Never Can Say Goodbye…

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fensterm - June 26, 2009 @ 6:48 pm · Uncategorized

It was the very beginning of my PhD from the edge of hell. We had just moved in to an apartment in Brooklyn. We had heard a commotion outside. “He’s got a gun!” Gilbert said. Not long after someone broke in through the airshaft window. It was little Michael, about 10 or 12, next door. When it got cold, we had no heat. It was less than the best of times.

A voice – a youthful voice – another Michael – more like 8 – it lifted me. Thanks Michael.

I cannot find a picture in the public domain of the Michael I remember. He was perfect the way he was. Or, if you must, he was perfect the way God made him.

Photo: Wikimedia Foundation

Photo: Wikimedia Foundation

Fanpop has a copyrighted image.

Update from DemocracyNow!

Amy1 had commentary that brought insight to the discussion of Michael’s later life that I had not heard in the pop-fanzine coverage. A quote from James Baldwin that I would not dare to paraphrase. Margo Jefferson, Pulitzer Prize-winning cultural critic and Mark Anthony Neal, Professor of Black Popular Culture at Duke University pointed to hints about gender, race, and art that may never be understood.2 It is a challenge. I rise.

Mourning at the Apollo.

“]The Apollo Theater, Harlem NYC c.1947 [Wikimedia Foundation]

The Apollo Theater, Harlem NYC c.1947 [Wikimedia Foundation

In my ten years in Harlem, hundreds of walks on 125th st., I never went to a show there. Scores of artists who later became famous played there early in their careers. Most of them were African-American. But there was also white Texas rocker Buddy Holly, “I’m surprised to see y’all too!”3

Amy interviewed folks gathered at the Apollo to remember Michael.

Fans mourning the death of Michael Jackson at the Apollo Theater this weekend, and tens of thousands of them were signing and giving—sending best wishes and condolences, long sheets of paper along 125th Street.

1Democracy Now! anchor and executive producer Amy Goodman graduated from Harvard in 1985. She was an anthropology concentrator.
2Amy is sooo smart.

3According to the movie, The Buddy Holly Story at least. This is not listed among the inaccuracies of the movie.

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Progression of Pride: It all goes back to Stonewall.

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