East Village singer/songwriter Jesse Malin is an incredible inspiration, but not in any way that he had planned.

A few years ago, he would walk the streets of Alphabet City (usually with a phone to his ear), heading to rehearsal for an upcoming tour, checking in on the bars he co-owned, and thinking about the next songs that would roll off his guitar. But fate, or something like it, struck him hard.

Malin was the victim of a rare spinal stroke, which left him paralyzed from the waist down. This is the guy who “ran five miles a few times a week, ate plant-based organic, drank a little, and never smoked cigarettes or did drugs." Faced with a new reality, he did what not everyone in that position would do: he stood up, first metaphorically and then for real.

“It was like, all right, you su

See Full Page