The Freaks Came Out to Write
The Definitive History of the Village Voice, the Radical Paper That Changed American Culture
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A rollicking history of America’s most iconic weekly newspaper told through the voices of its legendary writers, editors, and photographers
“The Freaks Came Out to Write may be the best history of a journalistic enterprise I’ve ever read”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times
You either were there or you wanted to be. A defining New York City institution co-founded by Norman Mailer, The Village Voice was the first newspaper to cover hip-hop, the avant-garde art scene, and Off-Broadway with gravitas. It reported on the AIDS crisis with urgency and seriousness when other papers dismissed it as a gay disease. In 1979, the Voice’s Wayne Barrett uncovered Donald Trump as a corrupt con artist before anyone else was paying attention. It invented new forms of criticism and storytelling and revolutionized journalism, spawning hundreds of copycats.
With more than 200 interviews, including two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, Colson Whitehead, cultural critic Greg Tate, gossip columnist Michael Musto, and feminist writers Vivian Gornick and Susan Brownmiller, former Voice writer Tricia Romano pays homage to the paper that saved NYC landmarks from destruction and exposed corrupt landlords and judges. With interviews featuring post-punk band, Blondie, sportscaster Bob Costas, and drummer Max Weinberg, of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, in this definitive oral history, Romano tells the story of journalism, New York City and American culture—and the most famous alt-weekly of all time.
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Former Village Voice nightlife columnist Romano debuts with a phenomenal oral history of the alternative weekly from its founding in 1955 through the 2018 shutdown of editorial operations. Drawing on more than 200 interviews with Voice personnel, Romano explores the many vibrant personalities, colorful stories, and heated disputes that defined the publication. Founding editor-in-chief Dan Wolf is remembered for championing young writers who "were actually living what byline was about," and cultural critic Greg Tate comes across as an erudite polymath whom features editor Lisa Kennedy credits for opening up "an incredible space for people to imagine writing whatever the fuck they wanted." There's no shortage of drama, such as when short-tempered jazz critic Stanley Crouch punched music writer Harry Allen over Allen's defense of hip-hop ("In the interest of talking against the promotion of thuggish behavior, I smacked him," Crouch says). Romano is unafraid to cast a critical eye, devoting a devastating chapter to the Voice's scant early coverage of the AIDS epidemic; editor Richard Goldstein recalls that "there was a reluctance on the part of people to do something that was so negative about sex." Brimming with riveting anecdotes and capturing its subject's rollicking spirit, this is a remarkable portrait of the "nation's first alternative newspaper." Photos.
