Children watch as friends play volleyball at the Hudson River Greenway on a summer Sunday evening. SARAH BLESENER FOR THE VILLAGE VOICE
Kids play along the riverfront at the Hudson River Greenway on a Sunday evening. SARAH BLESENER FOR THE VILLAGE VOICE
Neighborhood friends celebrate the birthday of Miss Shay (front), who is turning fifteen years old.SARAH BLESENER FOR THE VILLAGE VOICE
Neighborhood residents practice volleyball and softball in the Hudson River Greenway. SARAH BLESENER FOR THE VILLAGE VOICE
Friends play poker at the Hudson River Greenway on a summer Sunday evening.SARAH BLESENER FOR THE VILLAGE VOICE
Friends sit by the riverfront at the Hudson River Greenway. SARAH BLESENER FOR THE VILLAGE VOICE
Anthony Martinez (far left) celebrates his eighteenth birthday with close friends at the Hudson River Greenway riverfront.SARAH BLESENER FOR THE VILLAGE VOICE
Friends play a game of Ecuavolley, a variant of volleyball invented and played in Ecuador, in the Hudson River Greenway on a summer Sunday evening. SARAH BLESENER FOR THE VILLAGE VOICE
Top: Hendrick, Carlos, Ramon, and Danny (clockwise from top right) play dominoes on their block, West 163rd Street and Fort Washington Avenue. Bottom, left: Kids play along the riverfront at the Hudson River Greenway. Bottom, right and below: Taimir, a teaching assistant, watches her friends play dominoes and enjoys the last days of summer before she heads back to school. SARAH BLESENER FOR THE VILLAGE VOICE
Anthony and Orlando, longtime residents of Washington Heights, sit on Amsterdam Avenue. SARAH BLESENER FOR THE VILLAGE VOICE
Amsterdam Avenue on a summer evening. The street is filled with cars and set designs, as HBO’s “The Deuce” films in the community.SARAH BLESENER FOR THE VILLAGE VOICE
Amsterdam Avenue on a summer eveningSARAH BLESENER FOR THE VILLAGE VOICE
Neighborhood friends sit on the stairs in front of their apartment building on a late-summer evening. The children live on West 164th Street, where they have grown up together. They are not related but feel as if they’re family.SARAH BLESENER FOR THE VILLAGE VOICE
Youth from the neighborhood gather on Broadway to watch as a line of police cars and ambulances assist an injured motorcyclist.SARAH BLESENER FOR THE VILLAGE VOICE
Amsterdam Avenue, the perfect film location for “The Deuce” SARAH BLESENER FOR THE VILLAGE VOICE
The allure is probably a freedom that was afforded kids and adolescents that I don’t think is afforded them now. If you imagine this story in the current day, Alana would be running down the street with a phone shoved in her back pocket.
