Saturday, September 14, 2013

Farewell, Jewels

Tompkins Square Park

The first time I encountered him, he was standing in the middle of Avenue A, defying traffic and screaming with his pants down.

The last time I saw him, a few days ago, he was sitting quietly on the sidewalk of St Mark's Place, looking thoughtful and vulnerable.

My favorite memory of him is at the protest of the Guggenheim Lab space on 1st St and 2nd Ave in August 2011.  He was sober then and, under the watchful and observant eye of Bob Arihood, he read an absolutely beautiful and eloquent poem that stunned the crowd into silence.

Jewels was always nice to me, ready with a compliment on my dress, hair, shoes....and I enjoyed him most when he was most free and wild, howling with delight.

2 comments:

  1. Fantastic photo, Goggla. Jewels was always nice to me as well. I'll miss seeing him around the neighborhood, for better or worse.

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  2. I used to see Jewels around, but only talked to him once when he as sitting outside of Ray's. We had a nice chat about New York, he was sober and very nice. RIP.

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