The Final Status Ain’t Hood

“Baldwin was the first of his kind, and perhaps the last we shall see for some time: the Negro writer made a celebrity and thrust into the na­tional political dialogue.”

By the shores of the Atlantic / By the PCB-drenched water / Stands the Castle and Casino / Of the great self-idolator / Donald of the heap big Tower

“At the center of the criticism is the chief artic­ulator of Bush’s imperial presidency,” we reported in 1992, “the man who wrote the legal rationale for the Gulf War, the Panama invasion, and the officially sanctioned kidnapping of foreign nationals abroad.”

"Here was a messenger whose lyr­ics call attention to our condition, to the reasons for suffering: The music brings lightness to the feet and makes them dance, but the beat is a marching drum, a call to struggle"

"Bill Graham has been putting on some beautiful, well-run concerts at his Fillmore East.”

“Their first conversation of any length took place at a party earlier this year, and there they talked and carried on like old friends.”