Judy Dente
1975-1978
Broome Street
Artist’s Model
The electricity and spontaneity! Everyone was making music or art and artists and craftsmen from all over the world were discovering and exploring each other’s cultures. I miss the real metal grunge of the old warehouses before they gentrified into celebrity penthouses. Punk, jazz, fine art: all co-existed and created a neighborhood that had a dynamic personality. Anything could happen!
Danger. Riding the subway at night as a female was risky. Muggings were common.
I moved to Honolulu to raise my bicultural children.
A bar called Changes owned by Princeton mathematician, Bob Bonic. He had a great venue for live music and intellectual discourse in an atmosphere that encouraged spontaneous playfulness. I was also at a loft party once where Bob Dylan, Darius Brubeck and Perry Robinson jammed “Under the Boardwalk.” That was what it was like in SoHo in the 70s.I
I made a living posing for painters and sculptors in SoHo. At one point I lived on the roof of a building on Broome Street all summer in exchange for posing for oil portraits for a student at the Art Students League. It was exciting and I learned about painting, light, anatomy. Being so young (18!) and free was exhilarating and I treasure these memories of a simpler time when we communicated deeply and personally about things that really matter to our shared humanity: art, music and poetry. Humbly grateful for my blessed youth in SoHo.