The Freaks Came Out to Write

A rollicking history of America’s most iconic weekly newspaper told through the voices of its legendary writers, editors, and photographers

You either were there or you wanted to be. A defining New York City institution co-founded by Norman Mailer, The Village Voice was the first newspaper to cover hip-hop, the avant-garde art scene, and Off-Broadway with gravitas.

It reported on the AIDS crisis with urgency and seriousness when other papers dismissed it as a gay disease. In 1979, the Voice’s Wayne Barrett uncovered Donald Trump as a corrupt con artist before anyone else was paying attention. It invented new forms of criticism and storytelling and revolutionized journalism, spawning hundreds of copycats.

With more than 200 interviews, including two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Colson Whitehead, cultural critic Greg Tate, gossip columnist Michael Musto, and feminist writers Vivian Gornick and Susan Brownmiller, former Voice writer Tricia Romano pays homage to the paper that saved New York City landmarks from destruction and exposed corrupt landlords and judges.

In this definitive oral history, with interviews featuring post-punk band Blondie, sportscaster Bob Costas, and drummer Max Weinberg of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, Romano tells the story of journalism, New York City and American culture—and the most famous alt-weekly of all time.