Yvonne Sewall has reached a crossroads.

The foundation that continues the legacy of the famed Max’s Kansas City nightclub and restaurant is based in a Kingston home owned by Sewall, ex-wife of Mickey Ruskin, who breathed life into the New York City hangout of the 1960s and ’70s for musicians, poets, artists and politicians.

Since becoming a non-profit organization 20 years ago, the foundation continues the good deeds of Ruskin, aiding struggling artists with one-time grants of $500 or $1,000 and also helping with substance abuse and suicide prevention with its FEARLESS YOUth Program.

The pandemic of the past 18 months forced Sewall to re-evaluate things.

“We still gave grants here and there. During COVID, I had to reduce it to $500. More people are applying,” she said. “Basically, I just put us on hold so that we can take time.

“I have so much on my plate and that’s why I have to reconstruct the non-profit,” she said. “We kind of fell apart during COVID, because we lost our Director of Financial Development (Andrew Kowalczyk) to COVID and that was very devastating, because he was such an amazing person and a good guy.

“I felt it very deeply. It was just the unraveling of everything,” Sewall admitted. “I had to shut it down. I put us up on a shelf for a bit. I still kept it going but, basically, I had to focus more on myself and my friends for a time and how we were going to get through this.”

Max’s, which was on Park Avenue South in New York City, closed in 1981. Pre-Studio 54, it was the place to be in the city. It was an interracial, inter-generational refuge that embraced all walks of life. When Lou Reed sang about taking “a walk on the wild side,” he referred to the transgender individuals who frequented the club.

Among the regulars were Alice Cooper, Tennessee Williams, David Bowie, John Waters, Salvador Dali, and Twiggy. Sewall started as a waitress there, as did Debbie Harry and Emmylou Harris.

“It was a one-stop shop for everything you needed,” Sewall recalled. “It was the ultimate salon, but they didn’t have ATM machines back then. Mickey cashed checks for you. People would read messages on the side of the cashier’s desk. Someone would get off a plane and before they got to the ho

tel, they’d come to Max’s to get their messages, to see what time they were to meet so-and-so.

“It was very loose in a lot of ways. It was your home away from home. I’d always say, ‘Once you walked through those doors, if you belonged there, your life changed forever.

“It really was sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll,” she added. “The downside is you had to be able to handle that kind of freedom. A lot of people went over the edge a

nd that’s the dark side of having that kind of freedom.”

“Very sadly Mickey, who was truly one of most giving, generous men I have ever met in my lifetime, died (overdose). It’s hard to top him in a certain sense,” she said. “Even though we weren’t together when he passed, we had children, we were both philanthropists, we had a lot in common. We were very bonded. To this day, this is why I advocate for this, because I think it’s important for people to know.”

The Max’s Project became a non-profit in 2001, providing emergency relief for individuals in the arts in need of housing, medical and legal aid.

Through FEARLESSYOUth came the creation of dropin2maxs.com, an upcoming online interactive cyber cafe for teens. The goal is to have a surprise mentor blog each month followed by open chats two nights a week, a teen video of the month plus a gallery for participants to display their work.

“We are going to get celebrities in the arts who are recovering to be mentors for the young people,” Sewall said. “We’re going to have pools and you guess who it is. We envision doing a live stream where they will talk about struggles with substance abuse, maybe their thoughts of suicide, how they turned their life around, what they do to stay straight.”

“It’s ambitious. We want to get people who are passionate about it, about being mentors in some sense, giving back in some way to our youth,” she said. “We’re here to create a community, to create a safe place for you to come, write your poetry, put a piece of art up in the gallery. It’s going to be by teens for teens”

At this point, Sewall wants to become less boardroom director, more goodwill ambassador.

“I want to now bring on board a new executive. I want to be an ambassador and mentor. I want to give tent-type talks,” she remarked. ‘I am a cheerleader. That’s who I am. I am a cheerleader.”

During the pandemic, Sewall has also completed a decade-long labor of love, compiling an unedited rough cut of footage for a documentary on the history of Max’s. She had written an oral history of Max’s in 1998, titled “High on Rebellion.” The book itself became a collector’s item and is now available as an E-book.

“I’ve been so busy working on the film,” she said. “I had a tremendous amount of content, because every event I’ve ever done I had filmed it. We had done a lot.”

Sewall realizes this is the perfect moment to get this off the ground, either as a documentary or docu-series. A documentary on the band, the Velvet Underground, premieres in two weeks on Apple+. Martin Scorsese is working on a documentary on glam-rock pioneer David Johansen and the New York Dolls. Sewall said somebody is also working on a limited series on New York nightlife in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s.

“There’s really a lot of interest right now,” she said. “I am in touch with two directors. There have to be fresh interviews. It has to be made current for younger audiences. They have to take what’s there. I have a lot into this, a lot invested in this, money-wise and otherwise.”

Sewall, who has lived in the Hudson Valley for decades, lost a dispute over the Max’s trademark, but regained it and devotes her time to promoting Ruskin’s philosophy.

“I thought I have to do something good with this name that has been given to me for a reason,” she said. “I need to become the steward of that legacy and make sure that it carries on all the great things that Max’s did for everybody.”

For more information, visit Maxskansascity.org.

Yvonne Sewall holds one of her favorite photos, an autographed photo of Steve Van Zandt and Lou Reed. Included in the photo are Sewall at left, and Mike Quashie at rear right. (Tania Barricklo/Daily Freeman) 
This photo taken at Max’s Kansas City is hung in Yvonne Sewall’s home in Kingston, N.Y. (Tania Barricklo/Daily Freeman) 
Yvonne Sewall, the founder of Max’s Kansas City Project, sits in her home in Kingston, N.Y., beneath a collection of original photos taken at Max’s Kansas City at 213 Park Avenue South in New York City. (Tania Barricklo/Daily Freeman) 
Some of the photos that adorn Yvonne Sewall’s home in Kingston, N.Y. (Tania Barricklo/Daily Freeman)