He writes: "I met Phillip Giambri at Grassroots Tavern (R.I.P.) on St. Mark's Place during the summer of 2016 after hearing him perform at an open mic in the East Village. He drank me under the table that afternoon, but not before we agreed to collaborate and bring his poem 'The Boho's Lament' to life."
Giambri was a Grassroots regular. He was written up in the Times a couple of years ago as "the Ancient Mariner, being a Navy veteran and as relentless a storyteller as Coleridge’s salty narrator."
As Cohen notes on the film's Vimeo page, Giambri "has been writing and performing in New York City's East Village since 1968," and you can find him "sipping cheap drinks and waxing philosophical at the some of the last remaining real East Village dive bars like Coal Yard, Doc Holidays, 7B, and International Bar. He hosts an open mic on the last Wednesday of every month at Three of Cups Lounge on First Avenue." (Which will also close, on April 1 -- so tonight is the last night of the open mic.)
You can also find him online.
Watch the video:
The Boho's Lament from Dustin Cohen on Vimeo.
I remember many salty old bohemians like this from the East Village in the 70s and 80s; guys living outside the mainstream, supported by their veteran's benefits from Korea and Vietnam. I don't think that there are Gulf War vets who chose the same path, so it's certainly a kind of bohemia that's passing away. I found a certain beauty in their lives back then, but knew that I would never be willing or able to hitch my cart to the military in order to fund it.
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