Two Poems I Will Never Forget

Who Burns for the Perfection of Paper

Martín Espada

At sixteen, I worked after high school hours
at a printing plant
that manufactured legal pads:
Yellow paper
stacked seven feet high
and leaning
as I slipped cardboard
between the pages,
then brushed red glue
up and down the stack.
No gloves: fingertips required
for the perfection of paper,
smoothing the exact rectangle.
Sluggish by 9 PM, the hands
would slide along suddenly sharp paper,
and gather slits thinner than the crevices
of the skin, hidden.
The glue would sting,
hands oozing
till both palms burned
at the punch clock.

Ten years later, in law school,
I knew that every legal pad
was glued with the sting of hidden cuts,
that every open law book
was a pair of hands
upturned and burning.

 

SOLEDAD– tato laviera

people talk about loneliness

 

is only sexual companinoship

that’s soon forgotten

 

people talk about solitude

beneath its seven layers

nobody can talk about solitude

 

and soledad

 

well, there is no english

translation

motherf*ck gentrification

Our Soul Man

Interesting read from NYPress:

Armond White credits the presidency of Barack Obama to a 1986 race comedy about a guy who fakes his way into Harvard.

By Armond White

In 1986, pundits laughed at—not with—the race comedy Soul Man, about a white college student who performs a Black Like Me charade to get into Harvard Law School. The film’s emphasis on spotlighting, then upending, racial stereotypes was widely misread as improbable, unnecessary, and “racist.” Yet two years later, in 1988, Barack Obama entered Harvard Law School, and the rest is history. Saying the rest is history should include confirmation that Soul Man, despite its naysayers, was right. This comedy of racial errors—written by TV pro Carol Black, directed by Steve Miner, and starring ’80s Hollywood star C. Thomas Howell—foretold a change in America’s thinking on a number of issues: race perception, black potential, class advancement, the Harvard institution. All these topics come together in the astounding leap of Barack Obama’s biography: He’s the first African American to be elected president of the United States. Awesome. But it’s not far-fetched for a movie lover to think that Obama’s rise was prepared—if not predicted—by Soul Man.

my photos @ aai open studio

PS. I will also be participating in the Lower East Side Photo show @ Cuchifritos November 15th – December 20th

blackbird

at icp

Taking Over

Danny Hoch is bringing his one man show “Taking Over” to the Public Theater from Nov 7 – Dec 14. I’m a great fan of his work and the perspective he brings to the masses is so insightful and exactly what we need to see/hear/experience.

Brooklyn Rail recently had an interview with him that discussed the show and its relationship with gentrification in New York City… Hoch consistently keeeps it real:

I think that the people that are upset at the piece are all gentrifiers. Because I think there’s an expectation when they see this white guy up there that, ultimately—even though I’ve talked about how fucked up this has been for immigrants and children of immigrants and African-Americans and New Yorkers who have lived here their whole lives—that, ultimately, I’m going to speak for them and, ultimately, I’m going to give their point of view. And when I don’t, I think there’s a betrayal that’s felt. Because, you know, a lot of the white Americans in the audience feel indicted, and they have been indicted. But I kind of indicted myself, as well. But it’s not good enough for them. I think they want to be celebrated. I think that the white Americans who feel uncomfortable in my show not only want to be celebrated, but they also want to feel kinship with the victimization of the New Yorkers. Because I think the white Americans who are uncomfortable in my show feel like victims. I think they feel like they’re not rich and they’re not responsible for this and their rent has gone up, and it’s not fair what’s happening to them, so where’s their story? And I just feel fucked up about them feeling uncomfortable, but I’m not really apologetic because their stories are the majority of stories that we hear.

hunter mfa open studios

Hunter College Times Square Gallery

450 West 41st Street (btwn 9th and 10th Ave.)
New York City, New York

Friday Nov 6 6-10pm

Sat Nov 7 1-6

Poster Boy

check out his flickr

44

sign of the times goodies after the jump

AAI Open Studios

While you’re in the area be sure to check out the last days of Louvrefritos at the Cuchifritos gallery, a group show that explores ideas of gentrification and economy on the L.E.S. with an imaginary off site gallery of the Louvre.