Fire in the Belly: The Life and Times of David Wojnarowicz
Author(s): Cynthia Carr
In December 2010, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington made headlines when it responded to protests from the Catholic League by voluntarily censoring an excerpt of David Wojnarowicz's A Fire in My Belly from its show on American portraiture. Why a work of art could stir such emotions is at the heart of Cynthia Carr's Fire in the Belly, the first biography of a beleaguered art-world figure who became one of the most important voices of his generation. Wojnarowicz emerged from a Dickensian childhood that included orphanages, abusive and absent parents, and a life of hustling on the street. He first found acclaim in New York's East Village, a neighborhood noted in the 1970s and '80s for its abandoned buildings, junkies, and burgeoning art scene. Along with Keith Haring, Nan Goldin, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, Wojnarowicz helped redefine art for the times. As uptown art collectors looked downtown for the next big thing, this community of cultural outsiders was suddenly thrust into the national spotlight. The ensuing culture war, the neighborhood's gentrification, and the AIDS crisis then devastated the East Village scene. Wojnarowicz died of AIDS in 1992 at the age of thirty-seven. Carr's brilliant biography traces the untold story of a controversial and seminal figure at a pivotal moment in American culture.
Product Information
The first full biography of legendary East Village artist and gay activist David Wojnarowicz, whose work continues to provoke twenty years after his death.
WINNER 2013 Lambda Literary Awards Best Biography
Praise for Our Town: "Sorrowful and penetrating." -New York Times Book Review "One of the most fascinating and challenging explorations of [race] to arrive in a long time." -Michael Agger, Mother Jones "Reading it prompts only words of praise. Carr has thoroughly immersed herself in her subject, becoming part of it." -Philadelphia Inquirer "Exhaustively researched... A book righteous in its fight for truth."- Entertainment Weekly, Editor's Choice "No doubt [James] Baldwin would have admired Carr's intelligent, driven, traumatic reckoning." -Newsday "Extremely well researched and well written... A must-read." -Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Cynthia Carr was a columnist and arts reporter for the Village Voice from 1984 to 2003. Writing under the byline C. Carr, she specialized in experimental and cutting-edge art, especially performance art. Some of these pieces are now collected in On Edge: Performance at the End of the Twentieth Century. She is also the author of Our Town: A Heartland Lynching, a Haunted Town, and the Hidden History of White America. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Artforum, Bookforum, Modern Painters, the Drama Review, and other publications. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2007. Carr lives in New York.
General Fields
- :
- : Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- : Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- : September 2012
- : United States
- : July 2012
- : books
Special Fields
- : Cynthia Carr
- : Hardback
- : 812
- : 700.92
- : 624
- : B&W throughout; 16p color insert
