2013 Remembrance of Things Past and Future. Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
2020 Myths and Mystagogues. Whitney Museum, New York (she does not attend)
CREDITS
1: that week I was dying too.
Grace Paley, “Living” (1974)
2: a man got to have a code.
Omar Little, The Wire (2006)
3: The sleeper is the proprietor of an unknown land.
Djuna Barnes, Nightwood (1937)
4: foul dust
“Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it was what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)
5: a new screaming comes across the sky.
Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow (1973), first sentence
6: the little pleasures of life
Wassily Kandinsky (1913)
7: Don’t mess with the Wongs
Richard Price, The Wanderers (1974)
8: have mercy on the man who doubts what he’s sure of
Bruce Springsteen, “Brilliant Disguise,” Tunnel of Love (1987)
9: his bloodless aged lips
He suddenly approached the old man in silence and softly kissed him on his bloodless aged lips. That was all his answer.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov (1880)
10: Someday you will ache like I ache
Courtney Love, “Doll Parts,” Live Through This (1994)
11: the ceremony of innocence is drowned
William Butler Yeats, “The Second Coming” (1919)
12: You don’t own me
John Madara and David White, “You Don’t Own Me,” recorded by Lesley Gore (1963)
13: to the time with you to keep me awake and alive
I get so tired of working so hard for our survival
I look to the time with you to keep me awake and alive
Peter Gabriel, “In Your Eyes,” So (1986)
14: The impossible is the least that one can demand.
But in our time, as in every time, the impossible is the least one can demand — and one is, after all, emboldened by the spectacle of human history in general and American Negro history in particular, for it testifies to nothing less than the perpetual achievement of the impossible.
James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time (1963)
15: imminent peril threatening you and all the faithful
It is the imminent peril threatening you and all the faithful which has brought us hither. From the confines of Jerusalem and the city of Constantinople a horrible tale has gone forth.
Pope Urban II, speech at Council of Clermont on the capture of the Holy Lands by the Seljuk Turks (1095)
16: One can look back a thousand years easier than forward fifty.
Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward (1888)
17: And don’t be late. Don’t be late.
If I don’t meet you no more in this world then
I’ll meet you in the next one
And don’t be late
Don’t be late
Jimi Hendrix, “Voodoo Child,” Electric Ladyland (1968)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Over the many years that this book came to life, I depended upon the critical insight and support of so many friends. I am grateful to them all. There are many more — and they know who they are — who have my unending gratitude.
Raj Bahadur, Corinna Barsan, Michelle Berne, Mike Brander, Peter Bricken, Christine Byers, Mike Cahill, Christine Cassidy, Edward Cohn, Nathan Currier, Heather Dadamo, Dennis Danziger, Ken Deifek, Samantha Dunn, Hope Edelman, Leslie Fiedler, Peter Frank, Amy Friedman, Seth Greenland, John Harlow, Hal Hinson, the late Dr. Al Hudder, Tony Jacobs, Mickey Kiernan, Michael Korie, the late Paul Kozlowski, David Martino, George Melrod, Heather Miles, Dr. Jeffrey Miller, Tom Martinelli, Dwayne Moser, Stephen O’Connor, the Oliva Family, Allen Peacock, Craig Pleasants, Sheila Pleasants, Marie-Pierre Poulain, Steve Rand, Dr. A.J. Rellim, Rachel Resnick, Steve Rockwell, Alison Rowe, Britt Salvesen, the late Imogene Sanders, David Schulps, Kathy Seale, Michael Small, Jon Wagner, Dr. Kathleen Walker, and Nancy Wender.
My agent, Jennifer Lyons, for her sanity-saving phone calls.
The 18th Street Arts Center, The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, The Durfee Foundation, and The Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (COLA division).
Everyone on the great staff at Other Press. Especially Judith Gurewich and Anjali Singh, for their ceaseless efforts to make this book better. And an extra special thanks to the remarkable Terrie Akers.
To all of my cousins, who often think I’ve descended from another planet, but who always support and love me.
Most importantly, my mom, who passed away this past spring, my dad and my wife, Suzan.