Bank Street is at once ordinary and an extraordinary panorama of America.

As the only child of a family that worked in the opera, Bank Street in the 1960s was Florio’s playground, its residents her extended family. Neighbors ran the gamut from painters, social activists, writers, longshoremen, actors, postmen, musicians, trust-fund bohemians, and office workers.

Bank Street had a charm and diversity that attracted people like the urbanist Jane Jacobs (who lived around the corner from Bank Street on Hudson Street) and famous residents like John Lennon, Yoko Ono, John Cage, and Merce Cunningham.
It was home to famous eccentrics like Marion Tanner – the model for Auntie Mame – activists like Bella Abzug and society figures like Jack Heineman Jr.

This is a rare opportunity to hear and ask questions of someone who had a stoop side seat to one of the most fascinating blocks in the most extraordinary city in the world.