NY/NY
Author: Patti White
- Photographer: Gaylin English
In NY/NY, Patti White's prose poems, accompanied by Gaylin English's starkly beautiful black-and-white photos of New York City, reflect back on the years 1984-1990. The poems are fragments of city life as self-conscious noir: from temp jobs to strewn garbage, steak frites at Florent to winter wind tunnels -- a New York both close and surreal. White's poems speak to arrival and departure, return us to New York during the time of AIDS and Chernobyl, make us wear structuralist clothing. English's photos are lonely and moving, mostly void of people during these pandemic times. We find beauty and bewilderment in this wonderful collaboration, and we are thrilled to follow the speaker into alleys and subways, thrift stores and ferries.
About the Author
PATTI WHITE lived in midtown Manhattan from 1984 to 1990. During that time she did temp work, taught at Hunter College and La Guardia Community College, and earned a PhD in English at the CUNY Graduate Center. She is the author of four collections of poetry, including Chain Link Fence and Pink Motel (Anhinga Press). Her most recent book is an experimental novella, Particularly Dangerous Situation (Arc Pair Press). She now lives in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
GAYLIN ENGLISH is a native of Alabama and majored in Theatre at the University of South Carolina and moved to New York City in 1979. She appeared in many off-Broadway plays and toured with Broadway productions until she left the stage in 1997. She then managed two bar/restaurants in Manhattan while maintaining close ties to the theatre community. She currently lives in the Village with her dog Izzy.