Michael Eric Dyson Instagram – “This is by far the most moving, cerebral, poetic, emotional, and soulful summing up of what it meant to share time with an extraordinary thinker and critic #gregtate (@avantgroidd ), from another extraordinary thinker and critic (@ellezakelley ). May Greg Tate’s memory be a blessing to those who knew and loved him, a lesson for those who followed him, and a pathway for those yet to learn his work.” MED
Posted @withregram • @ellezakelley I took this picture in 2013, at studio museum I think. For some reason, blurriness of the blackberry camera notwithstanding, I felt like it captured Greg’s essence: his status as the mayor of black Bohemia, as many of us called him. But he was also a friend and the closest I had to a stepfather, a regular presence that I always imagined would be there. We talked about stupid things, silly tv, sci fi, art, literature, the new rappers I forced on him, everything. Even as a teenager, he took me seriously as an intellectual, he followed me down the most circuitous paths of unreasonable reasoning—he gave me confidence that my cockamamie theories had validity, that my rambles made a place, that my labyrinthine thoughts had shape and coherence. He assured me that it was brave and good to find gold where other people see trash. He taught me that making up your own language was important, that you had to say what you meant and that required invention, style, creativity and bravery. And we laughed. And he loved my mother. And wow did she love him.
I was raised in the world that his writing comes from, I never knew anything else. I don’t think of him as a intellectual influence, though he was. Instead I think of him as a family member, as a dear friend, as a member of my heart. We are blessed to have your words but what I will miss most is your cool quiet calming presence, sitting on the edge of a room with me not saying much but taking it all in, feeling and watching and listening lightly, open to the possibility that even in brilliant critique and analysis, everything has some greatness in it. We will miss you so much, our great kind wise mayor. And we will love you forever. ❤️ | Posted on 09/Dec/2021 02:13:09
