Robert Patrick, legendary playwright and author of Temple Slave, is honoring the life of Joe Cino owner of Caffe Cino, with a plaque to be mounted on the site of the Caffe, now the home of Po Restaurant at 31 Cornelia Street in New York. Fifty years ago Joe Cino rented a storefront in New York City’s Greenwich Village in order to open a coffee house, which eventually morphed into what is now regarded as the birthplace of the Off Off Broadway movement and the American Gay Theatre Movement.

From Wikipedia: “Although the Cino had already hosted in 1961 Doric Wilson’s militant gay-rights play, Now She Dances!, and in 1962 Andy Milligan’s adaptation of One Arm, a gay short story by Tennessee Williams, The Madness of Lady Bright, because of its greater visibility, was a breakthrough in gay playwriting, the first conspicuous American drama placing a gay character front and center rather than hiding him in the guise of a female character, as Tennessee Williams had often, perhaps unfairly, been accused of doing. An explosion of gay-themed plays began to appear at Caffe Cino and other venues, much to the consternation of some of New York’s more conservative theatre critics.”

Patricks’ solid bronze plaque stands at 31 Cornelia Street as a gay landmark and a salute to Joe Cino’s courage and innovation as well as his contribution to New York Theater. Be sure to take a look at the 54 pages worth of Caffe Cino photographs from Robert Patrick’s personal collection.