Celebrating Community
Review of Walking through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black, by Cookie Mueller Review by Michael Quinn Among the arty crowd, there might be two kinds of people: those who never heard of Cookie Mueller and those who are obsessed with her. She was the ultimate free spirit. Born in Baltimore in 1949, she was, by her own account, […]
Go to a mirror. Look into your eyes—the same ones you had as a child. When you look into them, whom do you see? Breath Better Spent: Living Black Girlhood, DaMaris B. Hill’s new book of narrative poems, fulfills a pledge the author made to not only acknowledge the child within, but “to carry my girl self on my shoulders […]
Review of Behind the Mask: Living Alone in the Epicenter by Kate Walter Review by Michael Quinn The start of the pandemic was like a game of musical chairs. The music suddenly stopped. We all scrambled for safety. We worried for (or laughed at) the ones without a spot (the pandemic also revealed the mean-spirited among us). But we all […]
Although the popularity of Airbnb has skyrocketed in recent years, many people still enjoy staying in hotels. One of the reasons is having someone to clean up after you. But what if that person had another reason for being there? For three weeks in 1981, Sophie Calle worked as a chambermaid in a Venetian hotel. While cleaning 12 rooms on […]
Review of Carpenters: The Musical Legacy, by Mike Cidoni Lennox and Chris May, with Richard Carpenter Review by Michael Quinn Two journalists approached musician Richard Carpenter to get his blessing on a book they were developing on the band that he’d he fronted in the 1970s and ’80s with his sister Karen (now deceased). Richard offered more than his approval. […]
Review of Fierce Love: A Bold Path to Ferocious Courage and Rule-Breaking Kindness That Can Heal the World by Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis Review by Michael Quinn My partner is a Christian. He’s been seeking a spiritual home. Prior to the pandemic, he spent many Sundays trying out different churches throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan. Some, he felt, had a drowsy, […]
Drag queen Linda Simpson has been a unique presence in New York City nightlife since the 1980s. She’s not known for barn-burning performances (her longstanding gig is as a Bingo hostess) or for being a look queen (her off-the-rack outfits veer toward the pedestrian, capped with an out-of-the-bag, shake-and-go red wig). Her wisecracks and corny sense of humor are as […]
Review of Black Star by Eric Anthony Glover, illustrated by Arielle Jovellanos Extreme temperatures. Flash flood alerts. Wildfires. Sounds like this past summer, no? These conditions are also found on the fictional planet Eleos, the setting for Eric Anthony Glover’s debut graphic novel, Black Star. Brilliantly illustrated by Arielle Jovellanos, the story follows an all-female team of scientists dispatched on […]
Jonathan Ames, author of several books (including You Were Never Really Here, adapted into a film starring Joaquin Phoenix), creator of two television series (Blunt Talk and Bored to Death), and sometimes boxer (fighting as “The Herring Wonder”), continues building an eclectic body of passion projects with his latest work, A Man Named Doll. This novel focuses on the improbably […]
Review of Mona by Pola Oloixarac, Translated from the Spanish by Adam Morris Review by Michael Quinn Waking up on a Palo Alto train station platform, covered in blood, with no memory of what happened or how she got there, Mona, the title character of the third novel by Argentinian writer Pola Oloixarac (translated from the Spanish by Adam Morris), […]