Daily Crosshatch Dispatch: Comic Book Legal Defense Fund at the Village Pourhouse

The Village Pourhouse sits where 3rd Ave. meets East 11th St. and, while its punny name invokes a passing reminder of the taverns and flophouse that once lined these streets, the innards betray a modern establishment inline with recent decades’ gentrification and mass cultural exodus—with a constant stream of jukebox selections to match.

Recently the bar has happily become a favorite venue for those flag waving defenders of the First Amendment, the [Comic Book Legal Defense Fund], and while events over the past year have been arguably met with varying degrees of success, Tuesday night’s benefit has subsequently become nearly universally lauded by all in attendence, a rare channeling of the artistic rabblerousing that inhabited this area unconfined, for the better part of a century.

Past CBLDF events in this space had relegated the featured artists to booths on the perimeters of the room. This time out, however, there was no question as to the focal point of the evening’s festivities. At the front of the room, the wall was already lined with pre-show sketches, largely black-inked drawings of our age’s best known superheroes and villains. But despite—or more likely because of—the early call time, there were none of the billed artists anywhere to be seen, even with the promise of free food for early comers, appetizers that were eventually consumed rapidly by the evening’s paid attendees...

Want to read the full "CBLDF" post? [Then click here.]