John Milner

The 1864 art debut of Sarah Taggart Benson’s spurred wide acclaim among New York society. Many thought a woman artist would not be taken seriously, but her popularity grew, spawning an insurrection against rigid Victorian standards, and a following of counter-culturists known as the Urban Romantics. They congregated in the downstairs galley and in the basement tavern of the brownstone she shared with her husband in Greenwich Village. The rooms evolved in accord as a center of a new artistic universe known affectionately as Benson’s House. Then one day the balance became unbroken. Throughout five generations, her family kept hold of the reins of the chariot, cultivating art and music to restore the balance and speak for the common man against the oppressions of institutional authority. The culture grew with certain defiance, nurturing slave songs to speak boldly throughout Post Impressionism, Jazz, Flappers and Bootleg Whiskey, The New Masses, Folk Music, Beatniks, and disciples of Rock & Roll. This is their saga - an American love story accumulated over a hundred years - passed down through the generations by tavern discourse.

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