Jean Genet's passing day
Footage in Laroche, Morrocco
Hello everyone,
I am still in Berlin and it is still raining. Today is the passing day of the poet, playwright and author Jean Genet. When I was young his work was banned in the United States but in the late sixties Grove Press was able to publish his novels. My favorite is The Thief’s Journal which traces his early youth as a vagrant poet in Spain.
The soundtrack is Wing, that I have posted before, but this is a live version from Tangiers. The film clip is from a small documentary entitled Three Stones for Jean Genet, shot by Frieder Schlaich in 2014. It shows my companions and I entering the old Spanish cemetery where he was buried. An account of this truly inspiring journey can be found in my book M Train.
Tonight I have two performances of new material with Soundwalk Collective. Outside my window a light fog is obscuring the walls of the cemetery. I am just sitting quietly preparing myself for the tasks ahead. I hope you enjoy the footage of the cemetery and will be drawn to read or reread the complicated, beautiful work of Genet
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Oh! Those are the three stones from St. Laurent Prison that you kept in the Gitanes box! How incredibly beautiful to have read the account of this visit and now to see it on his passing day. I had not seen the film before now. The stones taken home; promise kept; the kiss on the gravestone; a little child as witness and historian. I will read Genet now under the grey light of dawn, with the wet sounds of water and wings, the sky purple. Love and safe travels.
I have never seen Three Stones For Jean Genet. Thanks for posting. I have always admired your dedication to the artists who have gone before you. And I am reminded, not only of the wonders of M Train, but the end of your own introduction to The Thief's Journal. 'Words are also stones. Every word written in The Thief's Journal is conscious, as stone by stone, Genet draws us into his triad of transgression, criminality, and betrayal, transfigured as love through his pen'.