Nobody’s going to hear even a whimper from the East Village’s Howl! Festival this year. Started three years ago by Two Boots pizza-chain impresario Phil Hartman, the festival, named after the Allen Ginsberg poem, attempted to keep the neighborhood’s bohemian spirit alive, attracting old-school fixtures like Taylor Mead, Lou Reed, and Suzanne Vega. Hartman’s busy opening a Lower East Side Two Boots, so he handed over the reins to the Federation of East Village Artists’ Greg Fuchs, who didn’t have the funding to make it a go this year. For the first three years of Howl! Hartman provided 75 percent of the festival’s funds, according to Fuchs, who said Hartman “wasn’t able to contribute what he has in years past.” So they’re looking for new backers. Bowery Poetry Club’s Bob Holman, who knew Ginsberg, remains unsure it’ll restart. “Whether artists can transform into entrepreneurs and capitalismos? That’s the real question. I don’t know where it goes next.”

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Related:

• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by Rebecca Milzoff
• Table of Contents: Aug 28, 2006 issue of New York | Subscribe!