I Love New York

I Love New York appears in the diary in two sharply different public settings: as the name of a Valentine’s Day party in 1978 and on a button handed to Andy Warhol during an autograph signing in 1980. Together, the entries show the phrase as both a banner for a civic celebration and a portable object caught up in an uneasy personal encounter.

A party on Valentine’s Day

On February 14, 1978, Warhol described Valentine’s Day as a major celebration and went with Paulette to the I Love New York party at Tavern on the Green. Bella Abzug arrived while an election was taking place to fill the congressional seat vacated by Mayor Koch; she was running against Bill Green. The diary places the phrase within a crowded public occasion where a holiday gathering and an election shared the same day.

The button and the street encounter

On August 14, 1980, after leaving Miz Lillian Carter, Warhol walked down the avenue and signed autographs. A girl approached and gave him an I Love New York button, then asked him for money. He was initially about to give her something, but her aggressive manner changed his response: he handed the button back. She grabbed his finger, slammed it in her book, and squeezed it; Warhol considered striking her with his tape recorder. The phrase thus reappeared not as a party name but as an object passed from hand to hand during an encounter that turned hostile.