Review of Short Story Anthology, "Have a NYC 3"

Peter Carlaftes and Kat Georges launched their new book Have a NYC 3:  New York Short Stories at the Cornelia Street Café on West 4th street in New York City on Friday, June 6th.  Published by Three Rooms Press, the collection they edited includes 16 short stories by 16 writers, beginning with Georges.  It includes a story by Bonnie Finberg whose witty novel Kali’s Day was published by Autonomedia this year.

“We want to put established authors alongside of new authors who maybe, some of them, this is the first time they have ever been published.  But they had a great story to tell.  It was about New York.  That is what we wanted to include in this journal.  I remember punk rock clubs.  That is what they used to do.  They had a headline band; and they always had a couple of bands opening up who maybe were from the local area whom nobody had heard of,” Georges said.

The collection contains explicit language.  With at least one story in each of the five boroughs, Have a NYC 3 is thematically similar to noir fiction:  some of its stories are about sex; others are about crime and drugs.  In this respect, many of the characters make allowances for criminal activity and are not law abiding.  That said, Ron Kolm’s “Hook” is something of an exception.  At one point, a tourist at a bookstore where people are smoking pot threatens to call the police on a bicycle thief who is ultimately apprehended by an Angel.  Thematically, in terms of literary history, most of the writers follow in the tradition of the Beats:  Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Paul Bowles and Jack Kerouac.

The Introduction is specifically about identity and New York.  “The City takes your breath away.  Sometimes forever.  But memory is short.  That is your only edge” (i).  The shortness of memory, especially when it comes to language, can in fact be a problem and a disadvantage.  Unfortunately, when a person uses an old word in a way that is limited to contemporary times, its old definition can be negatively effective.  Using the word “edge” to mean an “advantage” is not as common as using it to mean a “border.”  Writing it to mean that is nearly obsolete these days by editors.

American is reputedly the land of opportunity where the state at least does not make people advantaged or disadvantaged because of their identity.  But many New Yorkers surely remember a time when everyone did not have the same advantages.  As recently as 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. protested against hotels that were for whites only.  Memory is not so short that everyone thinks the same thing when they hear “she has an advantage” and “she has an edge.”

A cursory reading of Ron Kolm’s Divine Comedy and James Browning Kepple’s pieces in Couplet shows that neither of them ever uses the word “edge;” and they are poets, at liberty to use the language poetically.

Have a NYC 3 has stories by at least two native New Yorkers:  “Imitations of Christ” by Peter Marra and “Lustrum at the Flushing RKO” by Kirpal Gordon.  The anthology also has stories by writers from other towns. 

One of the difficulties with his theory of memory is that some people are native New Yorkers and they remain New Yorkers and some people are immigrants to New York.  Although immigrants can become New Yorkers, only their children will be natives and benefit from its rights.

In response to a question about the shortness of memory being an “edge,” Peter Carlaftes said, “Well New York, there is always so many people coming in.  And as strong as it is, and how much force and power it has, there are always new people; and it always gives everyone a chance.  So everyone has the same opportunity up front.  Its memory is short.  It could never keep up with that.  Oh, that’s the same guy that was here last week.  Boom!  Get rid of him.  You will always have the same opportunity as everyone.”

A poet, however good or bad, uses formal language and colloquial expressions with an awareness of historical signification.  The song “Bright Moments” by Rashaan Roland Kirk dealt with a similar problem.  Kirk would seem to agree that shortness of memory is an advantage, especially in regard to derogatory and offensive monikers.  Someone asked, “How did everything get so messed up?”  Kirk responded, “I put a label on you and you are going to be that.  […]  You’re San Diego Boy.  I don’t care.  You can go to Georgia and you are still San Diego Boy.”

About 40 people crammed into the basement for the event at 29 Cornelia Street to listen to excerpts from the anthology’s readers.  The Cornelia Street Café has a pleasant dining area on the main floor.  The basement is decorated with chalky blue walls and mirrors on one side that are designed to look like windows.  A big, luxurious, pinkish purple curtain hangs behind the stage and a string of regular sized light bulbs that are green, blue, orange and red add to the modern-domestic ambiance.