Saturday, April 19, 2014
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- bookmaven
- Charles Michael Smith is a freelance journalist and book reviewer in New York City. He has written for several newspapers and magazines. He is also the editor of "Fighting Words: Essays by Black Gay Men" (Avon Books, 1999); it was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award. His article about Harlem Renaissance luminary Bruce Nugent appeared in "In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology," edited by Joseph Beam (Alyson, 1986; reissued Redbone Press, 2008). He was interviewed for a Q & A article that was published in "Mighty Real: An Anthology of African-American Same Gender Loving Writing," edited by R. Bryant Smith and Darius Omar Williams (Effusses/Sangha Publishing, 2010). Urbanbookmaven (c) 2008. All Rights Reserved. No portion of this blog, including any text, photographs, and artwork may be reproduced or copied without written permission.
Hi Charles Michael Smith: I'm a 53 year old NYC born & bred queer woman who was a very close friend of Craig's; we first met in 1979 at Vassar college, where we were fellow students, did a lot of on campus queer & black organizing together, lots of hanging out together both in Poughkeepsie (where Vassar was) & in NYC (where Craig & I were from). When I graduated Vassar in 1983 my first job, which I worked at full time for several years, was doing AIDS work; for many years I worked with & for Joe Sonnabend, Michael Callen, & Richard Berkowitz in the org that became known as AmFar. I kept in close touch w/Craig throughout our post college years and often saw him both personally and also professionally through AIDS work; I was also very aware of course when he became ill, and was friends w/him literally up till the time of his death. (The last time we talked was in a really intense 3 hour long phone conversation in which he called me to say goodbye the day before he died; we discussed everything & anything (queer politics, black politics, AIDS, being sick, AIDS politics, etc etc etc.) in that lengthy and in many ways agonizing convo.
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, I'm going into all this not to make a name for myself, at all, but because I'm a writer/researcher with a specialization in documenting & writing about AIDS activist & personal history & I have been writing lots lately, esp about Craig. I would love to read a transcript of your interview with Craig when it's ready if that's OK with you. Also I'm in NYC so feel free to contact me about this or anything else; I can be reached at atallmer@gmail.com or through Facebook.
Thank you so much for your work, all of it and especially your work with and on Craig. He was a wonderful brilliant witty generous compassionate mutlitalented man who died way too young, and I miss him daily.
PS. Dunno if you've read Martin Duberman's new joint bio of Michael Callen & Essex Hemphill callled "Hold Tight Gently: Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill, and the Battlefield of AIDS." If and when you do read it Craig is in there quite a bit in relation to black AIDS activism and also often in relation to me (I knew Essex very casually but was extremely extremely extremely good friends with Mike Callen and with Craig both); see esp pages 112-113 but also see the index for mentions of Craig (& of me re Craig) throughout the text.
Thanks and best,
Abby Tallmer
atallmer@gmail.com or through Facebook