Dear Shaded Viewers,
Alan Brown
Dear Shaded Viewers,
Almost two decades ago when I was a fashion designer living in New York I signed up for a class in Japanese at the New School. It was an intense course starting at 9h on Saturday mornings. I think I lasted about 6 classes and then dropped out. While I was there I met my neighbor on West 11th street, Alan Brown. More than 10 years ago I was looking for a present for a friend in a book store in London. I picked up Audrey Hepburn’s Neck thought it looked interesting and turned to the back cover to read about its author and found out it was written by Alan Brown. I bought two copies and found it a very provacative read. I sent a message to Alan through his publisher just to congratulate him. He wrote back but I had not seen or heard from him since then. Recently when I was in NYC as a guest of the Metropolitan Museum for their Mode-Blogging panel, I ran into Alan at the Tribeca Grand Hotel. We were both there to see the work of a video artist. It was a wonderful New York reunion.
DP: We met at the New School, I was a Japanese drop out and you went on to live and study in Japan for 7 years as a Fulbright scholar. You have received many writing awards including the National Endowment for the Arts, Fulbright and NY Foundation for the Arts Fellowships. At what point during your stay in Japan did the idea for
