remembering jazz ;/dense/scat/;shit

the new york public library study room,   ornate ceiling

walking harlem with carlos dufflar

fascination with the chelsea hotel, learning how maya angelou would always book a hotel room to write

the doorman in LES who gave me a pack of cigarettes, the one in the UES with the coke

the jamaican from canarsie, bartending at 96th and 3rd

the garden just south of houston, green and sunny and the sketchbook i left there

the play about saartje bartmann

all the feeling/the black cat at malcolm x and lexington

wanting the apartment in harlem overlooking the river

talking about isis/virgo at the chairs in bryant park

standing over the ashes of langston hughes

the neighbor across the hall at 90th + lex. martia the virgo and her husband, the artist who gave me the sketchbook i eventually lost, told me to keep drawing