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Jeff Weinstein at the Village Voice Reunion on September 9, 2017

Jeff Weinstein (born September 8, 1947)[1] is an American critic, editor, fiction writer and union activist, best known as a former restaurant critic for the Village Voice, where he was also on staff from 1981 to 1995.[1][2] In 1982, he helped negotiate a Voice union contract that extended health insurance and other benefits, which the newspaper already provided to married couples and, as a matter of practice, to unmarried heterosexual couples, to same-sex couples.[3][4] The agreement was the second union contract in the United States, the first by a private company, and the first to be widely reported on, to offer same-sex couples these protections.[5][6]

Early life and education

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Weinstein was born and raised in New York City.[7] A type 1 diabetic since age 8,[8][7] he studied biology at Brandeis University, and did graduate work at the University of California, Riverside and the University of California, San Diego.[1][6] At UCSD, Weinstein was a member of the Radical Coalition, where he participated in the United Farm Workers lettuce boycott against Safeway.[6] He was also the first out gay student on campus.[9]

Career

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Weinstein was hired to write restaurant reviews for the San Diego Reader when he was 25 years old, in 1972.[6] He quit in early 1973, because of articles the Reader published that he considered to be “sexist and racist crap.”[6] While primarily a nonfiction writer, Weinstein also wrote fiction in the mid-1970s and early 1980s, including the short story “A Jean-Marie Cookbook,” which won a 1979-80 Pushcart Prize,[6][10] and the novella Life in San Diego, which was published by Sun & Moon Press in 1983,[11] with illustrations by the artist Ira Joel Haber.[11]

After he moved back to New York, Weinstein worked as a restaurant critic for the SoHo Weekly News and later joined the Village Voice as both a restaurant critic and as Senior Editor, overseeing pieces about visual art and architecture.[12][13] As a food critic, Weinstein is known for his uncommon prose style and perspective,[14] his interest in covering a variety of restaurants in their own particular cultural and socioeconomic contexts,[6][7] and his “roving intellectual appetite.”[14] In 1983, Weinstein helped found the National Writers Union, for which he served as East Coast representative to the Union's executive board.[1][15]

Weinstein collected his Village Voice restaurant column, “Eating Around,” into a book, Learning to Eat,[16] which Sun & Moon Press published in 1988.[16] During his tenure at the Voice, Weinstein also wrote a column about consumerism, entitled “Consumerismo.”[6][17]

From 1997 to 2006,[18] he was columnist and fine arts editor for the Philadelphia Inquirer.[19][20] He subsequently served as arts and culture editor for Bloomberg News,[18] and currently writes the LGBTQIA-related blog “Out There” on ArtsJournal.com.[1][21]

Personal life

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Weinstein was partnered with the writer, critic and artist John Perreault from 1976[22][3] until Perreault's death in 2015.[23] The couple married in Provincetown, Massachusetts in 2008.[3] Since 2017,[24] Weinstein has been partnered with the writer and critic Daniel Felsenthal,[25] with whom he lives in New York City[25] and in Bellport, Long Island.[26]

Bibliography

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  • Life in San Diego (Sun & Moon Press, 1983)
  • Learning to Eat (Sun & Moon Press 1988)

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e "Jeffrey Weinstein".
  2. ^ Cooper, Michael (1996-06-30). "MAKING IT WORK;Negotiate or Bust". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-10-02.
  3. ^ a b c Sipher, Devan (20 December 2008). "Jeff Weinstein and John Perreault". The New York Times.
  4. ^ Deutsch, Claudia H. (1991-07-28). "Managing; Insurance for Domestic Partners". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-10-02.
  5. ^ Noto, Anthony (October 13, 2015). "The Village Voice gets sold: A look at its storied past and the tumultuous present". New York Business Journal. Retrieved 2022-10-02.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h "Jeff Weinstein, San Diego Reader and now Village Voice restaurant critic | San Diego Reader".
  7. ^ a b c "Food Critic Jeff Weinstein". 15 May 1991.
  8. ^ "The not-so-sweet life". 24 August 1999.
  9. ^ Perrine, Bill (2023). Alien Territory: Radical, Experimental, & Irrelevant Music in 1970s San Diego. San Diego: Termite House. p. 86. ISBN 979-8-218-13815-8.
  10. ^ Henderson, Bill (1979). The Pushcart Prize, IV: Best of the Small Presses (1979-80 ed.). Yonkers, NY: Pushcart Press. pp. 185–202. ISBN 0-916366-06-5.
  11. ^ a b Weinstein, Jeff (1988). Life in San Diego. Sun & Moon Press. ISBN 9780940650169.
  12. ^ Richman, Phyllis C. (April 12, 1981). ""The Tables Have Turned"". The Washington Post.
  13. ^ Men confront pornography. Michael S. Kimmel. New York, NY: Meridian. 1991. ISBN 0-452-01077-2. OCLC 23940119.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  14. ^ a b "Learning to Eat by Jeff Weinstein".
  15. ^ "US gets its first union for writers". Christian Science Monitor. 16 May 1983.
  16. ^ a b Weinstein, Jeff (1988). Learning to eat. Los Angeles, Calif.: Sun & Moon Press. ISBN 1-55713-015-9. OCLC 19272379.
  17. ^ Weinstein, Jeff (August 30, 1988). ""Amigo"". The Village Voice. p. 35.
  18. ^ a b "Comings and goings". Artblog. 2006-02-01. Retrieved 2022-09-30.
  19. ^ Hill, Ben (2011-05-27). "Hollywood Fringe - engine28 pop-up newsroom". www.hollywoodfringe.org. Retrieved 2022-09-30.
  20. ^ "Jeff Weinstein's Articles at Salon.com". www.salon.com. Retrieved 2022-09-30.
  21. ^ "Garage Sale Standard" (PDF). Moma.org. 2012. Retrieved September 30, 2022.
  22. ^ Voice, Village (2015-09-09). "John Perreault, Artist, Critic, and Author, 1937–2015". The Village Voice. Retrieved 2022-09-30.
  23. ^ Grimes, William (9 September 2015). "John Perreault, Art Critic (And Artist) Who Championed the New, Dies at 78". The New York Times.
  24. ^ Felsenthal, Daniel (March 23, 2020). "The Quarantine Journal: The Dinner Party". The Point. Retrieved October 2, 2022.
  25. ^ a b "Alumnus Daniel Felsenthal '15 Awarded 2020-21 Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture Fellowship Grant | School of the Arts".
  26. ^ "A Review of Pricks in the Tapestry: By Jameson Fitzpatrick".
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