T’s April 22 Culture Issue

Highlights

The Stars Who Got Their Start on the ’80s New York Stage
From Broadway to downtown experimental shows, the city’s theater ruled supreme. Here are some of its alumni, including Sarah Jessica Parker, Willem Dafoe, Cynthia Nixon and more.
By Jon Robin Baitz
CreditPortrait by Neal Slavin. Produced by Minju Pak and Kurt Soller
New York City, 1981-1983: 36 Months That Changed the Culture
In the early '80s, everything seemed to be happening at once — and from this blur emerged a culture forever changed.

CreditPhoto illustration by Grant Gold/The New York Times. Clockwise from top: Andre Grossmann; Roxanne Lowit; Getty Images; Henny Garfunkel.
Stars Remember the Golden Age of New York Theater
A behind-the-scenes look at how 21 extraordinary theater actors — Sarah Jessica Parker, John Kelly and Kathy Bates among them — came together for a T Magazine photo shoot at the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in Manhattan’s East Village and reminisced about their first big breaks.
By Cheryl Dunn
CreditT Magazine
What New York Was Like in the Early ’80s — Hour by Hour
Kim Gordon, Larry Gagosian, Nile Rodgers and many others revisit their wild nights and disjointed days.
By Caroline BankoffHeather CorcoranNancy HassM.H. MillerKate Guadagnino and Thessaly La Force
CreditStephanie Chernikowski/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

New Yorkers and Their ’80s Routines — Block by Block
Notable locals, including Dapper Dan, Tama Janowitz and Brad Gooch, on their homes, hangouts and routes around the city.
By Kate GuadagninoElizabeth GumportMerrell Hambleton and Erin Sheehy
CreditIlya Milstein
What Happened in New York Between 1981 and 1983
Our selective timeline of the events that transformed the city over three extraordinary years.
By Jennifer Conrad
CreditCourtesy of Ronald Reagan Library
Those We Lost to the AIDS Epidemic
A memorial to a small fraction of the thousands of New Yorkers who died of H.I.V./AIDS-related causes.
By Thessaly La Force
Credit
Back to the Early ’80s With Michael Kors
The celebrated designer first made his name four decades ago, in Manhattan. Here, he shares some of his many inspirations.
By Lindsay Talbot
CreditCourtesy of Michael Kors
Profile in style
Why Early ’80s New York Matters Today
A polarizing Republican in the White House. Protests for equality in the streets. A new wave of sexual self-identification. Welcome to the 36 months when the city changed forever.
By Frank Bruni
CreditDirk Rowntree

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Listen to the Early ’80s: Two Playlists Inspired by Our Culture Issue
Justin Strauss, who got his start at the underground Mudd Club, and the Black Madonna share playlists inspired by the era exclusively with T.
By Alec M. Priester
Six Times Journalists on the Paper’s History of Covering AIDS and Gay Issues
New York Times staffers reflect on the paper’s checkered past covering AIDS and gay culture — and what we can learn from it today.
By Kurt Soller
Six Artists Revisit Their Works From the Early ’80s
How strong is the temptation to tinker with a published piece? T asked artists including Bill T. Jones, Laurie Anderson and Ntozake Shange to reconsider their celebrated 1980s works.
By Matt Weinstock
13 Celebrated New Yorkers on Their Early ’80s Apartments and Jobs
Rosie Perez, Thurston Moore and others on how they made it in New York during one of the city’s most dizzying periods, from 1981 through 1983.
The Enduring Style of an Underground ’80s TV Show
The offbeat style of ‘TV Party,’ hosted by Glenn O’Brien, still looks fresh today.
By Kelly Harris
Bejeweled Party Shoes With ’80s Appeal
Shimmering sandals that evoke the glamour of Studio 54.
By Angela Koh
In Fashion
This Season’s Leather Pieces, Inspired by ’80s New York
Spring men’s wear that channels the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe’s visual world.
By Alex Tudela
Four Geniuses, Gone to AIDS, as They Might Be Today
The epidemic didn’t just deprive us of millions of lives — it deprived us of decades of potential masterpieces of fashion, art, design, theater and dance.
By Edmund White
Seven Icons of New York in the Early ’80s
Carolina Herrera, Jennifer Beals and more are on the covers of T’s April 22 Culture issue.
Letter From The Editor
T’s Culture Issue: Time on Fire
If you want a compelling case that, yes, we arriviste New Yorkers may have indeed missed the party, one has only to look to the 36 months between the beginning of 1981 and the end of 1983.
By Hanya Yanagihara