Where on the spectrum of loyalty and betrayal does song begin? And where does it end? I think each writer has to decide this over and over.
—
Sharon Olds
Brothers Keep Me Up by Suheir Hammad
- Gilles Peress by Carole Kismaric
- Matthew Ritchie by Jenifer Berman
- Tim Roth by Gary M. Kramer & Steve Buscemi
- Amy Hempel by Suzan Sherman
- Kendall Thomas by Lynne Tillman
- Christian Wolff by Damon Krukowski
- Emmylou Harris by Lucinda Williams
- George Walker by Stephen Haff
- Wallace Shawn by Patrick McGrath
Interviews
- Remembering: Wolf Kahn by Stanley Moss
Artists on Artists
- Bruiser by Richard House
- Untimely Meditations by Saul Williams
- Brothers Keep Me Up by Suheir Hammad
- Jupiter by T'Kalla
- Two Poems by Tai Allen
- Memory of Loss by Amanda Means
- Wolf Soup by Vijay Seshadri
- Brooklyn Moon Cafe Poets by Zoë Anglesey
- Two Poems by Connie Deanovich
- Nosotros Necesitamos Zapatos Para Zapatistas by Federico Perez
- Van Gogh’s Bad Café by Frederic Tuten
- Sid by Jah'ni
- Jazz by Jasiri
- The Sweetest Revolutionary by Jessica Care Moore
- Kill Kill Faster Faster by Joel Rose
- Requiem by Kathy Acker
- The Keepsake by Kirsty Gunn
- Two Poems by Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie
First Proof
- Vikram Chandra’s Love and Longing in Bombay by Betsy Sussler
- Cédric Klapisch’s When the Cat’s Away by Liza Béar
- Patrick McGrath’s Asylum by Betsy Sussler
- Linda Yablonsky’s The Story of Junk by Lynne Tillman
- Rick Moody’s Purple America by Betsy Sussler
- Fernanda Eberstadt’s When the Sons of Heaven Meet the Daughters of Earth by Anney Bonney
- Robert Antoni’s Blessed is the Fruit by Jenifer Berman
- Yannick Murphy’s Sea of Trees by Suzan Sherman
- Kula Shaker: Retroculture by Lynn Geller
- Brad Mehldau by Zoë Anglesey
- Carolee Schneemann: Like a Cat on a Fish by Darryl Turner
- Judith Belzer by Jack Stephens
- Ingrid Calame by David Pagel
- Don Gast’s When We Were Kings by Jenifer Berman
- John Singleton’s Rosewood by Susan Shacter
- David Lehman’s Valentine Place by Robert Polito
- Bradford Morrow’s Giovanni’s Gift by Jim Lewis
Editor's Choice
you broke heart and
out I still light candles for
your safe journey to
the corner Pray your
flesh won’t be too brown
today Your beauty too offensive
shot for being A spic around a drunk cop
lynched for being nigger loud to klan ears
deported cause your name is Mohammad and somewhere
a bomb went off
drugged up and drunk cause you native to the
land and claim birthright
I feel for your life though no longer in it
wrap a rainbow serpent round you to keep
harm at arm’s length
I charm gods to keep you safe till revolution is over
no longer lay beside me and still keep me
up at night
is your skin still soft
not your fingers’ long strokes or tongue’s insistent
welcome keeping me up
the statistics political promises that you won’t live to see 30
how many incidents since we last kissed
don’t believe in this
world so I fight
so you’ll live to
love free who you want
I know that’s not
me so I don’t call
don’t write take you
space your love back
baby be safe in it . .
Related
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Decade of Fire is a remarkable tale of the Bronx’s rise from ash, standing to set the record straight about the fires that ravaged the borough in the late ’60s and ’70s.
Ward’s Jamaican roots and home in Harlem have been recurring themes in his numerous installations. He speaks with Jaffe about three key works.
Originally published in
BOMB 59,
Spring 1997
Featuring interviews with Tim Roth, Amy Hempel, Emmylou Harris, Matthew Ritchie, Wallace Shawn, Christian Wolff, Gilles Peress, Kendall Thomas, and George Walker.
