From 1989 to 2001, 161 Hudson Street in New York City was a rare hub for amazing live music performances and social and environmental activism. It began at the end of the ’80s when founder Larry Bloch, not savvy to the nightclub/music venue business, decided that he wanted to find a way to make activism fun.

Fueled by intention and purpose, he established the Wetlands Preserve as a sort of hippy refuge from the too-cool-for-school New York nightlife. And people loved it.

“Wetlands was a new frontier ... a full time environmental and social justice organization,” Block tells us in this artfully done documentary about the fondly remembered club.

A typical day at the activism center/music venue might include sponsoring a protest against fur coats at Macy’s in the day, then setting up the club at night for a packed-house performance by an up-and-coming band like Blues Traveler, Dave Matthews Band, 311 or Phish.

“It really represented one struggle for a world where corporate greed wasn’t running our social and political agenda,” Adam Weissman, an activist for the center, explains, “Where things were valued beyond their economic bottom line. And where basic justice, dignity and environmental sanity were the values that governed humanity.”

Challenged by the iron fist reforms of Mayor Giuliani, disgruntled and unappreciative neighbors and large Tribeca rats, the Wetlands Preserve survived in its mission of providing an engaging den of comfort and center of activism for like-minded progressively motivated people for over a decade. Forced to close its doors in 2001 by the rising property values of the gentrified neighborhood, the space that used to house the club is now a Scandinavian furniture store.

Grade: B+

Wetlands Preserved is currently available. For more information on the Wetlands Activism Collective, visit www.wetlands-preserve.org.