Across 135th Street – No Sleep Special with Stretch Armstrong and Evan Auerbach

In the dark ages before social media connected us the world over, connecting with the right folks within the cozy community of downtown New York City nightlife was an undertaking reserved for the creatively shrewd and resourceful. Hence the utilitarian value of party flyers – those mini cardboard billboards distributed hand-to-hand, or occasionally left on the counter at select boutiques – inscribed with the vital stats on the next soiree worth checking. Designs could vary: from a lovely Keith Haring or Eric Haze creation to an equally striking DIY cut-and-paste number perfected via laborious hours spent at Kinko’s. A remarkable cross section of these handbills are compiled in *No Sleep: NYC Nightlife Flyers 1988-1999*, an indispensable visual history of a classic and otherwise largely undocumented era of hanging downtown.