Sunrise 8/2/24 in Harlem, sunset 12/1/87 in Saint-Paul-de-Vance, France.

He wrote the school song while attending P.S.24.

He was the editor of his junior high school paper.

Countee Cullen was an influence.

He was a literary editor of the school magazine of DeWitt Clinton High School. His classmate was Richard Avedon.

He was a PK (Preacher’s Kid) and a junior minister in the Pentecostal Church.

He told Elijah Muhammed “I am a writer I like doing things alone.”

He said “ . . . being in the pulpit was like working in the theater, I was behind the scenes and knew how the illusion was worked.”

He was roommates and friends with Marlon Brando.

At age 24 he moved to Paris, France to escape racism and homophobia in the United States. He became fluent in French.