Jim Carroll: Important Places

This section offers interactive maps that allow you to see map locations of key Jim Carroll-related sites in New York City, as well as photographs of the sites, explanatory text, and related links. There are also links to websites of other important Jim Carroll locations.

Jim Carroll's New York City: HTML (Created October 1996; updated September 2009)
The interactive HTML version is clunky but it's a little more up-to-date than the Flash version at the moment. You must have JavaScript enabled for it to work.

Jim Carroll's New York City: FLASH (January 2002)
The Flash version is animated and fully interactive, and jam-packed with details! It's a big file, so be prepared to let it download for a while.

Jim Carroll's Bolinas: FLASH (March 2002)
This "first draft" Flash movie offers an exclusive virtual tour of Bolinas, California, where Jim Carroll lived during the 1970s.

Links to Other Important Places

The Poetry Project at St. Mark's-in-the-Bowery
www.poetryproject.com
Founded in 1966, the Poetry Project is where Jim Carroll really got his start as a writer and spoken-word performer. He began attending writing workshops but barely said a word until he had published his first book, Organic Trains; with this, he introduced himself to the great artists who would become his mentors -- the most important one being Ted Berrigan. Carroll then served as Poetry Project director Anne Waldman's assistant. Carroll continues to read regularly at Poetry Project events.

The Folklore Center
110 MacDougal Street, NYC
Jim Carroll gave his very first poetry reading here. It's now a falafel joint. Here's a page about it at Walkin' New York.

Max's Kansas City
www.maxskansascity.com
Max's was the place to be in the late 1960s through the 1970s, and it features prominently in Carroll's Forced Entries. Picture Andy Warhol and his entourage hanging out in the legendary backroom while the Velvet Underground plays upstairs . . . in fact, on the Velvet Underground's Live at Max's Kansas City album, you can hear Jim Carroll talking between songs (he was holding the microphone). If you're interested in Max's, also check out the Max's Kansas City Project, a nonprofit organization supporting the arts, at www.maxskansascity.org.

Inwood, NY
Located at the upper tip of Manhattan, Inwood is the neighborhood in which Jim Carroll spent the majority of his youth, and it features prominently in The Basketball Diaries. Here are some miscellaneous links to pages and sites about Inwood:
Forgotton New York: Inwood
Village Voice: Closeup on Inwood
Robert Burns's Inwood Pages

Schools
Here are links to the websites of schools Carroll attended.
Good Shepherd School -- sorry, not an interesting link.
Trinity School
Wagner College
Columbia University

California Theatre
www.sandiegohistory.org/collections/theaters/california.htm
Carroll gave his first rock 'n' roll performance, with Patti Smith, at the California Theatre in San Diego, 1978.

Mabuhay Gardens
The Jim Carroll Band played here frequently in its early days. Here's a link.