Donald Suggs Jr. Way: East 6th St. between A & B, NYC

New York City’s East Village is known for many things: the vibrant friction of Latino and Eastern European immigrant cultures, punk rock, innovative Japanese cuisine, Yiddish theater, and dive bars.

The East Village should also be known for Donald Suggs Jr. Donald Suggs, an openly gay, African American media activist was a long time East Villager. Donald, who moved to 526 E. 6th Street between Avenue A & B in 1990 and died there in 2012, cut a large, sharp, sartorial figure in dark pants, dark jackets, debonair caps, and sculpted shoes. Out and outrageous, Donald was in the vanguard of a movement which ushered in gay pride for people of all colors, addressed transgender subjectivity, and spoke to communities ravaged by the AIDS epidemic at the close of the 20th century and into the 21st.

A brilliant journalist and cultural critic as a young adult, Donald honed his writing and editorial chops first as a reporter, then as a Senior Editor at The Village Voice. He blazed trails as an innovative public relations manager, grassroots organizer, media artist, and healthcare worker. He later founded and developed outreach programs serving marginalized communities in Harlem and the Midwest. Today he’s still honored and remembered by epidemiologists for his safe sex and AIDS awareness work, which considered the interplay of culture, sexuality, race, and class in the administration of health services for African Americans and Latinos.

The “Donald Suggs Jr. Way” will honor the life and work of an East Village resident who greatly enriched and in many instances led the culture of what is known to be the East Village­. “Donald Suggs Jr. Way” will also celebrate the neighborhood’s values as a place of progress, multi-ethnic politics and ideas, a community of tolerance, personal freedom, and creativity. It is a place where in the late 20th and early 21st century, a singular and eccentric gay, African American man, media activist and raconteur, could feel at home, be a good neighbor, and leave a proud legacy. It is fitting that 6th Street between Avenues A and B be named “Donald Suggs Jr. Way.”

(written by Dawn Suggs; idea by Jennifer Callahan)

Please sign the petition to support this initiative!

For more information about Donald, here is an obituary:  http://www.stlamerican.com/news/local_news/article_35d55f46-133a-11e2-b903-0019bb2963f4.html