During its heyday, the Chelsea Hotel in New York City was a home and safe haven for Bohemian artists, poets, and musicians such as Bob Dylan, Gregory Corso, Alan Ginsberg, Janis Joplin, and Dee Dee Ramone. This oral history of the famed hotel peers behind the iconic façade and delves into the mayhem, madness, and brilliance that stemmed from the hotel in the 1980s and 1990s. Providing a window into the late Bohemia of New York during that time, countless interviews and firsthand accounts adorn this social history of one of the most celebrated and culturally significant landmarks in New York City.
A powerful depiction of racial tensions arising over the death of a Cajun farmer at the hands of a black man--set on a Louisiana sugarcane plantation in the 1970s. The Village Voice called A Gathering of Old Men “the best-written novel on Southern race relations in over a decade.”
A book-length selection from Kevin Killian's legendary corpus of more than two thousand product reviews posted on Amazon.com. An enchanting roll of duct tape. Love Actually on Blu-ray Disc. The Toaster Oven Cookbook, The Biography of Stevie Nicks, and an anthology of poets who died of AIDS. In this only book-length selection from his legendary corpus of more than two thousand product reviews posted on Amazon.com, sagacious shopper Kevin Killian holds forth on these household essentials and many, many, many others. The beloved author of more than a dozen volumes of innovative poetry, fiction, drama, and scholarship, Killian was for decades a charismatic participant in San Francisco’s New Narrative writing circle. From 2003–2019, he was also one of Amazon’s most prolific reviewers, rising to rarefied “Top 100” and “Hall of Fame” status on the site. Alternately hilarious and heartfelt, Killian’s commentaries consider an incredible variety of items, each review a literary escapade hidden in plain sight amongst the retailer’s endless pages of user-generated content. Selected Amazon Reviews at last gathers an appropriately wide swath of this material between two covers, revealing the project to be a unified whole and always more than a lark. Some for “verified purchases,” others for products enjoyed in theory, Killian’s reviews draw on the influential strategies of New Narrative, his unrivaled fandom for both elevated and popular culture, and the fine art of fabulation. Many of them are ingeniously funny—flash-fictional riffs on the commodity as talismanic object, written by a cast of personas worthy of Pessoa. And many others are serious, even scholarly—earnest tributes to contemporaries, and to small-press books that may not have received attention elsewhere, offered with exemplary attention. All of Killian’s reviews subvert the Amazon platform, queering it to his own play with language, identity, genre, critique. Killian’s prose is a consistent pleasure throughout Selected Amazon Reviews, brimming with wit, lyricism, and true affection. As the Hall of Famer himself reflected on this form-of-his-own-invention shortly before his untimely passing in 2019: “They’re reviews of a sort, but they also seem like novels. They’re poems. They’re essays about life. I get a lot of my kinks out there, on Amazon.”
This collection of eleven entertaining, thought-provoking stories about sports and the games people play offers both a male and female perspective on just what's so funny about the ways we compete.
In this captivating book, Stewart Lee Allen treks three-quarters of the way around the world on a caffeinated quest to answer these profound questions: Did the advent of coffee give birth to an enlightened western civilization? Is coffee, indeed, the substance that drives history? From the cliffhanging villages of Southern Yemen, where coffee beans were first cultivated eight hundred years ago, to a cavernous coffeehouse in Calcutta, the drinking spot for two of India’s three Nobel Prize winners ... from Parisian salons and cafés where the French Revolution was born, to the roadside diners and chain restaurants of the good ol’ USA, where something resembling brown water passes for coffee, Allen wittily proves that the world was wired long before the Internet. And those who deny the power of coffee (namely tea-drinkers) do so at their own peril.
During its heyday, the Chelsea Hotel in New York City was a home and safe haven for Bohemian artists, poets, and musicians such as Bob Dylan, Gregory Corso, Alan Ginsberg, Janis Joplin, and Dee Dee Ramone. This oral history of the famed hotel peers behind the iconic façade and delves into the mayhem, madness, and brilliance that stemmed from the hotel in the 1980s and 1990s. Providing a window into the late Bohemia of New York during that time, countless interviews and firsthand accounts adorn this social history of one of the most celebrated and culturally significant landmarks in New York City.
I have directed at least 3 plays for Is Said. Hes a dynamic writer and I enjoyed putting his words in motion on stage. His plays that I have directed have included poetry, dance and music which make them very unique in their delivery to the audiences. Is Said has written about very important topics of today including all ages and facets of life. From homelessness, drug abuse, spirituality has been some items his plays have introduced to the community in a very unique way. It was been a pleasure and privilege to put his words and work on stage. Najiyyah Muqtasid-Denham-Actress/Director Equal Chances in a wonderful collection of plays written by Is Said. This book paints a vivid portrait of us all through the authors captivating voice. The combination of words and movement engage and empower us to see ourselves and our world in a different light Tress Augustine - Actress/ Poet Brother Is Said plays reflect the social construct of the ABUSA people (Africans Born in the United States of America). God made us Black and Our world is a New World his poetry and plays are a part of our History now etched in the Spirit of Time. Thanks you my Brother for your gifts and we will keep the Spirit of the ABUSA people alive. Kwodwo Ababio Is Said has brought many wonderful experiences with his many talents, Im glad to have been able to be there and live it firsthand. Is Said has dynamic plays and poetry, and brings storytelling to life. I know this because I am his youngest daughter, living and experiencing life through his eyes. A trip I will never forget. Leah Lyons-Derrett Equal Chances is a collection of truths carved out of the everyday experiences of Is Said. Its a reality thats personal and purposeful at the same time. His life stories depict the hopes, dreams, love, pain and passion of everyday people. He speaks the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And truth has no ending. Sandee Hemphill-Author Is Said,s play, Equal Chances, work is a force to be reckoned with! Life choices brought to the forefront that make you think & consider your final destination. Olds Folks own, an homage to the elderly, their rich wisdom, knowledge and insight enlightens audiences to never underestimate the power of being a great giver. Cynthia P. Carr-Director I feel that a GOOD book should be able to whisk you away to another world, as well as make you feel that youre part of that world. That is what Bro. Is Saids books do. You find yourself talking out loud to the characters. His plays draw you in, and make you feel that youre in their world! Alanla Jackson
