Vali Myers A Memoir
by Gianni Menichetti Golda Foundation; Publisher
The Australian artist, Vali Myers, was a legend in her own time. Première danseuse of the Melbourne Modern Ballet at seventeen, she left home and spent ten years in Paris, living much of the time on the streets but never ceasing to draw. Ed van der Elsken famously put her on the cover of his Love on the Left Bank, that manifesto of Paris in the 1950’s and her work was praised by George Plimpton in his Paris Review. Then, saying goodbye to all that, she spent forty years in semi-seclusion in a wild canyon in Italy, where she continued producing her minute, mystical, and passionate drawings. Tough as nails, she fought the local authorities who wanted to introduce loggers into the valley, after a long struggle succeeding in having it designated an Environmental Oasis. Finally, Vali returned triumphant to her native Melbourne, where she was recognized as an artist sui generis. In this brilliant memoir by her friend and lover, Gianni Menichetti, her art, times, and personality come through unforgettably. For thirty years, Gianni Menichetti, the author of this memoir, lived with Vali Myers in the wild canyon of ‘Il Porto’—first as lover and willing slave, ultimately as friend, confidant, and protector.
You saw in her the personalization of something torn and loose and deep down primitive in all of us.” George Plimpton, Paris Review
“Vali’s dogs, Vali’s trees, Vali’s donkey, the birds, the flowers, the caves, the spiders of Vali. We have seen for the first time the old skeleton of nature." Bernardo Bertolucci, film-maker, Last Tango in Paris, Stealing Beauty
“Vali—the original Tightrope Dancer. Most totter along life’s tightrope; Vali embraced the danger and leapt. With her fierce wild spirit, she was a familiar who swept you up in her magical world which made everything else look like a pale shade of grey.” Ruth Cullen, director, Tightrope Dancer, Painted Lady
“It was like being friends with some angel who had gotten kicked out for lewd behavior. . .”
Chris Stein, musician, Blondie
Resistance
A Radical Social and Political History
of the Lower East Side
Clayton Patterson
Edited by Clayton Patterson, Alan Moore, Joe Flood
Co-Editor: Jody Weiner
Seven Stories Press; Publisher
This collection of writings and images documents the political history of NYC’s Lower East Side, describing the lives and struggles of the radicals, artists, and immigrants that populated and politicized one of America’s strangest and most beloved neighborhoods. Current and former residents of the neighborhood explore the social, political, and human landscape of one of America’s most storied bohemias. In over fifty chapters, Emma Goldman, Dorothy Day, Christopher Mele, John Macmillan, Jim Feast, Al Orensanz, Allan Antliff, Lynn Stewart, Thomas McEvilly, Frank Morales,and many others cover topics ranging from the early settlement houses and sweatshops to squatters, rioters, artists, activists and organizers. Resistance is jam-packed with fascinating first-person accounts of the battles, triumphs, failures, and lives of a neighborhood that is rapidly being lost to gentrification.
Canadian-born CLAYTON PATTERSON is a prolific photographer, artist,outlaw historian and community activist. He lives and works on the Lower East Side of New York City. Patterson is the frequent subject ofmedia attention for his archival and activist efforts.
ISBN-10 1583227458 ISBN-13 978-1-58322-745-9
List Price $30.00 Publication Date 2007
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