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September 25, 2024 6:30p.m.
Free In-person Presentation at the American Youth Hostel, Simulcast on Zoom
Free In-person Presentation at the American Youth Hostel, Simulcast on Zoom
The Sullivanians: Sex, Psychotherapy and the Wild Life of an American Commune
Featuring author and journalist Alexander Stille
Free to All on September 25, 2024 at 6:30p.m.
in Person at the American Youth Hostel, 891 Amsterdam Avenue at 103rd Street
A Free Zoom link will appear on this website in the days prior to the presentation
Co-sponsored by the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group (BNHG), the American Youth Hostel and the Columbus/Amsterdam BID.
Thanks to the hostel for welcoming BNHG back after the long hiatus caused by the pandemic.
The program:
The Sullivanians : Sex, Psychotherapy and the Wild Life of an American Commune, is a program that Stille has created for BNHG based on his recent book, a "narrative history of a little-known and singular chapter of the American counterculture". This is the fascinating story of the Sullivanians, members of a group that lived, in the 1960s and 70s, on the Upper West Side, hidden in plain sight.
Stille’s research has uncovered details about the lives of the founders of the Sullivan Institute for Research in Psychoanalysis’s leaders and their followers, including bold-faced names such as Jackson Pollock, the art critic Clement Greenberg, Judy Collins and the dancer Lucinda Childs.
In the 1960s the group, founded on the premise that dismantling the nuclear family and freeing people from the repressive force of their parents, was the key to both happiness and success, had 300-400 people living in shared spaces in the Bloomingdale neighborhood. Therapists controlled all aspects of the lives of their followers, from where they lived and worked to how often they saw their sexual partners and their children.
By the mid-1970s the Institute had devolved from a radical communal experiment into an insular and secretive cult. In his book, Stille has “reconstructed the inner life of a parallel world hidden ….in the middle of Manhattan.” His story is fascinating.
Featuring author and journalist Alexander Stille
Free to All on September 25, 2024 at 6:30p.m.
in Person at the American Youth Hostel, 891 Amsterdam Avenue at 103rd Street
A Free Zoom link will appear on this website in the days prior to the presentation
Co-sponsored by the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group (BNHG), the American Youth Hostel and the Columbus/Amsterdam BID.
Thanks to the hostel for welcoming BNHG back after the long hiatus caused by the pandemic.
The program:
The Sullivanians : Sex, Psychotherapy and the Wild Life of an American Commune, is a program that Stille has created for BNHG based on his recent book, a "narrative history of a little-known and singular chapter of the American counterculture". This is the fascinating story of the Sullivanians, members of a group that lived, in the 1960s and 70s, on the Upper West Side, hidden in plain sight.
Stille’s research has uncovered details about the lives of the founders of the Sullivan Institute for Research in Psychoanalysis’s leaders and their followers, including bold-faced names such as Jackson Pollock, the art critic Clement Greenberg, Judy Collins and the dancer Lucinda Childs.
In the 1960s the group, founded on the premise that dismantling the nuclear family and freeing people from the repressive force of their parents, was the key to both happiness and success, had 300-400 people living in shared spaces in the Bloomingdale neighborhood. Therapists controlled all aspects of the lives of their followers, from where they lived and worked to how often they saw their sexual partners and their children.
By the mid-1970s the Institute had devolved from a radical communal experiment into an insular and secretive cult. In his book, Stille has “reconstructed the inner life of a parallel world hidden ….in the middle of Manhattan.” His story is fascinating.
The presenter:
Alexander Stille is the author of five books including Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families under Fascism, and is a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books and the New York Times. He is the San Paolo Professor of International Journalism at Columbia University and lives just blocks from some of the Sullivanian’s former communes.
Alexander Stille is the author of five books including Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families under Fascism, and is a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books and the New York Times. He is the San Paolo Professor of International Journalism at Columbia University and lives just blocks from some of the Sullivanian’s former communes.
Free Monthly Walking Tours of Historic Bloomingdale
 Jim Mackin
Explore the history of the Upper West Side between W96th and W110th St.
Led by renowned local historian Jim Mackin |
Upcoming Dates:
Wednesday, September 25th, at 6 pm Wednesday, October 2nd, at 6 pm Sunday, November 24th, at 2 pm Sunday, December 22nd, at 2 pm no reservations needed: Meet at the south end of Straus Park, Broadway at W.106th Street |
Jim Mackin leads tours for both tourists and city residents on one-of-a-kind, always interesting, walks around the historic Bloomingdale neighborhood. The walks are monthly and vary from month to month. And they're free! No reservation needed!
Jim is no ordinary tour guide--he is a New York City historian and author of the recently released book, Notable New Yorkers of Manhattan’s Upper West Side . Michael Miscione, former Manhattan Borough Historian describes Jim’s book as “an exhaustive and ofttimes surprising ‘Who’s Who’ of Upper West Siders who have shaped the worlds of art, culture, politics and science.”
Trust Jim to know where all the notables lived and to share fascinating, often little-known stories about them. Once you’ve completed this tour, you’ll understand what makes this rarified slice of Manhattan so renowned and so vital.
Jim is the founder of Weekday Walks, which offers tours every Wednesday morning, covering a different part of the city each time. For Jim's Wednesday tours, visit https://www.weekdaywalks.com.
More info 212-666-9774
or [email protected]
sponsored by the Columbus/Amsterdam BID
and Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group
Jim is no ordinary tour guide--he is a New York City historian and author of the recently released book, Notable New Yorkers of Manhattan’s Upper West Side . Michael Miscione, former Manhattan Borough Historian describes Jim’s book as “an exhaustive and ofttimes surprising ‘Who’s Who’ of Upper West Siders who have shaped the worlds of art, culture, politics and science.”
Trust Jim to know where all the notables lived and to share fascinating, often little-known stories about them. Once you’ve completed this tour, you’ll understand what makes this rarified slice of Manhattan so renowned and so vital.
Jim is the founder of Weekday Walks, which offers tours every Wednesday morning, covering a different part of the city each time. For Jim's Wednesday tours, visit https://www.weekdaywalks.com.
More info 212-666-9774
or [email protected]
sponsored by the Columbus/Amsterdam BID
and Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group