Stern Publishing purchases City Pages (Minneapolis/St. Paul) and the Twin Cities Reader (which it shutters immediately).
Stern Publishing purchases Seattle Weekly. Later that same week, Stern Publishing launches the Long Island Voice with Andrea Stern as publisher and John Mancini as editor.
Leslie Savan is a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.
Bob Dylan’s Time Out of Mind was named best album and Hanson’s “MMMBop” was named best single in the Pazz & Jop Music Critic’s poll.
Brooklyn-born rapper The Notorious B.I.G. (Christopher Wallace) is shot and killed in Los Angeles, where he was attending a VIBE Magazine party. His second album, Life After Death, is released two weeks later and debuts at number one on the charts. It is still the best-selling hip-hop record of all time.
Eve Ensler wins the Obie Award for best playwriting for The Vagina Monologues.
The Voice publishes a letter from Bill Cosby praising Tom Carson’s satirical feature on The Cosby Show.
Haitian immigrant Abner Louima is physically and sexually abused by police after being arrested during a brawl at a Brooklyn nightclub. Louima is beaten in the squad car and later sodomized in the bathroom of Brooklyn’s 70th Precinct. Officer Justin Volpe later pleads guilty to assault and is sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Chasing Amy hits theaters, bringing attention to aspects of Manhattan lesbian life.
Public Advocate Mark J. Green is reelected for a second term.
AIDS is determined to be New York City’s leading cause of death for women ages 25 to 44.
A large memorial created by sculptor Robert Graham is dedicated to Duke Ellington in Central Park. (It rests near Duke Ellington Circle, the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 110th Street).