ASTOR PLACE

When I moved to New York City in the summer of ‘94, there were peep shows in Times Square, squatters on Avenue A and Astor Place was skater central.

I moved to New York with my best friend Danielle in the summer of 1994, fresh out of high school. The movie Kids was about to start filming.

(L to R) “Slick Rick” Rivera, me, Harold Hunter, Danielle and Justin Pierce in my dorm room, summer before freshman year of art school.

During senior year of high school I’d become close with Harmony Korine, who wrote the script for Kids, through mutual friends in the skate scene. Soon after moving to New York I started dating Harmony’s best friend, who was then assisting Larry Clark, the director of Kids. Within the next ten years a number of people I was close with from this scene were in and out of the throes of serious drug addiction, depression and suicidal ideations. I attended multiple funerals in my 20s for several who didn’t make it, among them Justin Pierce and Harold Hunter, (may they forever rest in power) who both co-starred in Kids. Somehow I’m still here to write about all of it.  

Film still from KIDS (1995), with Harold Hunter & Justin Pierce, at far left & front.

Below the paywall…NYC in the late 90s-early 2000s; a love letter to skateboarders; drug taking takes a much darker turn; complicated thoughts on Larry Clark; photos and stories of the scene pre/ during and post KIDS…