After 56 Years, Greenwich Village Finally Gives Jimi Hendrix His Way

Greenwich Village has officially given Jimi Hendrix his own corner of the map. On Wednesday, June 10, New York City unveiled a co-named stretch of West 8th Street as "Jimi Hendrix Way," hanging a fresh street sign at West 8th Street and Sixth Avenue, just a block from Electric Lady Studios. The brief but loaded ceremony pulled together musicians, educators and Hendrix family members, capping a decades-long push to honor the guitarist in the neighborhood he helped define. It also doubled as the public kickoff for a national education partnership that aims to bring Hendrix’s story into classrooms across the country.

Ceremony and the classroom push

Councilmember Harvey Epstein led the proceedings, which had been postponed from February after severe winter weather. Experience Hendrix, L.L.C. and Stevie Van Zandt’s TeachRock seized the rescheduled date to unveil a new multimedia lesson for middle and high school students. According to Jimi Hendrix, the TeachRock module, titled "Jimi Hendrix: Rock’s Trailblazing Innovator and Influential Guitarist," was co-developed with educators and is available now at TeachRock.

A decades-long push

The new street sign is the payoff for a campaign that organizers and family members say goes back to the weeks immediately after Hendrix’s death. Pitchfork has described it as a "56-year petition." The co-name itself was bundled into a larger package of 109 street and intersection co-names that the City Council approved in January 2025, according to the council’s legislative record. Those official moves cleared the way for this week’s public unveiling in the Village.

Who showed up

The gathering was small, but the guest list carried serious music-history weight. Janie Hendrix attended alongside longtime collaborators and New York music figures, including engineer-producer Eddie Kramer and musician Steven Van Zandt. Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid, songwriter Valerie Simpson and Felicia Collins were also on the program. Janie Hendrix said the partnership and the street co-name help carry her brother’s legacy into classrooms and communities, according to the official release.

Electric Lady’s footprint

Electric Lady Studios, conceived by Hendrix in 1968 and opened in 1970 at 52 West 8th Street, still operates as a working studio and a fixture of the Village music scene. Local preservation groups and neighborhood histories have long pointed out that the studio’s continued presence made this block the obvious choice for "Jimi Hendrix Way," as well as a fitting backdrop for a public celebration of his creative legacy.

What the co-name adds

The new sign joins a list of formal tributes to Hendrix, including a 2014 U.S. Postal Service Jimi Hendrix Forever stamp, while tying that recognition directly to an education effort. The USPS notes that the stamp debuted in March 2014, and organizers say the TeachRock lesson is meant to help the co-name function both as a neighborhood landmark and as a teaching tool for schools that adopt the curriculum.