QUEENS 1930

  As most Forgotten New York readers know, I enjoy maps, especially historic ones that show what the streets of NYC looked like in previous decades. Today, I’ll review an outline map of Queens I saw posted on Facebook by Todd Berkun. This outline map […]

Patti LaBelle, the Doyenne of Philadelphia Soul

  By Mark Anthony Neal Photographs by Hank Willis Thomas and Deb Willis Styled by Alex Harrington PATTI LABELLE’S superpower is a spellbinding scream — a refined shriek, really — that makes hairs stand at attention, bones shiver and spines twist. It was 1975 when I first heard it. I […]

How Salvador Dalí has influenced your wardrobe

  When Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí first put a lobster on a dress, he wanted to be provocative. It worked. His 1937 collaboration with boundary pushing fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli caused consternation. The silk organza A-line gown they created together, subsequently worn by Wallis Simpson in the […]