing the Hat - Street Performers in America (Delacorte Press 1981) by Patricia J. Campbell Passing the Hat is still the most comprehensive book on street performing in the United States.

Overview with articles and photographs Urban Studies Statement by Doctor Allan Schnaiberg, Professor of Sociology and Urban Affairs at Northwestern University Friedrich v Chicago 619 F. Supp., 1129. (D.C. Ill 1985)

Rediscovering the Center City (Doubleday 1988) by William H. Whyte The author, William H. Whyte, was an expert architect witness in favor of street performances in the Davenport v.

In 1989, the New York Tran­sit Au­thor­ity pro­posed an­other ban; this time, sin­gling out mu­si­cians on sub­way platforms.

[vi]Harrison-Pepper, S. (1990) Drawing a Circle in the Square: Street Performing in New York’s Washington Square.

Symbolic Cymbalom by D. Patrick Miller, East Bay Express, Feb 17, 1995 http://www.idiom.com/~mmasley/tonehenge/express_review.html Article on arrest of artists on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, CA "On the Corner" by Margit Detweiler.

Traditions, Stereotypes, and Tactics: A History of Musical Buskers in Toronto (Canada), Canadian Journal for Traditional Music (1996) by Murray Smith Scholarly article on history of buskers, street entertainers and subway performers in Toronto.

"Busker Told To Pay His Way" by Clare Cruise and Sarah Rothwell http://www.oxfordstudent.com/2000-11-02/news/14 Article on street busker who plays the flute and sells his own music recordings without a permit in Oxford, England.

"From busker to bestseller: Strummer's musical journey" by Sally James Gregory, Tuesday December 24, 2002 http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,865020,00.html Article on Clash founders death in the Guardian, London

BUSKING WITH THE STARS Posted by mrG, February 28, 2003 09:29 AM http://www.teledyn.com/mt/archives/000615.html Article on lack of ethics of BCC anchor Damon Gough who tried busking for a day.

Boston Herald, Thursday, December 23, 2004 "Sidewalk shows must go on: Hub gives street performers a pass - for now." by J.M. Lawrence. http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=60211

[i]Brayshay, M. (2005) Waits, musicians, bearwards and players: the inter-urban road travel and performances of itinerant entertainers in sixteenth and seventeenth century England.

[ii]Simpson, P. (2008) Chronic Everyday Life: Rhythmanalysing Street Performance.

Thoth, one of our fea­tured sub­way buskers, was ar­rested there and taken to jail on July 12, 2009, as boo­ing crowds gath­ered to watch him hand­cuffed and es­corted to a police van.

Tanenbaum, Suan. “A Guide for Street Performers.” http://City Lore, 2012, http://citylore.org/ urban-culture/resources/street-performers/.

About Gulf Coast Quilt Trail Quilt Trails have become one of the largest grassroots public art movements in the country, and the first Quilt Trail in Florida started in 2013.