In New York a street dedicated to Jimi Hendrix

West 8th Street, in the heart of Greenwich Village officially becomes (also) “Jimi Hendrix Way”. New York City dedicated a street to the guitarist who passed away in 1970 with a ceremony held on June 10 at the intersection of Sixth Avenue and West 8th Street, a few steps from the historic Electric Lady Studios. The initiative had been postponed from last February due to heavy snowfall and comes after a previous celebration organized in 2024, when a street in Greenwich Village was temporarily renamed in honor of the musician.

The dedication campaign was supported by city councilor Harvey Epstein and Experience Hendrix, the company that manages the guitarist’s artistic legacy. Janie Hendrix, Jimi’s sister, also spoke during the ceremony, recalling how the request had been made shortly after the musician’s death.
“We had a petition at Electric Lady Studios to sign that said, ‘Name this street after Jimi,’ but it didn’t seem to go anywhere,” he said. “We even tried to get Jimi’s face on a stamp, and it finally happened, twelve years ago. Everything in its time.”

Harvey Epstein underlined the connection between Hendrix and the neighborhood: “We are proud to honor the legacy of Jimi Hendrix today. Our district has always been a center of culture, art and activism, and Jimi Hendrix embodied all these ideals. He was not only a revolutionary musician, but also an important voice for peace, racial equality and social justice. He revolutionized music in this neighborhood and it is fitting that these streets now bear his name.”

The ceremony was attended by numerous guests from the music world, including Vernon Reid of Living Colour, singer-songwriter Valerie Simpson, Felicia Collins and producer Eddie Kramer, who collaborated on the creation of Electric Lady Studios. Also present was Steven Van Zandt, who took the opportunity to launch a new collaboration between his educational organization TeachRock and Experience Hendrix: the project will make available to schools and teachers free online teaching materials that use Hendrix’s music to tackle subjects such as history and English language: “Jimi Hendrix didn’t just play the guitar, he reinvented what art could be. With TeachRock we want students to experience the same sense of possibility and discovery that many of us felt the first time who listened to Jimi. His story, his lyrics and his sound remind young people that creativity has no limits.”