Jeremiah Moss, pseudonym of Griffin Hansbury, (born 1971) is an American poet, writer, psychoanalyst, social worker, and social critic. He is the author of the blog Jeremiah's Vanishing New York. Hansbury revealed his identity as Moss in 2017.

Early life and education

Moss grew up in Massachusetts. He moved to New York City's East Village when he was 22, inspired by New York writers like

Frank O'Hara Francis Russell "Frank" O'Hara (March 27, 1926 – July 25, 1966) was an American writer, poet, and art critic. A curator at the Museum of Modern Art, O'Hara became prominent in New York City's art world. O'Hara is regarded as a leading figure i ...

and

J.D. Salinger Jerome David Salinger (; January 1, 1919 January 27, 2010) was an American author best known for his 1951 novel ''The Catcher in the Rye''. Salinger got his start in 1940, before serving in World War II, by publishing several short stories in ''S ...

. Hansbury earned a Master's degree from the Creative Writing Program of

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

Jeremiah's Vanishing New York

Moss created ''Jeremiah's Vanishing New York'' in July 2007. The first post mourned the loss of the iconic speakeasy

Chumley's Chumley's was a historic pub and former speakeasy at 86 Bedford Street, between Grove and Barrow Streets, in the West Village neighborhood of Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City. It was established in 1922 by the socialist activist Lela ...

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

. The blog chonicles the rapidly changing New York City streetscape through posts about closed and potentially closing old time businesses. The blog had 2,700 posts as of April 2015. The name Jeremiah Moss comes from the name of the main character of a never published novel Hansbury wrote about a dyspeptic East Village resident. He chose Jeremiah as a nod to the prophet

Jeremiah Jeremiah, Modern: , Tiberian: ; el, Ἰερεμίας, Ieremíās; meaning " Yah shall raise" (c. 650 – c. 570 BC), also called Jeremias or the "weeping prophet", was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish ...

, who he said “was the prophet of doom who nobody listened to until it was too late.” He decided to not use his real name because he thought it would disrupt his day job. In 2014, he began a movement to save the Café Edison, a long-running restaurant on West 47th Street popular with people who worked on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

. He promoted the hashtag #SaveCafeEdison and organized "lunch mobs" (

flash mob A flash mob (or flashmob) is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform for a brief time, then quickly disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment, satire, and artistic expression. Flash mobs may be organized via t ...

s which would order food from the restaurant in order to support it financially). The effort did not succeed, but it lead Moss to begin to actively campaign against the forces that were driving the changes he despised, instead of simply writing about them. Moss advocates for the Small Business Jobs Survival Act, a New York City Council bill first introduced in 1986 that would mandate arbitration in the renewal of some commercial leases. He believes the bill would prevent the loss of many small businesses.

Publications

As Hansbury, he published ''Day for Night'', a collection of poems in 2000, and ''The Nostalgist'' in 2013, a fictional look at post 9/11 life in the city. In 2017, Moss published the book ''Vanishing New York: How a Great City Lost Its Soul''. The book details Moss' view that contemporary New York is being destroyed by what he calls “hyper-gentrification”. In October 2022, Moss published a book about life in New York City during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

titled ''Feral City''. The book criticizes the gentrification of New York.

Awards and honors

As Hansbury, Moss has been awarded fellowships from the

New York Foundation for the Arts The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is an independent 501(c)(3) charity, funded through government, foundation, corporate, and individual support, established in 1971. It is part of a network of national not-for-profit arts organizations ...

in 1999 and 2005.

Personal life

Hansbury is a transgender man, transitioning in 1995. Moss has lived in a rent-controlled East Village apartment since the late 1990s.

Books

*''Vanishing New York: How a Great City Lost Its Soul'' (Dey Street Books, 2017) *''Feral City'' (WW Norton, 2022)

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moss, Jeremiah 1971 births Living people Writers from Manhattan Writers from Massachusetts LGBT people from New York (state) American social workers American psychoanalysts American male poets New York University alumni Transgender male writers Transgender poets American transgender writers American LGBT poets