Anthony Zito has long been involved in the arts for the Lower East Side of Manhattan and his innovative idea on reusing the famous blue-and-white cardboard coffee types typifying New York is garnering new attention in the scene. 

He puts portraits of area luminaries on the cups, beginning four years ago as part of the annual Acker Awards, the ceremony and seven-year-old show founded by Clayton Patterson that honors the avant-garde of the East Village and Lower East Side. 

The cups were a posthumous honor to those lost during the year prior, said Bowery Boogie in a feature in the work. 

“I wanted something that just screamed ‘New &#%Q?!" York!’ he told the site. “It had to be small, it had to be found, preferably dirty, and it had to be readily available. I was standing on a corner thinking about all this when I spotted a Greek diner coffee cup squashed on the street, I knew instantly that this would be the perfect disposable icon to represent New Yorkers.” 

For the seventh event with the COVID-19 pandemic raging, he said he will now avoid the cup.