Stephen Petrus

His publications and media appearances include:

Book

• Folk City: New York and the American Folk Music Revival (New York: Oxford
  University Press, 2015) with Ronald D. Cohen

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles and Book Chapters

• “The Lights Are Out on the Mean Streets: Lou Reed’s ‘Dirty Blvd.’ and Inequality in New York City,” in Veronika Keller, Sabrina Mittermeier, and Maciej Smótka, eds. From Broadway to The Bronx: New York City in Song. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2024), 93-102.
• “‘His Words Will Never Die,’: Eric Andersen and the Shadow and Light of Albert Camus,” in Marco Fazzini, ed. Mingle with Universe: Tribute to Eric Andersen for the 60th Anniversary of His Career (Milan: Agenzia X, 2023), 217-238.
• “Folk Music and Political Activism in Greenwich Village and at the Newport Folk Festival, 1935-1965” in Brett Lashua, Karl Spracklen, and Stephen Wagg, eds. Sounds and the City: Popular Music, Place and Globalization 2nd edition. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), 279-302.
• “Fiorello La Guardia” in Nicholas Bloom and Matthew Gordon Lasner, eds. Affordable Housing in New York: The People, Places, and Policies That Transformed a City (Princeton University Press, 2015), 88-89.
• “From Gritty to Chic: The Transformation of New York City’s SoHo, 1962-1976,” New York History (Winter 2003): 50-87.
• “Rumblings of Discontent: American Popular Culture and Its Response to the Beat Generation, 1957-1960,” Studies in Popular Culture 20 (October 1997): 1-17.

Review Essay

• Reshaping New York’s Landscape,” Journal of Urban History, August 31, 2020, 1-6.

Popular Writing

• “Online exhibit highlights New York City’s fight for a gay rights bill,” Gay City News, August 9, 2024
• “White-Collar Workplace Activism in NYC,” Metropole, March 22, 2022
• “The Taming of New York’s Washington Square,” Gotham Center Blog, September 10, 2020.
• “Between Tragedy and Opportunity: Lynne B. Sagalyn’s ‘Power at Ground Zero,’” Los Angeles Review of Books, October 10, 2017.
• “From ‘Hell’s Hundred Acres’ to ‘Bloomingdale Types,’: The Story of SoHo,” Los Angeles Review of Books, October 12, 2016.
• “The Daniel Dromm Collection at the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives and Queens LGBTQ History,” Gotham Center Blog, June 7, 2017
• “Greenwich Village Fights the Heroin Epidemic, 1958 – 1963,” Gotham Center Blog, December 21, 2016
• “Shirley Hayes and the Battle of Washington Square Park, 1952 – 1959,” New York Historical Society Blog, August 3, 2016
• “This Land Is Your Land,” Oxford University Press Blog, July 16, 2015
• “Banjos, Mandolins, Cats, and Dogs,” Museum of the City of New York Blog, May 19, 2015

Select Media Appearances

• Adam Kocurek, “The Battle for Gay Rights in New York City – A Conversation with Stephen Petrus,” Gotham Center Blog, September 18, 2024
• The Brian Lehrer Show, “A History of the Struggle to Pass NYC’s 1986 Gay Rights Bill,” WNYC, 93.9 FM, June 21, 2024
• Neil Genzlinger, “Len Chandler, an Early Fixture of the Folk Revival, Dies at 88,” New York Times, September 13, 2023
• Former City Council Member Carlos Menchaca and Jeff Simmons, “Pride and Promise,” WBAI 99.5 FM, June 5, 2022
• Grégory Philipps, “Bob Dylan a 80 ans: on est allés sur ses traces à New York, là où tout a commencé [Bob Dylan is 80 years old: we followed in his footsteps in New York, where it all began,” Radio France, French Public Radio, May 24, 2021
• Adam Kocurek, “Rainbow LaGuardia: An Interview with Stephen Petrus and Thierry Gourjon-Bieltvedt,” Gotham Center Blog, February 9, 2021
• Zyphus Lebrun, “DiverseCITY: Long Island City, Queens,” CUNY-TV, April 12, 2019
• Selina Cheah, “Hilary Ballon, NYU Professor of Urban Studies and Architecture, Passes Away,” The Architect’s Newspaper, June 19, 2017
• Roger Clark, “Queens Exhibit Celebrates 25 Years of Borough’s Pride Roots,” NY1, June 9, 2017
• Rebecca Rosman, “Settled in Sweden, the Man Who First Booked Dylan,” New York Times, December 7, 2016
• Kristen Saloomey, “Bob Dylan Inspires New York’s Music Scene,” Al Jazeera English, October 14, 2016
• Nicholas Parco, “A look at Bob Dylan’s Greenwich Village as the folk legend turns 75,” New York Daily News, May 24, 2016
• Jennifer Schuessler, “Albert Camus, Stranger in a Strange Land: New York,” New York Times, March 24, 2016
• Nicole Disser, “Where Did Lead Belly Sleep Last Night? A New Plaque at His Old Home Will Tell You,” Bedford + Bowery, January 20, 2016
• Sarah Begley, “‘Brooklyn’ and the True History of Irish Immigrants in 1950s New York City,” Time.com, November 4, 2015
• Sarah Begley, “City of Fire and the True History of Squatters in 1970s New York City,” Time.com, October 13, 2015
• Cristian Salazar, “The folk rebellion that preserved free speech in Washington Square Park,” am New York, September 1, 2015
• “Folk Music’s Evolution in NYC,” SinoVision English Channel, August 19, 2015
• Hugh Ryan, “What it Took to Create the World’s First Gay Art Museum,” Smithsonian.com, July 7, 2015
• Ben Yakas, “Did Bob Dylan Write a Protest Song about Robert Moses?,” Gothamist, June 26, 2015
• Emily Brennan, “Pete Seeger’s New York Roots,” New York Times, Sunday Travel Section, June 21, 2015
• The Brian Lehrer Show, “Folk City,” CUNY-TV, May 27, 2015