The David Wojnarowicz Papers (MSS 092) at the Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University. Citations for “Fales” refer to the Wojnarowicz Papers unless otherwise noted.
“an obvious attempt to offend Christians during the Christmas season” http://washingtonscene.thehill.com/in-the-know/36-news/7223-boehner-and-cantor-call-for-closing-of-smithsonian-exhibit.
“I ain’t particularly radical” DW to Glantzman, October 1, 1990, in author’s possession.
“a metaphor for social structure” DW to Blinderman, October 22, 1988, in author’s possession.
“selling it back at an inconceivable mark-up” Edit deAk, “Urban Kisses/Slum Hisses,” in ABC No Rio Dinero, ed. Moore and Miller, p. 34.
“the last outsider” Vince Passaro, “The Last Outsider,” New York Times Book Review, March 12, 2000.
“All this in my work” Fales Series 3B, Box 5, Folder 215b.
Dolores filed for divorce Dolores J. Wojnarowicz v. Edward T. Wojnarowicz, M99-56, Superior Court of New Jersey, Monmouth County.
the court ruled that it could not decide a religious difference of opinion Wojnarowicz v. Wojnarowicz, 48 N.J.SUPER. 349, 137 A.2D 618 (1958).
“brown stuff” came out of her ears and mouth DW, Close to the Knives, p. 152.
“take it in the yard” and make David “watch him shoot it” “Biographical Dateline,” in Tongues of Flame, ed. Blinderman, p. 114.
claiming it was “New York steak” Ibid.
probably in 1962 Though David situated the shopping center incident in 1961, Ed’s record with the United States Lines indicates that 1962 was the only year he was home for Christmas. Service record of Edward T. Wojnarowicz in author’s possession.
sitting together behind Lee’s gas station Fales Series 1, Box 2, Folder 27, and Diaries, ed. Scholder, p. 199.
broke a whiskey bottle over someone’s head October 15, 1979, in Fales 1, 2, 36.
“I got yelled at” Author’s interviews with DW in January 1990.
“cigars under the flashing entrances” Fales Series 3A, Box 4, Folder 12, p. 15.
“all directions at once” Ibid., p. 16.
“knife wielding lunatic” Ibid., p. 25.
“could hardly recognize myself” Ibid., p. 26.
“filled with lurid photos” Ibid., p. 33.
“death trip continually” Ibid., p. 38.
“We were still new to hustling together” April 24, 1978, in Fales 1, 1, 6.
a piece for his local paper http://articles.mcall.com/1992-12-24/news/
2880365_1_raymond-blind-man-salvation-army.
described meeting him in the dining hall at the residence Untitled story in Fales 3, 4, 3.
In one story… at the halfway house for a few months; in another, he said he’d been there for a year “Guy Wakes Up (16 Years Old)” in Fales 3D, 6, 228, and untitled story in Fales 3, 4, 3.
he and Willy stayed with an ex-con Steve Hager, “From Street to Salon, New York Beat, May 9, 1984, in Fales 5C, 8, 23.
finding an abandoned bus on Houston Street “Guy Wakes Up (16 Years Old)” in Fales 3D, 6, 228.
“or lonely drag queen’s palace” Ibid., pp. 3–4.
two accounts of this sojourn “Teenage Guy on Canal Street” in Fales 3E, 6, 247, and “Willy” in Fales 3B, 5, 206.
“I almost burst into tears” “Guy Wakes Up (16 Years Old)” in Fales 3D, 6, 228.
he gave Willy the name “Lipsy” Fales 3A, 5, 152.
“FIRST PHOTOS (AWFUL)” Fales Series 9A[3], Box 32, Envelope 21, Sheets 33, 34, 35.
“that I at least give my life up to it” Fales Series 2, Box 2, Folder 1.
prose poem on the Denver bus station Coldspring Journal, no. 10, April 1976.
questionnaire about his poetry life Fales 3A, 5, 149.
“He’d given up in a way” DW to Ensslin, September 9, 1976, in author’s possession.
an anthology they turned up in a remainder bin Ronald Gross and George Quasha with Emmett Williams, John Robert Colombo, and Walter Lowenfels, eds., Open Poetry: Four Anthologies of Expanded Poems (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1973). David read Filliou’s intro while Lackow created his own tiny poem.
One study of the Beat Generation … analyzed Huncke’s appeal John Tytell, Naked Angels: The Lives and Literature of the Beat Generation (New York: McGraw-Hill Paperbacks, 1977), p. 91.
“She leaked from every pore.” Lydia Lunch, foreword to Thurston Moore and Byron Coley, No Wave: Post-Punk (New York: Abrams Image, 2008), p. 4.
“My Father as the Red Lark” September 28, 1977, in Fales Series 1, Box 1, Folder 4.
answer pages among his papers Fales 3A, 5, 149.
a response to Pinochet’s 1973 coup http://www.arianeroesch.com/Press/The_Ties_that_Bind.pdf.
“concealing messages behind a false eyeball” May 8, 1978, in Fales 1, 1, 6.
one trucker who gave him a ride ended up among the monologues This version of the trucker’s story is from David’s journal in Fales 1, 1, 19.
“I just had a vision of myself after the tenth grade” Fales 3E, 6, 257.
two autobiographical pieces Cartwright wrote out in his big grade-school handwriting The autobiographical pieces Louis Cartwright wrote can be found in Fales 3H, 6, 295.
“Feeling hyena. Feeling wolf. Feeling dog” August 31, 1978, in Fales Series 1, Box 1, Folder 5.
“I ain’t eaten in three fuckin’ days” September 4, 1978, in ibid.
“put my mouth to his and taste wine” September 15, 1978, in Fales 1, 1, 7.
“delirious through the side streets of the Louvre” September 16, 1978, in ibid.
“a semisurreal erotic novel” DW to Jezebel Cook, 1978, letter read during interview.
“daytime photos of symbols that reflect areas of thinking” October 1, 1978, in Fales 1, 1, 7.
afraid of his actual subject matter DW to Cook, letter read during interview.
“a wild look of criminality in their eyes” October 12, 1978, in Fales 1, 1, 7.
“never thought so deeply as this” October 13, 1978, in ibid.
“forever fixed in the non-seeing eye” October 10, 1978, in ibid.
“the fusion of society and physical law” October 11, 1978, in ibid.
“to learn as much as we can from it” October 17, 1978, in ibid.
the distances he’d come in his life October 18, 1978, in ibid.
“the experiences are needed … necessary” October 22, 1978, in ibid.
“brilliant white heart metamorphoses” October 24, 1978, in ibid.
“all the frightening bareness I feel” Undated entry, probably November 4, 5, or 6, 1978, in ibid.
“a little more than they expected” DW to DeForge, December 7, 1978, in author’s possession.
“what am I racing towards?” November 22, 1978, in Fales 1, 1, 8.
“a sense I may never rid myself of” DW to DeForge, December 7, 1978, in author’s possession.
“trying to get out of bird appearance” December 10, 1978, in Fales 1, 1, 9, and letter to Brian Butterick on p. 66 in ibid.
“I have learned of my own so far” Loose material in Fales 1, 1, 8.
“slowed me down and calmed my writings” DW to Ensslin, March 27, 1979, in author’s possession.
“supportive glimpse into the netherworld” February 12, 1979, in Fales 1, 1, 9.
“guaranteed entrance into heaven” Fales 3A, 4, 8.
“poodles in the midst of all this” November 2, 1978, in Fales 1, 1, 8.
“wished it was fifties all over again” DW to Ensslin, March 27, 1979, in author’s possession.
wanted to be part of that vibrant, growing scene February 22, 1979, in Fales 1, 1, 9.
“contact, sexual or otherwise” April 11, 1979, in Fales 1, 1, 10.
“explore things as they move my way” Ibid.
“wanted to leave quite badly” Ibid.
“spared from the typewriter” Ibid.
“part of one’s personal myth and therefore true” Christopher Isherwood, Christopher and His Kind (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001). The quotes David refers to are on pp. 2 and 4.
“seems in hindsight” April 29, 1979, in Fales 1, 1, 10.
“destroys the most subtle responses in human nature” June 14, 1979, in Fales Series 1, Box 1, Folder 11.
“places I starved in or haunted on some level” David Hirsch, “New York Adventure,” New York Native, December 3, 1990, and in Fales 6C, 10, 71.
two exposures, one printed Contact sheet in Fales 9A [15], Box 44, Sheet 2.
“to fall through their living room floors into the apartment below” Undated journal entry, p. 3, in Fales 1, 1, 14.
Dirk photographed them July 6, 1979, in Fales 1, 1, 11.
“some kinda vision in all this” Ibid.
“If he’s following my scent … this’ll throw him off” Undated journal entry, p. 59, in Fales 1, 1, 11.
“made him feel good about his own early life” DW to Delage, December 19, 1979, in author’s possession.
“departing from conventional morality” Jean Genet, The Thief’s Journal, trans. Bernard Frechtman (New York: Grove Press, 1964), p. 222.
“ye have done it unto me” Matthew 25:40.
“It’s so simple, the man without the eye against a receding wall” September 8, 1979, in Fales 1, 2, 36.
“lips traced lines down on the belly” Ibid.
someone had thrown rocks through the Rimbaud face September 16, 1979, in ibid.
complaining of odd purplish lesions Shilts, And the Band, p. 37.
he’d written to a friend regarding the hoboes DW to Seymour, February 16, 1979, in author’s possession.
“all these unspoken sentences at the tip of my tongue” October 7, 1979, in Fales 1, 2, 36.
“the way this living is really constructed” October 8/9, 1979, in ibid.
“this city rotating with the world on its axis” October 9, 1979, in ibid.
“pieces of sky along the dark floorboards” October 22, 1979, in ibid.
“something relegated to the self of the past” December 11, 1979, in Fales 1, 1, 12.
“plane engines easing into the distance” December 8, 1979, in ibid.
“I would like to return to Paris” DW to Delage, December 30, 1979, in author’s possession.
“systematically screwed out of decent places to exist in” Lehmann Weichselbaum, “The Real Estate Show,” in ABC No Rio Dinero, ed. Moore and Miller, p. 52.
“merger of the South Bronx and the East Village” Steven Hager, “Patti Astor’s ‘Wild Style,’ “ East Village Eye, February 1983.
“they intend to stay put and help determine the area’s evolution” Peter Fend, “Letter to Skyline,” in ABC No Rio Dinero, ed. Moore and Miller, p. 59.
“something to put on a resume” DW to Delage, January 16, 1980, in author’s possession.
“my leanings in the time period of my living” January 15, 1980, in Fales 1, 2, 36.
“swooning winds and muscular bodies” February 2, 1980, in Fales 1, 1, 13.
“as if it were a tribal gift” March 6, 1980, in ibid.
“remember I love you” DW to Delage, April 3, 1980, in author’s possession.
“the constant limbo I feel I’m in” Undated journal entry in Fales 1, 1, 13, and Diaries, ed. Scholder, p. 150.
“escaping a mugger in the subway by leaping into an F train” DW to Delage, March 13, 1980, in author’s possession, and March 14, 1980, in Fales 1, 1, 13.
“sex in an abandoned playground” February 14, 1980, in Fales 1, 1, 13.
“envelopes destined for Texas” February 2, 1980, in ibid.
“How do I know she didn’t look like this when she was younger?” February 26, 1980, in ibid.
“from his self-made boundaries into yours” Undated journal entry in Fales 1, 1, 14.
“I really dug it” May 11, 1980, in Fales 1, 1, 14, and Diaries, ed. Scholder, p. 156.
“combing his hair before a fluorescent-lit mirror” May 1980 in Fales 1, 1, 14, and Diaries, ed. Scholder, p. 158.
“to sweep up broken bottles” May 1980 in Fales 1, 1, 14, and Diaries, ed. Scholder, p. 162.
“concerning what to do with freedom” DW to Delage, May 18, 1980, in author’s possession.
two scripts for this film, which he never made The script in Fales 3F, 6, 271 is typed and looks more finished, but ideas in the second handwritten script, in Fales 3F, 6, 276, seem more developed.
changed his first name to “Anado” McLauchlin went on to create installations, jewelry, furniture, and assemblages at his home in Mexico. See http://www.madebyanado.com.
“horror of death coming close to friends” Undated journal entry in Fales 1, 1, 14, and Diaries, ed. Scholder, p. 165.
“the kind of imagination displayed by this exhibition’s organizers” Deitch’s review of the “Times Square Show” can be found in ABC No Rio Dinero, ed. Moore and Miller, p. 12.
chunk of his own graffiti leaning against a wall June 18, 1980, in Fales 1, 1, 14.
“the distant darkness of unnameable cities” July 6, 1980, in ibid.
“located on 37th between 7th and 8th” The description of the first Danceteria is from Malu Halasa, “New and Used Clubs,” East Village Eye, Summer 1980.
entered a cassette he described as “experimental” DW to Delage, May 23, 1980, in author’s possession.
busboys made five dollars and change per hour Information about busboy salaries came from Brian Butterick.
“the image of the tough angel” Fales Series 1, Box, 1, Folder 15, p. 14.
“confused as to what I was feeling” Ibid., p. 42.
tooth from a wild boar Ibid., p. 28.
snakes … a hundred years old Ibid., p. 50.
“dripping with slime” Ibid., p. 15.
“car lights follow invisible roads” Ibid.
“how you turned the head” Ibid.
“because of laws, governments, and borders” Ibid., p. 44.
“something indefinable draining from his face” Ibid., p. 55.
“my love for him and my own peace of mind” Ibid., p. 48.
“only a faint smell of jism” E-mail to author from Jim Pennington, October 12, 2010.
he “couldn’t go mad” Ibid.
when he played a poet on television, in a Gap ad Max Blagg’s Gap ad can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpXopw4anJE.
Iolo Carew, another busboy Carew has been identified as both manager and DJ at the club, but Jim Fouratt, who hired him, said he was a busboy.
“for my father, dark shadow on the viridian seas” DW to Pennington, October 15, 1980, in author’s possession.
He thought it his best photo DW to Delage, October 26, 1980, in author’s possession.
his mother had entered the same contest DW to Delage, November 22, 1980, in author’s possession.
went to see the work of his fellow unemployed busboy DW to Delage, November 1, 1980, in author’s possession.
spirit leaving the body Fales 3A, 4, 103 in the explanation for Spirituality (for Paul Thek).
“just talk and listen to interesting things” DW to Delage, January 5, 1981, in author’s possession.
inspired him to keep working DW to Delage, January 7, 1981, in author’s possession.
about “photography, life, etc.” DW to Delage, January 9, 1981, in author’s possession.
“tired of all the scenes I’d been involved with” January 21, 1981, in Fales 1, 1, 15.
across from each of these, a film speed Fales, 1, 1, 11, p. 72.
he still had hope about the future, and Hujar did not January 21, 1981, in Fales 1, 1, 15, and Diaries, ed. Scholder, p. 172.
“Yes, this is what is true” January 21, 1981, in Fales 1, 1, 15, and Diaries, ed. Scholder, p. 182.
“change direction and run, escape, depart” January 21, 1981, in Fales 1, 1, 15, and Diaries, ed. Scholder, p. 183.
“I don’t feel very comfortable with them” DW to Delage, April 9, 1981, in author’s possession.
“will give them cause to become disinterested” Fales 8B, 16, Audiotape 092.0220.
“They’re my life” Ibid.
Could he please move out? DW to Delage, April 17, 1981, in author’s possession.
“so different from most people I know” Undated journal entry in Fales 1, 1, 15, p. 98, and Diaries, ed. Scholder, p. 192.
“I’m trying to understand it” Undated journal entry in Fales 1, 1, 15, and Diaries, ed. Scholder, p. 193.
“It definitely got construed as a whole other thing” Author’s interviews with DW in January 1990.
“Only if I have no other place to sleep” DW to Delage, June 5, 1981, in author’s possession.
“I looked for you in it” Ibid.
“I HEARD THAT!” Undated journal entry in Fales 1, 1, 15, p. 97, and Diaries, ed. Scholder, p. 186.
created a small body of work under that name Cards made by “Jute Harper” are in Fales 6A, 9, 14.
“I hear the same about you” The incident with Cecil Beaton is recounted in a chapter on Hujar and Paul Thek, “Peter and Paul,” in Carl Rollyson and Lisa Paddock, Susan Sontag: The Making of an Icon (New York: W. W. Norton, 2000), p. 113.
since he had a phone book The encounter with Peter Maxwell came from the author’s interview with Steve Turtell.
“he couldn’t make a distinction between someone who owned some little photography gallery and the Pope” Melissa Harris, interview with Fran Lebowitz, Brush Fires, p. 81.
offenders had been compelled to draw both a man and a woman http://www.undo.net/it/mostra/44190.
“We all kind of laughed” http://www.digitaljournalist.org/
issue0106/voices_goldin.htm.
“Kaposi’s Sarcoma and Pneumocystis Pneumonia Among Homosexual Men—New York City and California” Shilts, And the Band, p. 76.
no apparent danger to nonhomosexuals Lawrence K. Altman, “Rare Cancer Seen in 41 Homosexuals,” New York Times, July 3, 1981.
“feeling that time is running away” DW to Delage, July 1, 1981, in author’s possession.
gluing little figures to them “Charlie Ahearn on Fun Gallery,” Artforum, October 1999.
sold just one, for fifty dollars Interview with Patti Astor at http://www.at149st.com/astor.html.
sent a rather anguished letter in September Delage’s letter from September 1981 can be found in Fales Series 2, Box 2, Folder 6.
“I never meet any person with your qualities” DW to Delage, November 1981, in author’s possession.
“but then I saw this young guy” Loose sheets tucked into Fales 1, 2, 36.
“Too much cynicism” DW to Delage, September 15, 1981, in author’s possession.
“one of the sweetest heterosexual guys I’ve ever come in contact with” DW, Close to the Knives, p. 178.
“weird discards of civilization” Ibid.
“Why don’t you find out?” Ibid., p. 188.
“a las vegas card shark’s smile” Ibid., p. 183.
“vague thing that was affecting twentysome people” Author’s interviews with DW in January, 1990.
“crabby guards came screaming at us to stop we rode around anyways” Undated journal entry in Fales, 1, 2, 35.
a cow “exploding with fear” Gideon Gil, “Artists Work to Help Fight Child Abuse,” Louisville Times, December 6, 1985, in Fales 6C, 9, 46.
“for Sophie” Fales 3A, 5, 183.
“taking the junk” Fales 8B, 16, Audiotape 092.0248.
“confronts the viewer with a vision of anarchy and insanity” Fales 6D, 10, 78c.
“Many at the FDA did not believe that this so-called epidemic of immune suppression even existed” Shilts, And the Band, p. 170.
FDA would not license a test allowing blood banks to screen their products until 1985 http://www.aids.gov/hiv-aids-basics/hiv-aids-101/overview/aids-timeline.
“harshest work of quality in the East Village” Timothy Cohrs, “25,000 Sculptors from across the U.S.A. at Civilian Warfare” East Village Eye, September 1984.
“I want you to know my sign” Nicolas Moufarrege, “Another Wave, Still More Savagely Than the First,” Arts, September 1982.
“My landlord flipped out” “Pronto Profile” on Gracie Mansion in Fales Series 6C, Box 9, Folder 49.
“I was young and stupid and thought that was a really great deal” Ibid.
“suddenly discovered work where hours before there was none” First draft of the statement on the Ward Line Pier by DW and Mike Bidlo in Fales 11A, Oversize Box 22, Folder 24.
“the work came out in rampages of raw energy” Final version of the DW and Bidlo statement on the Ward Line Pier is in Fales 6D, 10, 78b.
“warned of its possible collapse” Richard Goldstein, “Post-Graffiti: The Pier Group Makes Its Mark,” Village Voice, June 21, 1983.
“It hurt me so much to see him” Hager, After Midnight, p. 119.
“There is no epidemic” Shilts, And the Band, p. 340.
“a disease whose myth exploded through thoughtless babble and media saturation” Kristian Hoffman, “Klaus Nomi,” East Village Eye, September 1983.
used the food posters because they marked a specific time David’s explanation of the food posters comes from Fales Series 8B, Box 16, Audiotape 092.0247.
born in Cairo Fales Series 7A, Box 13, Folder 43.
“going out on [sic] the world alone at the age of nine” Fales 6D, 10, 78b.
“indicate how authentic your images are” Fales 8B, 16, Audiotape 092.0227.
Bob Dylan began traveling with a carnival at the age of thirteen (as he used to tell interviewers) http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/
news/2004/06/15/2004-06-15_self-portrait
__bob_dylan_inv.html.
“A reasonable model is Genet” Robert Pincus-Witten, “Entries: Myth in Formation,” Arts, November 1983.
176 galleries would open This number comes from “The East Village: A Chronology” in Artforum, October 1999.
had never known how to balance a checkbook From author’s interview with Norman Frisch.
the first sign of AIDS was “white stuff on your tongue” Joe Vojtko, “Dangerous Combustibles: A Memoir from a Room at the End of Everything,” Review, December 1, 1997.
“Will they allow me on the moon if they realize who I am completely?” January 31, 1984, in Fales 1, 1, 17, and Diaries, ed. Scholder, p. 196.
“That corner”—Second Street and Avenue B—“no longer belongs to the city of New York” Marcia Chambers, “Lower East Side Drug Trade Evades Cleanup,” New York Times, July 5, 1983.
“retail drug capital of America” Marcia Chambers, “Going Cold Turkey in Alphabetville,” New York Times, February 19, 1984.
while seizing 160,000 packages of heroin Jane Gross, “In the Trenches of a War Against Drugs,” New York Times, January 8, 1986.
“use the junk population to burn down the area. The deed is done” Jeff Gottesfeld and Spencer Rumsey, “Drug Bust! ‘Operation Pressure Point’ Hits Avenue B,” East Village Eye, March 1984.
“they’d paint pictures for it” Sylvia Falcon, “Let Paintings Be Stupid,” East Village Eye, March 1984.
“Paintings are doorways into collectors’ homes” Carlo McCormick, “Sweet ’N’ Low,” East Village Eye, March 1984.
“beginning of an era of ‘souvenir’ art and tourist boutiques” Nicolas A. Moufarrege, “The Year After,” Flash Art, Summer 1984.
“adventurous avant-garde setting of considerable cachet” Carlo McCormick and Walter Robinson, “Slouching Towards Avenue D,” Art in America, Summer 1984. This piece also appears in ABC No Rio Dinero, ed. Moore and Miller, p. 40.
“simulacrum” of bohemia Craig Owens, “The Problem with Puerilism,” Art in America, Summer 1984.
“AIDS virus had been discovered—by the French” Thomas Steele, “CDC Director Says Announcement of AIDS Cause Is Forthcoming,” New York Native, April 9–22, 1984.
“ran a story on April 22” Lawrence K. Altman, “Federal Official Says He Believes Cause of AIDS Has Been Found,” New York Times, April 22, 1984.
“he saw it as allied with the French” Shilts, And the Band, pp. 460–62.
“the kind of reaction that Lydia liked best” Joe Vojtko, “Dangerous Combustibles: A Memoir from a Room at the End of Everything,” Review, December 1, 1997.
“colors that brought me close to fainting” DW to Hujar in Fales Series 2, Box 4, Folder 37.
people who saw “unarguable truth” in violence DW, Close to the Knives, pp. 172–73.
“I rejected her” Fales Series 4, Box 7, Folder 13.
sent a reporter to cover this exotic event Douglas C. McGill, “An Art Auction-Benefit with East Village Style, New York Times, February 26, 1985.
“We do and show what we like” Grace Glueck, “East Village Gets on the Fast Track,” New York Times, January 13, 1985.
Cooper analyzed it Dennis Cooper, “Odd Man Out,” Artforum, October 1999.
finally changed at the end of 1985 Erik Eckholm, “City, In Shift, To Make Blood Test for AIDS Virus More Widely Available,” New York Times, December 23, 1985.
“know all they need to know about AIDS” Shilts, And the Band., p. 533.
no one knew how likely it was for someone infected with the virus to actually get AIDS http://www.thebody.com/content/art31903.html.
“Dean Savard is taking an extended vacation from his gallery” Carlo McCormick, “Art Seen,” East Village Eye, May 1985.
Nina Leen’s historic 1950 portrait of the abstract expressionists A group of New York painters including Willem De Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, and Mark Rothko wrote a letter in May 1950 to the Metropolitan Museum of Art protesting the exclusion of abstract artists from a show on contemporary painting. Nina Leen photographed fifteen of the painters in November 1950. The photo appeared in Life in January 1951 with the caption “Irascible Group of Advanced Artists Led Fight Against Show.”
“The cigarettes etc are what I need to stop in order to keep the change stronger” Fales 3A, 5, 155.
one of fourteen artists selected to show that summer (from two hundred applicants) Kim Levin, “Cryptanalysis,” Village Voice, June 18, 1985.
he’d based the piece “on his childhood and life experience” Mina Roustayi, “Had You Bought the Brooklyn Bridge …” Brooklyn Affairs, June 1985, in the Creative Time Archive (MSS 179) at the Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University, Series 1, Box 2, Folder 58.
alchemical, magical, and religious symbolism, and had created, for example, many paintings of figures on fire See http://www.philipchristianzimmerman.com.
“I’m too wound up crazy to travel with them” DW to Hujar, circa June 11, 1985, in possession of the Hujar Estate.
he would declare the enterprise a failure October 7, 1985, journal of Keith Davis, in author’s possession.
“Peter I feel crazy but I think of you” DW to Hujar, June 25, 1985 in possession of the Hujar Estate.
“I don’t feel any sadness for David. I wish he were dead” August 3, 1985, journal of Keith Davis, in author’s possession.
“nobody was interested in what I was doing” Barry Blinderman, “The Compression of Time: An Interview with David Wojnarowicz,” Tongues of Flame, ed. Blinderman, p. 53.
“Nobody bought a thing” Anthony Haden-Guest, True Colors: The Real Life of the Art World (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1996), p. 140.
“no longer felt inclined to cast pearls before swine” Patti Astor, letter to the editor, New York Magazine, August 24, 1987.
“It’s all such a blur” http://www.wigstock.nu/history/index.html.
listings for forty-seven neighborhood galleries Liza Kirwin, “The East Village: A Chronology,” Artforum, October 1999.
allowed only to listen in via telephone Lisa Perlman, “AIDS Victim Begins School by Phone,” Associated Press, August 26, 1985.
“their efficacy in reducing transmission has not yet been proven” http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00000610.htm.
“the government should not be in the business of telling homosexuals how to have sodomy” Shilts, And the Band, p. 586.
he heard about Caven Point Sylvère Lotringer, “Steve Brown,” in A Definitive History, ed. Ambrosino, p. 42.
“I think that’s one of my jobs” C. Carr, “Karen Finley,” Mirabella, November 1990.
“that someone can be both good and gay” Jeff Yarbrough, “Rock Hudson: On Camera and Off; The Tragic News That He Is the Most Famous Victim of an Infamous Disease, AIDS, Unveils the Hidden Life of a Longtime Hollywood Hero,” People Magazine, August 12, 1985.
using what Marguerite called “revolting colors” Mysoon Rizk, “Marguerite Van Cook and James Romberger,” in A Definitive History, ed. Ambrosino, p. 97.
“springing out like cartoon animation” Fales Series 3E, Box 6, Folder 257.
“bodies in lotus positions with enormous hard-ons” DW, Close to the Knives, pp. 184–85.
short films like Baby Doll Sargeant, Deathtripping, p. 170, and see http://web.mac.com/tessahughesfreeland.
“power plays embedded in the sexual act” DW, Close to the Knives, p. 189.
“I feel too self-conscious about living, and it’s driving me crazy” Ibid., p. 206.
“The image of the deer being hunted is transferred to the kid” Gideon Gil, “Artists Work to Help Fight Child Abuse,” Louisville Times, December 6, 1985, in Fales 6C, 9, 46.
“none of the last fifteen or twenty minutes happened” Fales 6E, 12, 116.
“So did the duck. So did the dog.” Gary Indiana, “The No Name Review,” Village Voice, January 28, 1986.
“the smell and taste of him wrapped around my neck and jaw like some scarf” DW, “Losing the Form in Darkness,” East Village Eye, February 1986.
“he said something about not seeing each other so much” DW to Frangella, Fales Series 2, Box 2, Folder 9.
“You self-imitate to meet demand” Judd Tully, “The East Village: Is the Party Over Now?” New Art Examiner, March 1986.
“at the end of its collective gestures” Fales 3A, 4, 69, plus DW discusses the machine symbolism in his work in Fales 8B, 16, Audiotape 092.0247.
“the wall of illusion surrounding society and its structures” Fales 3G, 6, 280.
“The Other World where I’ve always felt like an alien” DW, Close to the Knives, pp. 87–88.
“the imposed hell of the suburbs” Ibid., p. 207.
“sometimes failed to show up for filming” Fales 3A, 4, 58.
“get away from my life as it was” DW, Close to the Knives, pp. 216–17.
“nature’s incessant struggle and cyclical compulsions” Mysoon Rizk, “Looking at ‘Animals in Pants’: The Case of David Wojnarowicz,” TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies (“Nature Matters: Materiality and the More-Than-Human in Cultural Studies of the Environment” issue; Toronto) 21 (Spring 2009): 137–59, and http://pi.library.yorku.ca/ojs/index.php/topia/index.
“respective problems we will leave behind in U.S.A. necessarily” Tommy Turner, “Travel Log to Mexico,” October 28, 1986, in author’s possession.
“use tools, make war, and capture slaves” Fales 3G, 6, 280.
“life forms that have been abstracted into the ‘other’ “ Ibid.
“ ‘getting a letter in the mail has an entirely different meaning’ “ DW, Close to the Knives, p. 67.
a hagiography William Kelly Eidem, The Doctor Who Cures Cancer (CreateSpace, 2008).
Revici also gets a chapter Fred Rosen, Doctors from Hell (New York: Windsor Publishing, 1993).
“concluding that he had violated the terms of his probation” http://www.quackwatch.org/04ConsumerEducation/null.html, and see also Stephen Barrett, M.D., “Questionable Cancer Therapies” at http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/cancer.html.
Now the number was 32,000. And counting. If Kramer’s number was approximate, it was approximately correct. By the end of 1987, there would be about 35,400 dead. For statistics on AIDS deaths, see http://www.aids.gov/federal-resources/policies/pacha/meetings/march-2008/hiv-aids-update-in-us.pdf.
“this is a death wish” Kramer, “The Beginning of ACTing Up,” Holocaust, p. 128.
“ ‘Act up! Fight back! Fight AIDS!’ “ Maer Roshan, “ACT UP,” Advocate, 35th anniversary issue, November 12, 2002.
Three hundred people met back at the center to form the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, ACT UP Kramer, Holocaust, p. 137.
back of the store, stacked in a pile Fales Series 1, Box 1, Folder 18.
“to find the lakes and show Peter” Fales 3A, 5, 183.
“A place of refuge” Fales 3A, 5, 174.
“talked about how much we cared about each other” Vince Aletti, “Portrait in Life and Death,” Village Voice, December 15, 1987.
cockfight must have seemed essential to him See the script in Fales 3, 4, 24.
“I didn’t enjoy the experience” Romberger’s article can be found at http://www.tcj.com/hoodedutilitarian/2010/12/wojnarowiczs-apostacy.
“symbols of rage and the need for release” DW to Blinderman, October 22, 1988, in author’s possession.
two scripts for A Fire in My Belly Fales 3F, 6, 277 and 3, 4, 24.
“register on the brain; sometimes longer” DW to Blinderman, October 22, 1988, in author’s possession.
seven minutes of footage found on another reel The footage shown and then removed from “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture” at the National Portrait Gallery came from this “excerpt.”
“it’s time to move on” Amy Virshup, “The Fun’s Over: The East Village Scene Gets Burned by Success,” New York Magazine, June 22, 1987.
“if there’s warmth move towards it” DW, Close to the Knives, p. 82.
“on the floor fourteen stories above the earth” Ibid.
“emotion distilled” Lucy Lippard, “Out of the Safety Zone, Art in America, December 1990.
“who seem to have been making better work three years ago” Dan Cameron, “The Season That Almost Wasn’t,” Arts, September 1987.
“wasn’t enough to erase this rage” DW, Close to the Knives, p. 106.
“ ‘didn’t have the strength’ “ Ibid., p. 92.
“ ‘you may not have it’ “ Ibid., p. 96.
“that’s the T-cells” Ibid., p. 97.
“I couldn’t answer” Ibid., p. 98.
“put me in bed and rushed out” Ibid., p. 99.
“doctor reacted as if his life were being threatened” DW to Stuyvesant Polyclinic, October 23, 1987, in Fales 2, 2, 13.
“a little further from the dirt road that leads to the lake” Fales 1, 2, 35.
“the third day of his death” Fales 1, 2, 27.
“He’s in the wind in the air all around me” Ibid.
“beaming some kind of joy” Ibid.
“sadness all day and night” Fales Series 1, Box 2, Folder 27.
$982.50 for one year or $1,015.86 for two years Fales 7B, 14, 53.
“rent adjustments” upwards Fales 6E, 11, 112.
$166.53 in the bank Fales 7A, 13, 34.
“unwilling to leave it behind” Fales 1, 2, 27.
“It started with Peter becoming ill” Ibid. and Diaries, ed. Scholder, p. 204.
the sponsoring NAMES Project Foundation http://www.aidsquilt.org/about/the-aids-memorial-quilt.
“afraid if I experience it I will not be able to control it” Fales 3A, 5, 176.
emotions everyone had Author’s interviews with DW in January 1990.
“Am I a child again in this state?” Fales 1, 1, 20, and Diaries, ed. Scholder, p. 210.
“the memories in those shadows like films” Ibid.
a count of 237 Fales 7A, 13, 21.
“in the most confrontational manner” Fales 3A, 5, 160.
“witness of your silent decline” Fales 1, 1, 20, and Diaries, ed. Scholder, p. 211.
aware of himself “alive and witnessing” Fales Series 3, Box 4, Folder 1.
by the end of the month or face “legal action” Fales 7A, 12, 5.
“your right to remain in the apartment once proceedings begin” Ibid.
Dolores usually sent a birthday card Note that David’s mother was now spelling her name “Delores,” though I have stayed with the spelling on her divorce and naturalization papers: “Dolores.”
“that we will lose touch with one another” Fales 2, 2, 15.
“things quietly occurring, within absence of sight” Fales 8B, 17, Audiotape 092.0278.
the FDA had accelerated its procedures Crimp with Rolston, Demo Graphics, p. 83, and http://www.newsweek.com/2008/12/08/gay-rights-2-0.html.
leave the loft by the end of November Fales 7A, 12, 5.
time and date in a journal Fales 1, 2, 35.
“all I can feel is the pressure and the need for release” DW, Close to the Knives, p. 60.
a piece with “the power to change lives” Jerry Salz, “Not Going Gentle,” Arts, February 1989.
“can’t believe he is dying” Fales 1, 1, 20, and Diaries, ed. Scholder, p. 212.
“how to operate a camera on anything other than automatic” DW, Close to the Knives, pp. 138–39.
“that speaks about the world I witness” Ibid., p. 144.
an opera that could have a hundred parts, but at least he’d made two of them Fales 8B, 16, Audiotape 092.0247.
“the heaviness of the pre-invented existence we are thrust into” Fales 3A, 4, 103.
list of some thirty-five or forty possible images for Weight of the Earth Fales 3A, 5, 197.
if they chased them toward a cliff they didn’t know about For a discussion of David’s use of animal imagery see Mysoon Rizk, “Taking the ‘S’ out of ‘PEST.’ “ Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture (“Insecta” issue) 11 (Autumn): 37–50, and http://www.antennae.org.uk/Back%20Issues.html.
“within the structures of civilization” Fales 3G, 6, 280.
“the fear that I’ve carried through my whole life” Fales 8B, 16, Audiotape 092.0218.
“The garden is the place I’ll go if I die” Fales 3A, 4, 103.
“sad and exhilarated simultaneously” November 9, 1988, in Fales 1, 1, 20, and Diaries, ed. Scholder, pp. 216–17.
“hints at both death and decay” David Deitcher, “Ideas and Emotions,” Artforum, May 1989.
“a menacing, oneiric aura” Lucy Lippard, “Out of the Safety Zone,” Art in America, December 1990.
“I am effectively silenced. I am angry” Fales 3A, 4, 103.
“just for the sexual part of it” Author’s interviews with DW in January 1990. For source photos see Fales 9D, 66 and 67.
“despite comfort or despite pain” Fales 8B, 16, Audiotape 092.0218.
“broom clean” and vacant Fales 2, 2, 15.
into a commercial space Fales 7A, 12, 5.
“may execute the warrant of eviction” Fales 2, 3, 27.
“then I had this dream” Fales 3A, 4, 103.
“Hard to remember now” Fales 4, 7, 13.
“ideal construction of painting or photos or whatever” February 22, 1989, in Fales 1, 1, 21, and Diaries, ed. Scholder, p. 219.
New York had 22 percent of all reported cases in the country Crimp with Rolston, Demo Graphics, p. 85.
washed his hands after handing a PWA a cookie Richard Levine, “Koch, in Book with O’Connor, Traces a Conservative Shift,” New York Times, March 7, 1989.
who in city government was not doing what The “Target City Hall” booklet can be found in Fales 7D, 15, 132A.
“It makes me very self-conscious to sit in front of a tape recorder” Audiotape of DW in possession of Marion Scemama.
“He wanted to record it before everybody died” Sylvère Lotringer, “Marion Scemama,” in A Definitive History, ed. Ambrosino, p. 132.
“the growing feeling of death surrounding us” Scemama quotes here are from both author’s interviews and A Definitive History, ed. Ambrosino, p. 132.
to every member of Congress, enclosing a reproduction of Piss Christ Robert Hobbs, “Andres Serrano: The Body Politic,” Andres Serrano: Works, 1983–1993 (Philadelphia: Institute Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania) 1994, pp. 17–43.
“the courage to stand against such bigotry. I hope so” “Reverend Donald Wildmon, letter concerning Serrano’s Piss Christ, April 5, 1989,” Culture Wars: Documents, ed. Bolton, p. 27.
“he is taunting the American people” “Debate in Senate over the NEA … May 18, 1989,” Ibid., p. 30.
considered using it in ITSOFOMO He wrote “tape of conversation w/Steve Woj” on the script labeled “visual notes” Fales 3G, 6, 284.
“could blow their budget out of the water!” William Honan, “Congressional Anger Threatens Arts Endowment’s Budget,” New York Times, June 20, 1989.
“Mapplethorpe’s work would never be looked at in its own right” Grace Glueck, “Art on the Firing Line,” New York Times, July 9, 1989.
“explicit homoerotic pornography and child obscenity” “Debate in Senate over Helms Amendment … July 26, 1989, Culture Wars: Documents, ed. Bolton, p. 76.
“depictions of some people’s sexuality” DW to Newsday in Fales Series 2, Box 3, Folder 19.
David’s piece in the Journal of Contemporary Art Zinsser’s co-editor, Philip Pocock, was actually the person who solicited the piece from David.
“break my chains self imposed or otherwise” Undated journal entry in Fales 1, 1, 21.
“Sometimes the stars in sky make my head hurt” Fales 10A, Videotape O92.0009.
“a little lighter in the rotation?” Fales 10A, Videotape O92.00015.
“trying new forms, new feelings and emotions” Sylvère Lotringer, “Marion Scemama,” in A Definitive History, ed. Ambrosino, p. 133.
The cat on his lap actually looked quite attentive Fales 10A, Videotape O92.00019.
“tape of me angry or talking about death. Rejected her” Fales 4, 7, 13.
did not want to be in touch with her anymore Sylvère Lotringer, “Marion Scemama,” in A Definitive History, ed. Ambrosino, p. 139.
“that it could have been different for you” Fales 2, 3, 19.
“I wouldn’t want to contribute to unhinging that” Author’s interviews with DW in January 1990.
“yet I don’t want to get close enough to find out” Ibid.
“Mom, I have a lot of mixed feelings towards my relationship with you” DW to Dolores, November 1, 1989, loose pages inside Fales 1, 1, 20.
“while sizing up each other’s mortality” This short film can be seen at http://www.pzfoundation.org/philzwickler/film/fear.html.
create their own images for “Telling Yourself” Fales 3F, 6, 266.
Needle Nightmare It’s not clear whether Zwickler considered this film finished. It can be viewed at http://www.pzfoundation.org/philzwickler/film/index.html.
“known to cause birth defects” http://articles.latimes.com/1985-12-10/
news/mn-15459_1_enters-senate-race.
“what homosexuality really is” Robert W. Stewart, “Dannemeyer Causes Flap in Congress by Describing Gay Sex,” Los Angeles Times, July 25, 1989.
“truly damaging” in preventing the spread of the virus Duncan Campbell, “AIDS as an Election Issue,” New Scientist, January 21, 1988.
“oversight” of choices made by grantees Robert Atkins, “Stream of Conscience: Andres Serrano’s ‘Piss Christ,’ “ Village Voice, May 30, 1989.
“favoring taxpayer funding for pornography” William H. Honan, “Compromise Is Proposed on Helms Amendment,” New York Times, September 28, 1989.
Chaucer would be unacceptable under the Helms amendment Ibid.
“They tried to make us see” Cookie Mueller, “A Last Letter,” Witnesses: Against Our Vanishing catalog, p. 14.
“I’D CONTRACTED A DISEASED SOCIETY AS WELL” DW, Close to the Knives, pp. 112, 113–14.
“Dannemeyer off the empire state building” Ibid., p. 120.
“the repulsive senator from zombieland” Ibid., p. 119.
cardinal’s name came up frequently See, for example, the summary of grievances in Crimp with Rolston, Demo Graphics, pp. 131–38, along with DW, Close to the Knives, pp. 125–27.
banned them from ever entering the cathedral again See http://www.dignityny.org/content/social-justice.
“thousands to their unnecessary deaths” DW, Close to the Knives, p. 114.
“a meter which is completely unreal” Blinderman, “The Compression of Time: An Interview with David Wojnarowicz,” Tongues of Flame, ed. Blinderman, pp. 61–62.
“the worst in living memory” Robert Hughes, “Art: Careerism and Hype Amidst the Image Haze,” Time, June 17, 1985.
was putting his face on the catalog to get back at him Sylvère Lotringer, “Steve Brown,” in A Definitive History, ed. Ambrosino, p. 40.
“the gay-bashed, self-hating kid who struggled to survive” Maurice Berger, “Stonewalled at the Museum,” Village Voice, August 18, 1992.
“the whole future of the public funding of art has come to rest on your shoulders” Susan Wyatt, “Setting the Record Straight: Diary of a Controversy,” in The Cultural Battlefield: Art Censorship and Public Funding, eds. Jennifer A. Peter and Louis M. Crosier (Gilsum, NH: Avocus Publishing, 1995) p. 97.
no way in hell he would do that Evelyn B. Leong, “An Interview with Susan Wyatt,” Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts, vol. 6, no. 2, September 1994, p. 50.
“asks me to sign liability waver in case of lawsuits—I say send it to me” Fales Series 7B, Box 14, Folder 57.
for all “losses, liabilities, damages, and settlements” resulting from his essay Ibid.
“Susan’s interpretation of our conversation” Robert Atkins, “Black Thursday: Frohnmayer Fiddles, Artists Burn,” Village Voice, November 28, 1989.
Frohnmayer then asked her to remove NEA credit from the catalog and to print a disclaimer Susan Wyatt, “Setting the Record Straight: Diary of a Controversy,” in The Cultural Battlefield: Art Censorship and Public Funding, eds. Jennifer A. Peter and Louis M. Crosier (Gilsum, NH: Avocus Publishing, 1995), p. 81.
“pleasant” and “unsurprised by everything” Evelyn B. Leong, “An Interview with Susan Wyatt,” Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts, Summer 1994, p. 53.
“more problematic than Mapplethorpe’s photos” Frohnmayer, Leaving Town, p. 76.
“a declaration of weakness” Ibid.
“Artists Space should relinquish the Endowment’s grant for the exhibition” Frohnmayer to Wyatt, November 3, 1989, in author’s possession.
“it’s the show itself maybe erotic stuff “ Fales 7B, 14, 57.
“is the law now also retroactive?” John Marzulli, “Liberal Arts? A SoHo Gallery Fears Backlash,” Daily News, November 8, 1989.
“There are specific derogatory references in the show to Senator Helms, Congressman Dannemeyer and Cardinal O’Connor which makes it political” William H. Honan, “Arts Endowment Withdraws Grant for AIDS Show,” New York Times, November 9, 1989.
“I do not consider myself exempt from or above criticism by anyone” William H. Honan, “The Endowment vs. the Arts: Anger and Concern,” New York Times, November 10, 1989.
“an erosion of the artistic focus” William C. Honan, “Endowment Head Explains Withdrawal of Art Grant,” New York Times, November 14, 1989.
“Tired of restraint of Susan while bigots speak unrestrained” Fales 7B, 14, 57.
“you should resign” Frohnmayer, Leaving Town, p. 84.
“more oppressive and hopeless and depressing” Ibid., p. 83.
“possible loss of funding” Fales 3A, 5, 163.
compared David … to Louis Farrakhan Ray Kerrison, “Art Show Assaults O’Connor and Church, But Our Catholic Governor Is Mute,” New York Post, November 22, 1989.
“hatred against Roman Catholicism” Patrick Buchanan, “Why Subsidize Defamation?” New York Post, November 22, 1989.
“supporting my right of free speech under the First Amendment” DW “to the Dean and whomever else it may concern,” November 22, 1989, in author’s possession.
“history in such a public way” DW, Close to the Knives, p. 122.
“To keep silent … is to lose our identities” DW, Close to the Knives, p. 153.
“The Private Lives of Saints” Fales Series 3A, Box 4, Folders 92 and 93.
a section that did not air Fales 10A, DVD 092.0434.
The phrase “Silence = Death” Allen White, “Reagan’s AIDS Legacy: Silence Equals Death,” SFGate.com, June 8, 2004.
“Dean’s monologue” Fales 3D, 6, 223.
“It’s not our job to squelch controversy” Elizabeth Hess, “Frohnmayer’s Normal Waterloo?” Village Voice, December 12, 1989.
“Does it prevent you from hearing anything else I say?” Elizabeth Hess, “Queer in Normal,” Village Voice, February 13, 1990.
“a unique educational experience for our immediate audience and people all over the country” “Final Descriptive Report: David Wojnarowicz, Tongues of Flame University Galleries of Illinois State University NEA Special Exhibition Grant #89-4442-0376,” in author’s possession.
he did not have to comment on it Frohnmayer, Leaving Town, p. 114.
“Is This How You Want Your Tax Dollars Spent?” “American Family Association … February 13, 1990,” in Culture Wars: Documents, ed. Bolton, p. 151.
“hardly a blasphemous concept” Frohnmayer, Leaving Town, p. 121.
“What gesture of hands or mind can stop my death?” Undated journal entry in Fales 1, 1, 22, and Diaries, ed. Scholder, p. 229.
“Monte committed suicide about January 18, 1990. His dad” Fales 8B, 17, Audiotape 092.0280.
“throwing themselves into the varied arms of death” DW, Close to the Knives, p. 225.
“Take pictures of me dead” Fales 8B, 17, Audiotape 092.0270.
“being human or not being human” Fales 8B, 16, Audiotape 092.0240.
“acknowledge it and move on” DW, Close to the Knives, p. 241.
“Does that make them less obscene?” Kim Masters, “NEA-Funded Art Exhibit Protested: Wildmon Mails Sexual Images to Congress,” Washington Post, April 21, 1990.
“Smell the flowers while you can” DW, Close to the Knives, pp. 271–72.
“a door to all that I’ve been speaking of “ Ibid., pp. 270–71.
“this sensation of life in an uninfected body” Undated journal entry in Fales 1, 1, 22, and Diaries, ed. Scholder, p. 224.
“Holly Hughes is a lesbian and her work is very heavily of that genre” C. Carr, “Artful Dodging: The NEA Funds the Defunded Four,” Village Voice, June 15, 1993.
“aggressively homosexual” Frohnmayer, Leaving Town, p. 151–52.
“reluctant to think much about giving it up” DW to Zimmerman, May 21, 1990, in author’s possession.
intense at certain periods Fales 7A, 12, 2 and 2, 3, 27.
“as generous a gift to AFA as possible” Fales 7B, 14, 64.
Motions for dismissal and change of venue David Wojnarowicz, Plaintiff v. American Family Association and Donald E. Wildmon, Defendants, United States Court District Court for the Southern District of New York, 90 Civ. 3457 (WCC).
“middle ground that would appease everyone” Frohnmayer, Leaving Town, p. 176.
“and life was going on around me” DW to Glantzman, July 7, 1990, in author’s possession.
selected the images for this piece Untitled for ACT UP can be seen at http://www.actupny.org/merchandise/index.html.
letters to the loft board and to his lawyer Fales Series 2, Box 3, Folder 27.
damages of just one dollar The decision can be read at http://www.artuntitled.com/resource/wojnaro_AFA.html.
“He was too powerful a force to give up. He wasn’t sick!” Patrick McDonnell’s account can be read at http://the11thmcdonnell.blogspot.com/?zx=3363ab1894f0daae.
possible class-action lawsuit Josh Meyer, “Drawing the Line: 2 Clerics Face Off Over Exhibit in Battle for the ‘Soul’ of America,” Los Angeles Times, August 2, 1990.
free from government intrusion http://www.csulb.edu/~jvancamp/doc2.html.
“works which promote blasphemous and sacrilegious hate material” Eli Teiber, “N.Y Artist’s Work Is the Focus of Suit Against the NEA,” New York Post, August 30, 1990.
they had suffered “spiritual injury” http://www.csulb.edu/
~jvancamp/doc2.html.
“standing to sue as citizens” Ibid.
“Your letter was a profound shock to me” in Fales 2, 3, 25.
arranged to have a storage unit built DW to Ackerman, August 27, 1990, in Fales 2, 3 27, and DW to Ackerman, September 5, 1990, in Fales 7A, 12, 2.
“on a quieter level” DW to Glantzman, October 1, 1990, in author’s possession.
“the malevolence of the virus” This translation of À rebours can be found at http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/jkh/r08.html.
“Destination means death to me” DW, Close to the Knives, p. 62.
“He may not have planned on staying” Undated journal entry in Fales 1, 2, 28.
“not waiting a moment longer than necessary?” Ibid.
“not actively participating in the perpetuation of human life” Anthony Haden-Guest, “The Art of the Hype,” Vanity Fair, June 1989.
“all who were offended” “Kostabi Apologizes,” Newsday, May 17, 1989.
“so much bad art in the world” “Not Sorry,” New York Post, May 26, 1989.
“I am exactly the opposite of what you think” Fales Series 8B, Box 17, Audiotape 092.0263.
“compromised the entire show” Tom Hickerson, “Controversy Rages Over Former Blum Exhibit,” Bard Observer, February 22, 1991.
clothes plus one Gap item Fales Series 2, Box 3, Folder 29.
first in the series, providing both words and visuals Fales 2, 3, 28.
“in sometimes disjointed currents” Undated journal entry in Fales 1, 2, 30, and Diaries, ed. Scholder, p. 235.
letter from a young writer in Fales 2, 3, 28.
“deal with issues like my past and my mortality” Ibid.
The cover would use a detail from Fear of Evolution Fales 2, 3, 31.
“Death as an aspect of AIDS” Undated journal entry in Fales 1, 2, 30, and Diaries, ed. Scholder, p. 244.
a picture of him hooked to an IV with a caption DW, Memories, p. 50.
“I can’t even fucking let it out” Undated journal entry in Fales 1, 2, 30.
“It’s something about violence as a distancing tool” DW, Memories, p. 28.
“disappearing but not fast enough” Ibid., p. 61.
probably crazy not to cancel this trip Undated journal entry in Fales 1, 2, 30, and Diaries, ed. Scholder, p. 246.
“I’m afraid to take my own life right now” Fales 4, 7, 13.
“how patiently you wait” May 1991 in Fales 1, 2, 30.
“oh life is so free in America” Ibid.
“she needed time or something” Ibid. and Diaries, ed. Scholder, p. 252.
“I felt a door closing between us” Ibid. and Diaries, ed. Scholder, p. 253.
“seems stupid, what it’s all based on” Ibid. and Diaries, ed. Scholder, p. 256.
“something has changed” Ibid. and Diaries, ed. Scholder, p. 255.
“It never came” Ibid. and Diaries, ed. Scholder, p. 256.
“want it somehow to stop” Ibid. and Diaries, ed. Scholder, p. 260.
“It felt like what I think grace is” June 1, 1991, in Fales 1, 2, 30, and Diaries, ed. Scholder, pp. 263–64.
“Tom in order to get help from him” DW to Glantzman, July 27, 1991, in author’s possession.
“Marion had misinterpreted what she’d said” Fales Series 2, Box 3, Folder 29.
“how you share what you know?” Fales 2, 3, 28.
“wing uttering from the wound” Undated journal entry in Fales 1, 2, 31.
“Events are lost to me seconds after they take place” Fales 3A, 4, 29.
“dump their lifeless form on the front steps” DW, Close to the Knives, p. 122.
“illusion of the ONE-TRIBE NATION” Ibid., p. 121.
this final act of empowerment and generosity Information on the political funerals, including film footage, can be found at http://www.actupny.org/diva/polfunsyn.html.