Leonard Abrams
{{Short description|American journalist (1954–2023)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2023}}
{{infobox writer
|name=Leonard Abrams
|image=Leonard Abrams.png
|caption=Abrams in 2017
|birth_date={{birth date|1954|12|19}}
|birth_place=New York City, U.S.
|death_date={{death date and age|2023|4|1|1954|12|19}}
|death_place=New Jersey Turnpike, U.S.
|occupation=Journalist
|alma_mater=Fordham University
}}
Leonard Abrams (December 19, 1954 – April 1, 2023) was an American journalist and the founder of East Village Eye.
His partner for the last decade of his life was the writer, Angela Sloan.
Early life and education
Abrams was born on December 19, 1954, in Brooklyn, New York. His father was a furrier and later a securities trader. His mother was a bank executive.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/13/arts/leonard-abrams-dead.html|title=Leonard Abrams, 68, Chronicler of 1980s East Village Art Boom, Dies|first=Alex|last=Williams|work=The New York Times |date=April 13, 2023|via=NYTimes.com}}
Abrams studied literature at Fordham University.
Career
In 1976, he moved to the East Village and started working as a bicycle messenger. In May 1979, the first edition of the East Village Eye was published, with Abrams credited as editor-in-chief.{{Cite book |last=Rombes |first=Nicholas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mh1pU7N4ss8C&dq=East+Village+Eye+%22leonard+abrams%22&pg=PT105 |title=A Cultural Dictionary of Punk: 1974-1982 |date=June 1, 2010 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=978-1-4411-0505-9 |language=en}} It covered topics such as the emergence of punk rock, hip hop, and fashion as well as the burgeoning art and nightlife scenes that were centered in the East Village neighborhood during the 1980s. The cultural magazine was in circulation from May 1979 until January 1987. The magazine had a total of 72 issues.[http://www.hyperallergic.com/161064/the-east-village-eye-where-art-hip-hop-and-punk-collided "The East Village Eye: Where Art, Hip Hop, and Punk Collided"] by Tiernan Morgan at Hyperallergic November 12, 2014 The Eye was most influential in the early 1980s, filling a gap after the closure of the SoHo Weekly News in 1982 and before the rise of Details magazine. The Eye is said to be the first publication to print a comprehensive definition of hip-hop in an interview in the January 1982 issue. In the interview by the writer Michael Holman with Afrika Bambaataa the term was summarized as “the all-inclusive tag for the rapping, breaking, graffiti-writing, crew-fashion-wearing street subculture.”
Abrams shut the paper down after being stressed by the extensive work of running it, the lack of money that the paper generated, and the changing dynamics of the area caused by gentrification which forced out artists.
In 1987, he oversaw Hotel Amazon, a regular Lower East Side hip-hop party which featured acts such as Public Enemy, De La Soul, Queen Latifah, and A Tribe Called Quest.
In 2008, he wrote and directed the documentary Quilombo Country which tells the story of villages in Brazil founded by fugitive slaves.{{Cite web|url=https://variety.com/2008/film/reviews/quilombo-country-1200470338/|title=Quilombo Country|first=Ronnie|last=Scheib|date=September 24, 2008}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/19/movies/19quil.html|title=State of the Village|first=Laura|last=Kern|work=The New York Times |date=September 19, 2008|via=NYTimes.com}}
In his later life, Abrams had a business importing Mexican religious items.
In 2023, Abrams sold the archive of the East Village Eye to the New York Public Library.{{cite magazine | url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-archives-of-the-east-village-eye-go-to-the-new-york-public-library | title=The Archives of the East Village Eye Go to the New York Public Library | magazine=The New Yorker | date=February 7, 2023 | last1=Gold | first1=Hannah }}
Personal life
On April 1, 2023, Abrams died of a heart attack while at a rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike while returning to Queens from a business trip. He was 68 years old.
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abrams, Leonard}}
Category:20th-century American journalists
Category:Journalists from Brooklyn
Category:21st-century American journalists
Category:Fordham University alumni
Category:Deaths from congestive heart failure in the United States