Novelist Julie Otsuka's Ideal Reading Experience

My favorite question asked of those interviewed in the New York Times Book Review's "By the Book" Q &A feature each week is "What is your ideal reading experience?"

Novelist Julie Otsuka, I think, has given the best description so far (The New York Times Book Review, February 20, 2022):

"...I love reading and working in public spaces. My ideal reading experience: late afternoon, pre-pandemic, my neighborhood cafe, a seat in the far back corner, a slight coffee buzz. All around me, the pleasant hum of human voices. In front of me, on the table, a book, a pencil for underlining (Blackwing Palomino), a pen and a small unlined Muji notebook, in case I run across a sentence I want to write down, or overhear a good snatch of dialogue (which could end up in my next novel--sometimes I only appear to be reading)."

Zora Neale Hurston And Ida B. Wells, A Wishful Literary Conversation

February is Black History Month. So if I could go back in time, I would want to be transported to the Harlem Renaissance and sit in a room with novelist/anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston and journalist/anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells, two of my favorite African-American historical figures.

Both Hurston and Wells were contemporaries and probably knew about each other. For me it would be a joy to just listen to them exchange ideas and experiences, especially about the American South. Not only would their conversation be eye-opening, it would be intellectually stimulating.

Arthur T. Wilson, An Afro-Renaissance Man

The following excerpt is from a telephone interview I did with Arthur T. Wilson around 1984. Wilson, who is African-American, born in  Newark, New Jersey, could be considered a Renaissance man because of his many achievements as an actor, playwright, poet, educator, dance critic, and co-editor and publisher of Attitude, a monthly magazine devoted to the dance world.

On gays in dance:

"A majority of them [dancers] are [gay] but not exclusively. [New York City Ballet choreographer] George Balanchine was not and he dealt with some of the most beautiful bodies in the world over his 60, 70 years. But he was not gay at all, at all, period. [He had been] married to several beautiful women through his career. There's [choreographer] Jacques D'Amboise, who has a family. There's even [choreographer/dancer/actor] Geoffrey [Holder] himself, who's married to [dancer] Carmen de Lavallade. It just depends."

On the acclaimed Jubilation! Dance Company, founded in 1979 in Brooklyn, New York, by the African-American choreographer Kevin Jeff:

"[Jubilation! appeals] to a cross-section of those who go to dance concerts, period. Going across age. Also [it] appeals very highly to a college crowd. A cross-section of New York State citizenry. That's no different than any other fucking good arts troupe."

On sexuality's importance in creating a dance:

"That issue [homosexuality] is never important. It's the art that's important. Your bedroom politics doesn't make your painting better or your violin chirp any sweeter. Someone's sexual life really plays very little on what they do in terms of  how the audience gets it. Now in terms of your sexual life and all that represents you in relationship to how you then create your art, approach your art, yes, it does have something directly to do with it. But not in reference to the curtain goes up and the audience is either entertained or not."

The September/October 1983 issue of Attitude, a dance magazine of which Arthur T. Wilson was an editorial staff member.