The black figure has always been a subject of entertainment in popular culture, as well as an image to sell things. In some ways, that’s how people relate to us—because they’ve seen us on television.
—
Derrick Adams
Calypso Illogics by Jeffrey Gustavson
- Joshua Neustein by Kristine Stiles
- Keith Tyson by Glenn Brown
- Jasper Johns by Marjorie Welish
- Laurie Simmons by Linda Yablonsky
- Peter Dreher by Lynne Tillman
- Brenda Blethyn by Michael Collins
- Sapphire by Kelvin Christopher James
- Suzannah Lessard and Honor Moore by Betsy Sussler
- Tobias Wolff by A.M. Homes
- Richard Einhorn by Stuart Cohn
- Scott Elliott by Eric Bogosian
Interviews
- Dance! by Robert Tracy
Artists on Artists
- Three Poems by Andy McCord
- Two Paintings by Chuck Agro
- Two Poems by Edwin Frank
- Sic Transit by Elena Alexander
- Calypso Illogics by Jeffrey Gustavson
- Keep it From the Flame by Ken Foster
- Crossing Her Mind by Kimiko Hahn
- Father and Son by Larry Brown
- The Alliance Poets by Thomas Bolt
- Diz by Amiri Baraka
- The Apprentice by Lewis Libby
- City Terrace Field Manual by Sesshu Foster
First Proof
- Rebecca Brown by Suzan Sheman
- Paul Schmidt by April Bernard
- Tadeusz Konwicki by Larry Gross
- Alastair Gordon by Roland Legiardi-Laura
- The Tarrugiz on Fifth Avenue by Carlos Brillembourg
- Bill Komoski by Saul Ostrow
- Roland Flexner by Shirley Kaneda
- Palookaville by Nicole Burdette
- Nao Bustamente by Coco Fusco
- Yvonne Welbon by Lawrence Chua
- The Best of Broadway, On and Off… by Stuart Spencer
- R.L. Burnside by Gary Fisketjon
- Albita by Zoë Anglesey
- Prolapse by Tim Nye
Editor's Choice
II.
Stick figure before
Desert Quonset, rays
Knife eastward evolving
Parables of discourse
Furioso and all
Rushlight quartered for
Convex latter stages
Of dehydration before
D(r)ownings of mirages.
V.
Turbulent face of
The breakwater exposed
To longest waves
Lost in microöxbows
Born of chance
Sockdolagers’ endless initiatives,
Each molecule’s stoic
Frolic dissipated by
Entropy midfumble.
VIII.
Fled the camelhairs’
Stringentest efforts the
Plicated pluvial scape
Swollen detail impossible
Under scrutiny wavering
Ever narrower raptures
Not to be
Restrained under phantoms
Argued onto fleet.
Originally published in
BOMB 57,
Fall 1996
Featuring interviews with Jasper Johns, Tobias Wolff, Laurie Simmons, Sapphire, Scott Elliott, Brenda Blethyn, Craig Lucas, Suzannah Lessard & Honor Moore, Peter Dreher, and Richard Einhorn.
