Delivering the Stones
At the grave of Jean Genet 2013
Hello everyone,
Here is a post script to yesterday. I finally delivered the stones to the grave of Genet in Morrocco. The visit was documented by the filmmaker Frieder Schlaich.
I send greetings from the Nancy book festival in France. I am sending this in answer to those who wondered about the fate of the stones…
Tomorrow I continue my travels to Oxford, London and the Alhambra. Tonight Jesse and I have another event in the beautiful opera house in Nancy….I will send messages.
Thank you for sharing this film with us, Patti. That you kept your youthful promise to Jean Genet - though it took more than one attempt to accomplish the task - is evidence of your steadfastness and the resolute vitality with which you move through the world.
The depth of my feelings for Genet exceed expression. He is in part responsible for my having chosen to devote myself to representing “the worst of the worst,” people facing the death penalty.
My older brother, my protector, was gay, and in childhood I regularly witnessed his being brutally beaten, not by thugs, but by those who had authority over us. That betrayal by those in power led me to be as good as possible so as to avoid their wrath, and led my brother to live outside the law, as if to tempt fate, to fuck them all.
Genet somewhere said that what we need is hatred, for from it our ideas are born. For me, it has been hatred of a system that not only allows - but codifies - the means by which one person or some people become “othered,” a system in which the bodies of those “others” are available outlets for brutality, murderous impulses clothed under color of law, religion, normative values, country, and state.
Genet somewhere speaks of dreams nursed in darkness, and those were mine. From the darkness we came and into the darkness my brother went. I strove to avenge his death by devoting myself to the thieves, traitors, and murderers in whom I saw the deep and sunken beauty spoken of by Genet, the beauty of my brother, his sunken face, his beautiful body, ravaged by AIDS.
Thank you again for sharing the film. Wishing you and Jesse a wonderful night and happy travels. Wishing everyone safe and well.
As ever,
Robin
I always feel profoundly fortunate to have a little window onto your amazing life and travels and creative endeavors through this blog. ❤️🙏