NYC NOW - Harry Styles Pop Up Clash Ends in a Bookseller’s Arrest, Plus Immanuel Wilkins Returns to the Village Vanguard

Episode Date: September 25, 2026

WNYC and Gothamist culture reporter Sonia Rao joins Matthew Schnipper to discuss the Harry Styles pop up that drew huge crowds to the East Village and a confrontation that ended with cookbook store owner Bonnie Slotnick being arrested. They also look at a new film about location scouting in New York, the growing number of creative workers going freelance and the return of Saint Vitus in Bushwick. Plus, they preview an interview with saxophonist and composer Immanuel Wilkins ahead of his return to the Village Vanguard.Photo: Sonia Rao / WNYC & GothamistGot any questions, comments or story ideas? Send us a message at [e-mail]. Judge orders NYC officials to turn over phone messages, keeps rent freeze in place - GothamistNYC councilmember wants to ban tickets for spitting after arrest video circulates - GothamistHow a Harry Styles pop-up in the East Village led to a nearby bookstore owner's arrest - GothamistNYC’s creative workers are increasingly self-employed, report says - Gothamist Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

From WNYC, this is NYC Now. I'm NYC Now producer, Irouac Pinobi, in for Jene Pierre. We're used to seeing lines in New York City, but it really is taking up the whole sidewalk, the business owner. She, you know, found herself getting increasingly upset. We'll hear more about how a line for Harry Styles merch ended up with a shop owner behind bars. But first, here's what's going on in the city.

As part of a legal fight that could unravel the city's first ever rent freeze. A Manhattan judge has ordered more than two dozen top city officials and rent guidelines board members, including Mayor Mumdani, to hand over their phones and emails. The freeze on two-year leases

for roughly a million rent-stabilized apartments is set to take effect on October 1st. The landlords who are suing the board want Judge Brendan Landry to block it in the meantime, but he doesn't have the authority to do that, and the freeze will stand regardless of how the case turns out.

The landlords are accusing City Hall of pressuring the board to deliver the rent-free's Momdani promised on the campaign trail, even though the board is supposed to operate independently. The city denies it. Over on the other side of City Hall, New York City Councilmember Chris Banks wants to strike spitting from the NYPD's list of ticketable offenses. Young man don't! Young man don't! Wow!

Wow! Wow! That's after a video shows an NYPD officer throwing a 21-year-old man to the ground and handcuffing him. Police say the man had spit twice after a warning and then threatened the officer. The man was charged with obstruction and harassment and then released. The council member says spitting shouldn't be a reason to stop someone. Not in this day and time. We've seen how interactions between young black and brown men particularly have to

It's become a death symptom for that. The WNBA playoffs get underway this weekend. And now we know that the New York Liberty's first round matchup will be a rematch of their 2024 championship series. The limbs will face the Minnesota links in the first round. It's a best of three series that gets underway on Sunday. That first game is in the Twin Cities. And then game two will be played here at home at Barclays Center on Tuesday.

If the series gets to a decisive, of Game 3, that'll be on Thursday back in Minnesota. The Liberty famously beat the links in overtime in a winner-take-all game to secure the 2024 championship. You can hear more about the 30 years of Liberty history on a recent Wednesday episode. And read more about all of these stories on our news site, gotamist.com. All right, let's get on with the show. Arts and Culture Editor Matthew Schnipper and reporter Sonia Rao walk us through this week in New York City Culture. including yes, how a line for Harry Styles merch ended up with a business owner in jail.

I am not Jene Pierre. Hi, this is NYC Now. I'm Matthew Schnipper. I am the arts and culture editor here at WMYC and Gothamus. I am your guest host this week while Jenae is out on vacation. Janay, everyone hopes you're having a great time, and we do hope you never hear this as we desecrate your beloved show. I am here with another edition of our biweekly arts and culture check-in.

It's been about a month since you have heard for me. A lot has happened in the culture world. To hear to talk about it with me is my co-host for the week, Sonia Rao, who is a reporter at WNBC in Gothamist. Hi, Sonia. Hi. Thanks for having me join you. Thank you very much for being here. Weird week, a lot going on.

Yeah. Sonia is making time to, out of her New York Film Festival screenings schedule to come and talk about Harry Styles and some other stuff with us. There was a strange, strange story, which I feel like is a story of our times in the East Village this week with a Harry Styles pop-up shop. Yeah. A month-long pop-up shop that's going alongside his month-long Madison Square Garden residency. But Sonia, can you tell us what is the story here? Yeah. So it does start with this pop-up in the East Village.

I would say it's a merch pop-up. You know, you don't have to buy stuff at the merch table at the concert. You can go stand in line for four hours in the East Village. I don't know if that's easier, but it is an option. So there's a lot of people waiting in this line day after day. Again, this is a 30-show residency, and they're not all back-to-back. So this pop-up opened in late August, and it goes all the way until November 1st. Wow.

Long time. So, you know, we're used to seeing lines, I think, in New York City, but maybe not on a block like this one. This is in the East Village on Second Street, and it really is taking up the whole sidewalk. The business owner, Bonnie Slotnick, she owns Bonnie Slotnick cookbooks, named after her, of course. Love that. She, you know, found herself getting increasingly upset over this line of people that is outside of her door. A week ago, Bonnie Slotnick was arrested. So basically what happens, she tells Evie Grieve, and then I also confirmed this with her personally.

What happens is, you know, she pulls up to work this day on her bicycle, is getting ready to lock up her bike on this fence outside of her store. She always does this. Someone who is working the line, so someone who works for the production company that is putting on the Harry Styles pop up is standing in the way. She says she asks them to move. Allegedly that person does not move. You know, Bonnie's already kind of mad about this thing that's taken over her block that she feels is. getting in the way of her business, small business. Have we mentioned Bonnie as in her 72 years old?

Bonnie is 72 years old, which I think is very relevant. I think in the context here, she's a feisty 72 year old. You know, she stands for what she stands for. And so Bonnie and this woman. Which is not lines. Which is not lines. And Bonnie and this person, this woman who's working for the production company, they start getting an invverbal argument.

You know, she's like, why are you guys doing? You know, whatever. I don't know exactly what was said. But Bonnie kind of is saying that she was arguing with this woman over her presence in front of the store. And, you know, she's locking up her bicycle finally and kind of turns around with the key, the kryptonite bike law key in her hand, admits to kind of jabbing it toward the woman who's working the line, which was seen as a threat.

So Bonnie has her key in her hand like that, jabs it towards this woman. And obviously that's not well received. Bonnie says that woman... Does she make contact? I mean, allegedly does not make contact. I was not there. But, you know, everyone is saying nothing happened in that sense. The woman, though, does ask colleagues to call the cops.

They show up. Bonnie, 72-year-old Bonnie, does get arrested. They photographed bruises on her arms. So, you know, she's 72. She's having some response to being held in custody. And, yeah, you know, she was charged with possession of a weapon, which, you know, is what the key is being called. And menacing, which is, in fact, a verb. I did not realize.

But yeah, so four counts overall and, you know, are waiting to see what happens. But in the meantime, she's still running business. She's still at her store. So you spoke to Bonnie after this all happened. And, you know, what would you say her feeling is? Is she feeling recalcitrant? Is she feeling, you know, reflect? What's her vibe?

Yeah. I would say the first thing is Bonnie is very aware of the fact that she has strong feeling. She ended up emailing me a lot because she didn't want to say too much. She, you know, is saying, you know, I bet a lot of these people don't even realize how disruptive they're being.

A lot of these people meaning the people in the line at the pop-up store. I think she is kind of taking aim at the whole concept of this overall. You know, these corporations or whatever you want to call Harry Styles, I don't really know what he has at this point

is not a corporation. But kind of parachuting in to, again, this very quiet, cute little block in the East Village. I'm not saying the East Village has not been overrun with giant businesses and all this stuff. I think Bonnie's point is this corner of the city. It feels almost sacred. Of all the places. Yeah.

Of all the Ging Joyce. Of all the Ginjoice. Yeah. Of all the places. Our block. Like, come on. Come on. Come on.

Come on. I thought that was so interesting. And you can read Sonia's reporting on this on Gothamist.com. All right. Harry Styles from Harry Styles to another New York neighborhood from the East Village. Excuse me to another New York neighborhood. Crown Heights. Sonia, you found yourself in Crown Heights.

recently reporting on a movie called The Scout. This is a movie about a location scout. Can you explain first what is a location scout? Yes, absolutely. If you look at the two words, literally, that is what the job is. It's looking for locations. So these are the people that, you know, they get a script. They're saying, okay, this scene calls for this type of apartment.

This scene calls for this kind of restaurant, whatever. These people are going out into whatever city, let's say New York, if the movie's set in New York, they're going out, they're looking for places that they could shoot at. And obviously, that requires a lot of research into neighborhoods. And then when you're in that neighborhood, it's, okay, well, this person even let me film at their house, which means you're knocking on doors and talking to strangers and saying, hey, I notice you have a bay window that I really love. The character in this film that I'm working on sits in a bay window.

Could we shoot here one day? So the movie is the scout. This is a movie about a location scout. It is a narrative film, though, and it's made by a woman who is a location scout? Yeah, it's kind of meta to talk about. Tell me about the movie. The woman's name is Paola Gonzalez Naser, and she was for many, many years, a location scout. Still kind of dabbles in it.

This is her directorial debut. So this is our first time directing such a long movie. And she turned inward. She made a movie about what she's done. You know, what she told me is that she really wanted to make a movie about someone who hasn't really processed what they're going through in life. And you kind of see through the course of this movie, which doesn't really have a plot.

It's just the location scout, you know, bumping into people, processing things with them. You see how distance this woman feels from her life. And so you kind of get a little bit of that character study all while just navigating this crazy world that she works in and that Paola worked in for so long too. Oh, I think that I'm mostly just interested in a character who's so disconnected from her environment.

And I think scouting was like a perfect vessel to explore that. It wasn't like I want to make a movie about scouting. It was like this character came to be first and the structure was just great as a way to explore that. And so you went out with Paloah and walked around and you went into an apartment that she had scouted previously. What was that like? Yeah, it was so fascinating. First off, this is a beautiful apartment. Where was this apartment?

This was in Crown Heights. I met Powell outside and then we went in together. So, you know, we're actually standing in the doorway at first and she has her camera out and she's like, okay, when I walk in, this is the angle of the kitchen that I want to assess. So now that I've done the front door, I do a 180 and it's like, what does it look like from the front door when you first walk in?

So like to the human eye, it's this. But like, how do we get that on camera? And so I would be a little bit like this. And now we know that both spaces go this way. this way. If we're in this kitchen and the characters are eating lunch, okay, the camera is going to be here. How does the light fall on their face? All of this stuff. But you're also trying to sell the cinematic version of a space to the creative team. Like if there's a scene at a kitchen table, you don't just want to see like the wide of the kitchen table. You kind of want to feel like

what would it look like in a two shot or like a single of this space. That's really interesting. I mean, it sounds both like they are renting an apartment, a real estate agent, a, you know, a director of photography. It's kind of a lot of us wrapped up in that one role. There's a lot. And, you know, Paolo was saying that she feels so capable as a director because she's kind of worked with every department already. Oh, that's cool. She's done, you know, conversations with production and all these people across the board. So they really dip their toes in anything, everything, anything and everything.

Do you think you'd like to do this? Me personally. Yeah, would you want to be a location scout? I don't know if I'm qualified. I mean, I think there's an aspect of journalism. You just had to find an apartment in New York City recently. I did. I did.

I did. You know, yeah. There's an aspect of journalism, too, that I think, you know, it depends on what you're covering. But there is an aspect of going up to random doors and being like, hi, can I talk to you? You know, as we were talking about the story, which again, you can read on gothams.com. I realized actually a location got came to an old department of mine. And I was living in a basement apartment. and they said, okay, I'm filming.

I can't remember if it was a lawn order type thing. They said, we're looking for a place where somebody could be squatting in the basement and the people upstairs wouldn't know. And I was like, okay, but like, how would you do that? How would somebody just be coming in and out of a basement apartment and the people upstairs wouldn't know? He's like, you know what, dude, I don't know.

I didn't write the script. Can I just come see your apartment? And I was like, sure. We didn't end up shooting the story in our place. The one thing she said to me that was so interesting was it's always important what kind of relationship they have with neighbors. Oh, that's interesting. That's often a deal breaker because, you know, if you're bringing in a whole production

career into this place, your neighbors better be nice. That's better. Better be accommodating. Yeah, or you got to pay them off potentially, I think. Basically. Yeah. So, okay, speaking of money, people who work in creative industries don't have a lot of it we're finding out.

News to us not at all. No, our colleague Hannah Frischberg reported on a new study from the Center for Urban Futures. about freelance creative work in the city. And basically what it showed is that there is more creative work happening in New York and less of it is in full-time jobs. More people are going freelance in the creative industries. Across the nation, however, there are more creative jobs. New York specifically is supporting its creative workers less and less. Did you find this at all surprising?

Unfortunately, no. No. You know, I'm pretty new to the city, but I've been hearing about this for years about artists leaving the city. And I actually did an interview just earlier this summer with the Culture Commissioner Deavage, who said, it's on their list. They're very aware. She's like, we need to make this city more affordable, which implies that it's not affordable for artists. So I think, unfortunately, this just kind of confirmed what we believed already. Yeah, it was kind of sad to see.

You know, I have to be honest when they said since 2019, the creative industry has shrunk by, you know, jobs are shrunk by 6%. I kind of went, that's it? I was almost surprised, which is a really sad thing to kind of think. But I have seen friends who work in those industries and other people, you know, who I actually really, you know, respect, go out and get, you know, their full-time things become side hustles. And, you know, when they have to start working full-time or working part-time. in other industries, and sometimes those take over their time in general. To me, the most important thing to have as an artist is the ability to have time. But, you know, I thought about this. Look, I'm, I am a reporter and editor, you know, but I was laid off when I was working at, you know, at a music publication some years ago. And just, you know, because advertising in that world was going down, it felt close to home, I think. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I work here for many reasons. And the lowest one is that I needed a job because I was also laid off. Yeah.

Like it does happen. And, you know, a big part of the reason I live in New York is the music world and I've been immersed in the art world and it is the thing that keeps me going. And to think, oh, gosh, like, that may not be available to a generation below me to my daughter or whoever else because, like, those people have to flee if they want to make work or if they want to stay in the city, they don't get to make it. That's what I start being worried about is a diversity of. voices, which is already starting to disappear. Yeah. But speaking of artists, we got to speak this week, Sony and I, to a sax player named Emmanuel Wilkins.

I love him. He's a great musician, and he's going to be playing several shows at the Village Vanguard. He's going to be playing two shows a night from September 29th through October 4th. Several of those are sold out. I recommend going and checking out to see what tickets are available in picking them up. We had Emmanuel Wilkins in the studio. So stick around now. Our conversation with the manual will be up soon. Stay with us. Welcome back. You are listening to NYC. Now I am, again, not Jene. Pierre. I'm Matthew Snipper, W.NYC, and Gothamist Culture Editor, filling in for Jene, who is out this week. And I am here with culture reporter Sonia Rao. Yes, hello. Hi, Sonia. We are here for our biweekly arts and culture check-in. And I want to check in about something near, dear to me, which is the club St. Vitus. I used to love going to St. Vitus in Greenpoint. It had a real, I don't want to say a cult following, but it was a lot of people love this club. And it closed down a little more than a year ago. They've been promoting shows elsewhere, but it has reopened. And it opened in the old Brooklyn made spot in Bushwick. So honestly, a decent neighborhood shift from Greenpoint to Bushwick. I went this past week to check out the club. What was it like? You know, it's much bigger. It's a great.

I honestly was like, this is great. It was a really nice surprise. But it was funny because there was a kind of slightly grimeier element to the original. And this one felt like this is a professional club. And I was like, oh, wow, there's nowhere to go here. And then I was like, oh, no, there's a huge extra bar with a pool table and an outdoor space. And I was like, this is great. I would come here even if there was not a show.

I was very, you know, I was nervous. I was like, this is a thing that's beloved. can you remake it? Right. It's just 2.0 instead of the original thing. Yeah, exactly. Like a band reunion is a thing that always makes me go like, you know, like, you know, if you missed it, you missed it. It's happened.

You know, things change as we were discussing with Bonnie Slotnik and things do change. But so maybe it's, you know, maybe it is a little St. Vitus 2.0 or maybe it's St. Vitus like 1.5, let's say. But it was a great club. I was really excited to be in a space and see these people like. You know, you get your business shut down. You can take your, you know, put your tail between your legs and go home. But they kind of persevered and reopened.

So I was really happy to be there. Did it have the charm or whatever word you would use to describe the original space? Charm seems a little quaint, but, you know, did it maintain that quality that you love? It was more like, I'm at a good venue with good sound and good lights. You know, I was like, I'm at a real place. I definitely remember going to shows at St. Vitus and just having to stand in the hallway because there was not enough space in the venue itself. But I also remember seeing neurosis play there, for example, and just being like, this is the greatest. You know, seeing some of these huge bands in these small spaces was amazing.

But Emmanuel Wilkins, we had Emmanuel Wilkins in the studio. He moved to New York when he was 18 to go to Juilliard. He has spent the last decade building his career in New York. He is performing at the Village Vanguard. And he recently released a triple album of his music that was recorded there. It feels excellent. And it feels new, you know, which in a genre, you know, this week was just. John Coltrane's 100th birthday.

I mean, a legend. We are still iterating on stuff that that man did. Emmanuel, I think, is a sax player who is not doing something that is so out, but still finds a way to feel fresh without just screeching his way across the stage. So he came in to talk about his album, what he plans to do with the second decade of his career. He did say to us he thinks jazz changes once every decade. In terms of, like, the jazz scene, like things have changed a lot, like post-COVID, I think, like anything. But the jazz scene specifically just because of how, like, social it's supposed to be.

You know, like, jazz music is, like, such a social music, and it's an activity that you have to do with others, you know? And I think there used to be a lot more spontaneity in the scene. You know, there used to be club hopping. Like, people would go to Smalls Jazz Club and then hit Mesrow, then go to the Vanguard, then go to Blue Note. You know, now it's like people go to their show and then they go home, you know? And so there's like that kind of sociality around the music has kind of gotten lost in a few ways. And I think it's slowly coming back. And as much as New York has changed, Wilkins said he changed too.

He talked about moving to Brooklyn to us and embracing what he calls a softer life. You know what I mean? I'm cooking. I'm going on walks. I'm chilling at the park. I love a soft life, you know? And I think it's interesting how maybe I can render this growing older in the realm of the sonic, where it's like, oh, man, like, I actually value a more refined version of myself

now in the way I play. Even the way I'm, like, composing music. Like, I'm distilling what I have always felt compositionally, like, down to much more simpler terms. Like, I'm able to say things and say a lot more with a lot less information and a lot less complexity. I like that idea that the way you live can actually change the way that you sound. Absolutely. And he said something else about his music in the past that I wanted to ask him about. Specifically, he said he describes himself as a vessel when he performs. And my question was, a vessel for what? I think I've always found purpose in being a vessel for God. I felt like my spiritual practice has really helped me find some sort of direction in terms of like why I'm practicing, why I'm playing. And also like how I can

have a spiritual practice through the music, I think of like the music as as its altar in a sort of sense. And so that's like what I've always been kind of chasing after in terms of like thinking about my musical practice as being a vessel. That same idea of getting outside of yourself also came up when we started talking about the Village Vanguard. Wilkins recorded three albums of worth of material there. And he's going back for another run from September 29th through October 4th. We'll have two sets a night. But this time he says having recorded those records, it makes him feel a lot freer. Now that I have that documented, I feel like, whoof, make it.

A weight's lifted. Like, it's such a holy grail to, like, make a record at the Village Vanguard. Like, that's like a thing that every jazz musician wants to do. And so now that I captured, I caught some of the light and bottled it up a little bit, you know, I'm feeling so excited to, like, jump off the deep end. And now, like, try some new stuff, fall flat on our faces. You know what I mean? Like, I'm actually excited for, like, the peaks and valleys that actually can

not exist when the red lights on. There's something great about making three records in a room and then basically saying, okay, now we can go back and mess everything up. And that willingness to mess around with the form, it kind of gets to something else we talked about with him. He's 29. He's working in a genre that a lot of people think of as older music or music for older people. I think those are not interchangeable.

They're actually two different things. But overall, he really pushed back on the idea that younger audiences aren't into jazz. I think most people love the music. I think they just wanted to be cool, you know? And I'm in a real class of incredible musicians, my age, who are, like, making some beautiful music, who are super swaggy, super fly, and also, like, deeply rigorous.

And those things can live together. It's like you're not selling out just by, you know, wearing cool clothes or doing a brand collab. I'm his age, you know. I'm not that good at the saxophone. I'm not good at all at this. Isn't they not that good? Not that good.

I have never played a brass instrument in my own life. But I do think, you know, it's incredible to just see someone out there doing this and breaking the rules, kind of following them at first and then breaking them, just doing all of this stuff because he wants to. Before we chat with him, Mike, he was telling us, he's like, hey, you know, I really want to have a band of amateur musicians. And I thought that was such a nice idea. He just wants to be around enthusiastic people. And, you know, look, he's on Blue Note Records. This is as down the middle official jazz as it gets. But to hear him be like, yeah, what if it was just me and a bunch of people

smacking buckets and doing our thing or just pretending to play guitar, you know, based on our hearts? I love that idea. It's so reassuring to me. You've seen a lot of artists who find success very early in life. And, you know, he released an album in what, 2020, New York Times says it's the best jazz record of the year? Omega, yeah. Yeah, I'm like, Omega is the name of it. You know, what do you do after that?

What do you do after that, right? What do you do after that? And he's just like, you do whatever you want, which I love. And we brought, you know, we knew we were going to be guest host. We ran into Emmanuel Wilkins, basically. We were co-working outside of a coffee shop and he was sitting on the stoop, basically talking with his friend. And we just kind of reduce ourselves. It was great.

I also did not even realize who he was. At first, like, Matt had to tell me later. And he was like, oh, you know who that was? I was nervous. No, it was incredible, but I was like, this is just some, like, nice guy. Nice charming. Like, he just seemed really charming. And I was like, wow, this is, it just, I just love, I'm new to the city.

And I think it's just amazing to me that I can walk past someone outside, like, the random coffee shop. And they're a Grammy-level saxophonist. And they have this huge following. And they're playing at the Village Vanguard, not for the first time, but the second time. Like, I was just like, this is, wow. Yeah. I just thought he was some guy and look at this. Yeah, but that's what you would say.

He is some guy. guy, you know, that's what's actually really cool about him. It's nice to have some guy in the mix, you know? We're just some guys. Yeah. Yeah. I love being some guy. I love being some guy.

Me too. All right, we're a couple of guys filling in for Jene Pierre. I'm Sonia Rao. No, I'm Matthew Schnipper. I'm here with culture reporter Sonia Rao. Thanks for joining us, Sonia. Thank you. I hope you had a good first time on NYC now.

Oh, it was great. No, second time. This is my second time. I talked about Jorts once. Long Jorts. Long Jorts. Long Jorts. Billy Jorts. You know what? I bet Emmanuel

would like some, would wear some jorts. That's actually a hot topic, I wonder. What's interesting? Can you wear long jorts to the village vanguard? Find out in two weeks when we join you and report back from those shows. We will be there. Buy us a drink. Again, September 29th through October 4th. To hear that entire interview with Emmanuel Wilkins, head to our news site, Gothamist.com.

Thanks for joining us. This is NYC now.