Historically, New York’s East Village/Lower East Side has always been an area noted for unusual cultural happenings, earth-shaking social movements, and cutting-edge artistic endeavors. From Emma Goldman and Dorothy Day to the Rosenbergs… from Jasper Johns and Gracie Mansion to Allen Ginsberg and Luc Santé… from the gaslit balls at Webster Hall to the punks of CBGB’s and the drag queens of the Pyramid, this roughly two square mile section of Lower Manhattan has a rich and colorful past which, despite the recent influx of the “upwardly mobile,” inspires local residents today.

Inspired by those firebrands, misfits and cultural ground breakers, a group of friends have gathered together to open Rapture Café & Books at 200 Avenue A between 12th and 13th Streets, on the site of the former Karova Milk Bar on that venerable avenue’s northernmost stretch. A combination of a café and bookstore with a limited bar, Rapture Café & Books features a postage stamp-sized stage for performance art and readings, free wi-fi, broadband computer rentals and, eventually, a back oasis of a garden for those who wish to meditate over a latté.