Sampling The Grand Piano
@noon, 12 April 2010, with Marie Buck
Department of English, Wayne State University
Today I read samples from The Grand Piano to an appreciative group of faculty and students at Wayne State. The samples followed the position of my section in the volumes, not the volume number. For instance I began with the opening two paragraphs of section 1 from part 2, with an additional paragraph for counterpoint, and then read the third through fifth paragraphs of section 2 from part 1. I think of these reading sequences as compositions in their own right, and so will record the order of selections here:
1. Part 2, pp. 11-12, “On May 1, 1975, I attended a public meeting . . .” to “There was no money, and few agreeable jobs”; p. 17, from “Kathleen Cleaver met with an impromptu group . . .” to “. . . but all I saw there was a modern airport.”
2. Part 1, pp. 13-15, “I remember talking with the editor at UC Press . . .” to “This writing is his tombstone; we survived.”
