A Word of Introduction
Welcome, as ever, to our 15th issue.
In keeping with the seasonal spirit of abundant feasting we are happy to share a sumptuous and nourishing literary and visual repast. However, all metaphors must now slide toward the aural, since much of the work you will find herein relates to Music.
Heading our table of contents is Manhattan Variations, a Pocket Anthology of three exceptional music-centered stories: consulting editor Jan Schmidt’s “Step Right In,” a part slapstick, part terrifying street gospel shout. Next, Brian Cullman’s wonderfully disconcerting “Ballad of Paul Presti,” and lastly-but-not-leastly, BJ Atwood-Fukuda’s novella cum sonata “Nice Piano,” in alternating minor and major keys, which we are presenting in two successive issues.
Poetry abounds in Music of the Living World, featuring work by Thoreau Lovell and Aldric Ulep. In addition, we are graced with contributing editor Dana Delibovi’s ¡VIVA! which celebrates the life and work of that rare commodity, the authentic genius, in this case Gerald Stern – may he live to 120!
WP also notes, and mourns, the recent passing of Lee “Scratch” Perry and Jean “Binta” Breeze, two exceptional artists whose work both exemplified and transcended Dub, a multiplex genre which editor Bronwyn Mills treats of in an essay containing links to Breeze and Perry’s music online.
Under Sounds, we are are excited to present Walter Zev Feldman’s essay on the history and evolution of Klezmer, replete with accompanying audio files.
In this issue’s Time Machine, you will find editor-at-large Chris Sawyer-Lauçanno’s meditation on his interview, more than a half century ago, with Eldrige Cleaver, then Minister of Information for the Black Panther and Peace & Freedom Party candidate for the U.S. presidency. A striking aspect of the piece is how timely, urgent, and eminently sensible, many of Cleaver’s positions remain today. Happily, too, our serialization of Sawyer-Lauçanno’s fascinating and erudite memoir, Becoming, continues.
On the visual front, we are honored to showcase what is, in a sense, a nation’s self-portrait: Bill Hayward’s American Memory Project. The selections contained in this Portfolio constitute but a small portion of hundreds of riveting “portraits of the collaborative self” made by Hayward and his subjects in his journeys across the country.
Our InSights this issue have a flightier than usual quality, and along similar lines, our Colophon is simply too cool to be described.
And that, garnished with a generous helping of Remarkable Reads – critical appreciations of new and essential books by our editors and other contributors – is Issue 15 in a (rather large) nutshell.
We hope you find the work herein as satisfying to discover as we did in gathering it, and wish you all a propitious holiday season and new year to come.
- Eric Darton for the Editors
In keeping with the seasonal spirit of abundant feasting we are happy to share a sumptuous and nourishing literary and visual repast. However, all metaphors must now slide toward the aural, since much of the work you will find herein relates to Music.
Heading our table of contents is Manhattan Variations, a Pocket Anthology of three exceptional music-centered stories: consulting editor Jan Schmidt’s “Step Right In,” a part slapstick, part terrifying street gospel shout. Next, Brian Cullman’s wonderfully disconcerting “Ballad of Paul Presti,” and lastly-but-not-leastly, BJ Atwood-Fukuda’s novella cum sonata “Nice Piano,” in alternating minor and major keys, which we are presenting in two successive issues.
Poetry abounds in Music of the Living World, featuring work by Thoreau Lovell and Aldric Ulep. In addition, we are graced with contributing editor Dana Delibovi’s ¡VIVA! which celebrates the life and work of that rare commodity, the authentic genius, in this case Gerald Stern – may he live to 120!
WP also notes, and mourns, the recent passing of Lee “Scratch” Perry and Jean “Binta” Breeze, two exceptional artists whose work both exemplified and transcended Dub, a multiplex genre which editor Bronwyn Mills treats of in an essay containing links to Breeze and Perry’s music online.
Under Sounds, we are are excited to present Walter Zev Feldman’s essay on the history and evolution of Klezmer, replete with accompanying audio files.
In this issue’s Time Machine, you will find editor-at-large Chris Sawyer-Lauçanno’s meditation on his interview, more than a half century ago, with Eldrige Cleaver, then Minister of Information for the Black Panther and Peace & Freedom Party candidate for the U.S. presidency. A striking aspect of the piece is how timely, urgent, and eminently sensible, many of Cleaver’s positions remain today. Happily, too, our serialization of Sawyer-Lauçanno’s fascinating and erudite memoir, Becoming, continues.
On the visual front, we are honored to showcase what is, in a sense, a nation’s self-portrait: Bill Hayward’s American Memory Project. The selections contained in this Portfolio constitute but a small portion of hundreds of riveting “portraits of the collaborative self” made by Hayward and his subjects in his journeys across the country.
Our InSights this issue have a flightier than usual quality, and along similar lines, our Colophon is simply too cool to be described.
And that, garnished with a generous helping of Remarkable Reads – critical appreciations of new and essential books by our editors and other contributors – is Issue 15 in a (rather large) nutshell.
We hope you find the work herein as satisfying to discover as we did in gathering it, and wish you all a propitious holiday season and new year to come.
- Eric Darton for the Editors