Q: Well, why does your poster say Banned Books?
A: It says banned book readings.
We were scheduled to read
at a tavern, a book fair, and a gallery.
I had taken vacation at my day job
and so had John.
We drove to Lansing, Michigan.
The readings were
co-sponsored by Jeff Potter and Crowbar.
Crowbar made up a poster advertising
the places we would read and asked the local Barnes & Noble bookstore if he could
put a poster in their lobby.
It was Banned Books Week 2000.
They
said no.
They said they only allowed writers who were signing books in their
store, books the store sold customers, not books the writer sold customers, to advertise
their readings in their lobby. It was their policy.
So Crowbar made another
poster, a poster saying BANNED BOOK READINGS, and put the posters on utility poles
in the parking lot outside their store.
Q: Did they attract any readers?
A: He also put them in the gay bars.
We had a good turn-out.
I had written a pamphlet to give away, The Beat Poet Tour.
Now, I
wrote another pamphlet I called Garage Band Books Week 2000.
In it,
I said we don't ban books in American, Barnes & Noble just won't sell self-published
books, book reviewers won't review them, and teachers don't teach them in class.
Other than that, anyone is free to write, and publish, whatever he pleases.
Anyone can read whatever he feels like going some lengths to find.
If it's
important to him, he will go to those lengths.
Q: Steve Lacy said, about playing with Cecil Taylor,
Playing with Cecil Taylor immediately put me into the offensive mode. This was the avant-tout garde. We were an attack quartet (sometimes quintet or trio), playing original, dangerously threatening music that most people (musicians, organizers, club-owners, and critics) were offended by, doing everything they could to hold us back and prevent us from getting work. In the six years I worked with Cecil Taylor (1953-59), I received an excellent education, not only in jazz, but also in politics and strategy.
A: Yes. It's an education.
Q: Are you going to go on the attack, in Philadelphia?
A: Yes.
I am in attack mode.