(Photo: Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation)
A Gathering of the Tribes, which has been fighting for years to keep its East Village gallery and performance space, is finally moving out next week.
Steve Cannon, who has run Tribes out of the second floor of his apartment at 285 East Third Street for the last 20 years, will move around the corner into a much cheaper homestead apartment. From there, he’ll continue to run the Tribes website, literary journal, and Fly By Night publishing arm, with the help of employee Alyssa Devine.
But Devine says that, as of next week, “Tribes as a space will be nonexistent.”
Tribes had spent the last two years in a protracted legal battle with the landlord over use of the space as an art gallery, culminating in a last-ditch effort to buy the building. Devine says that finally agreeing to move out has been tough on Cannon, who is blind and turning 79 years old. “Steve’s lived here for 20 years and been in that room for that long,” she said. “This is his life. This is his home.”
