Blair Performing Carl

I cried the first time I heard poet and slam artist, David Blair or Blair perform his persona poem “Carl” in the voice of the black character Carl Carlson from The Simpsons (ironically voiced by Hank Azaria). In the poem an employee at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant draws a black N on Carl’s locker.  It starts off, “I was drawn here” and ends “I was drawn here” and in between dissects what it’s like being black in a predominately white community using brave language. Brave is an appropriate word describing Blair’s poetry, also politically passionate, fiery, provocative, and necessary. Maybe it was Blair’s syrupy-rich voice, his to the point delivery, and bearlike stature that had an impact on me. Maybe it was that I knew he was gay and because he was a black gay writer I could see myself in that poem. Whatever it was he had the same effect on so many people.

The National Endowment for the Arts said “his stunningly evocative renderings of (Emily) Dickinson’s work are not to be missed.”

Jay Connell, author of Eat This City said “Blair is awful. Not in the way you’re probably thinking, though. When you see someone that talented it’s hard not to be reminded of how mediocre a lot of other things are. Every single time I’ve left a Blair show, I’ve made a comment about how I need to see that guy more often.”

Blair Performing Being Black in America

He performed throughout the world after winning against 54 four-member teams at the National Slam Competition with his team, Team Detroit (which included Ben Jones, Aurora Harris, Becky Austin, Michael Ellison, Judah, and Scott Klein) in 2002. At the competition Blair performed an Italian madrigal. I would have loved to have seen that performance or have seen Blair perform in Paris next year. Blair passed away on Saturday, July 23, 2011.

“Because I’m black and gay, the black gay community means a lot to me as a writer, artist, performer and as a listener,” Blair said.

He meant a lot to the black gay community, the slam community, the Detroit community, so many communities.

Image by Preston Rhea

He described himself as a black, queer writer, and musician. His poetry was heavily influenced by his music. A style called urban folk with an urgent rock feel. He performed with a band called The Boyfriends. Blair was on vocals and played the acoustic guitar along with Leah Woods (Vocals, Clarinet), Ken Comstock (Double Bass), Chris Winter (Drums), Markita Moore (Trumpet), Scott Stone (Drums), Dale Wilson (Electric Guitar), and Nicole Varga (Violin, Viola). Their most recent album, The Line, “was released in 2010 on Repeatable Silence Records. Blair, as a solo artist, and with The Urban Folk Collective, self-released more than seven records in the last ten years.” The Urban Folk Collective, Blair’s first band, a 5-piece band “blending many different styles from folk and blues to jazz, hip-hop and funk.” They performed shows with “Stevie Wonder, M. Doughty (Soul Coughing), Michael Moore, Tribe 8, Niagara, Reggie Gibson, and Harold McKinney.”

Blair and The Boyfriends Performing Freedom Calling

For six years Blair worked at The Chrysler Plant is Detroit where his work suffered. When he quit, he entered into a state of creativity overload, churning out poems, spoken word pieces, music, a one man show called Burying the Evidence performed in Detroit, and an experimental theater piece called The Walking Project, which had a two-week run in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. One of those poems written during that time is appropriately titled My Time At Chrysler which talks about how his work suffered.  My Time At Chrysler ends:

I traded in my Chrysler body
for the body that you now see before you
I know it’s not quite as sleek or as young as it once was
it still gets me to where I need to go
puts me on a new road
points me in a new direction
where the light beams
and the mind dreams
and life seems to go on forever

Blair’s life will go on forever in the minds of the people he inspired, that loved him, and on YouTube. Check out more of Blair’s performances below. Little Richard Penniman Tells It Like It T-I-IS is a favorite. Rest in peace Blair.

Recommended Reading and Listening:

The DVD World’s Greatest Poetry Slam 2002 featuring Blair, Shappy, Becky Austin, George McKibbens, Benjamin Jones, Celena Glenn, Michael Ellison, Sekou (Tha Misfit), and Shane Koyczan Taylor Mali from the 2002 National Poetry Slam in Minneapolis, MN showing both the team and the individual competitions.

The DVD Slam Safe II featuring Blair, Taylor Mali, Lizz Straight, Sonya Renee Taylor, and Simone Beubien from the National Poetry Slam in West Palm Beach FL.

Blair and Boyfriend’s The Line Album. All the songs were written and produced by Blair with Chris Pyle, Josh Antonuccio, and Dale Wilson.

Blair Performing Detroit

Blair Performing Little Richard Penniman Tells It Like It T-I-IS

Blair Performing Into Darkness

Books and Brunch, Orlando Black Pride

June is the official Pride month. Each week there seems to be a Pride celebration happening across the states. Orlando Black (gay) Pride is May 31 – June 5. The event I’m most excited about is Books and Brunch, hosted by Kat Williams, host of Sipping On Ink radio show (Blog Talk Radio). Books and Brunch is a literary workshop featuring G. Winston James, Fiona Zedde, Cheril N. Clarke, Spoken, Ortis Randolf, Sherry Michelle, Skyy, and Kat Williams.

Kat William’s Sipping On Ink Interview With Yvonne Fly Onakeme Etaghene

Event Description:

Kat Williams will be moderating a discussion on writing and how to get published and each of the featured authors will talk about their experience getting published. Guests will have the opportunity to chat with the authors and purchase books for signing. The event is a teleseminar. If you can’t be there you can see it as it happens at Orlando Black Pride.

Fiona Zedde On Gender/Race/Sexuality For black./womyn.:conversations

Location: Orlando Vista Hotel, 12490 Apopka Vineland Road

Date/Time: Sunday, June 5, 2011, 11am-2pm

Price: Only $20 entry and brunch or $10 entry only (The brunch will include: Mimosa, Scrambled Eggs, Bacon, Chicken & Vegetable Kabobs, Home Fries, Texas Rice, Caesar Salad, Rolls, and Coffee)

Go out and meet all the authors. Tickets for the event can be purchased www.orlandoblackpride.eventbrite.com or www.orlandoblackpride.com. Please purchase in advance as space is limited.

Remember the name janet mock. she’s about to the next literary giant.

A friend told me to go to her blog, Musings On Love, and read the first entry. It reads … “You have until the age of 28 to decide between his dreams or yours,” a girlfriend of mine warned while having drinks last night. “You’ve got two years … I was having a carefree evening fueled by rounds of alcohol and predominantly light conversation. This girlfriend, who’ll remain anonymous, said based on her experience (tied in with her own regrets as an over-accomplished single woman in her mid-30s) in a nutshell that there’s no such thing as having it all and specifically if I want to be with Aaron, I have to give up my dreams to support his.” The entry is dated Sunday, September 13, 2009 with the tags gender and relationships. Those few sentences were beautiful and made me want to read more. I did and entered Mock’s life. Mock is a writer and editor for People.com, interned at In Style magazine, received an MA in journalism from New York University, and is dating a very handsome man. In all a perfect life, what every woman wants. The death of Tyler Clementi forced her to reevaulate her life and come out per se. Mock was born in the wrong body. Her new memoir, Fish Food: A Memoir, unveils the story of a girl “who sacrifices nearly everything to become the person she knows she’s destined to be.” Mock grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii. She transitioned freshman year of high school with her family’s support. Her book is yet to be released.

Click here to read the article published on her in Marie Claire (June 2011 issue) by Kierna Mayo.

Check out her It Gets Better video below:

It Gets Better – Janet Mock Reveals Trans History

Yolo Akili Performing Are We The Boys We Want

Come out LA and snap yo fingers.

SPIT, an urban open mic night is happening tonight at The Kickback Lounge in LA from 7-10.

The special featured guest is Dorothy Randall Gray, noted author, lecturer, and spoken word artist. Gray’s book, “Soul Between The Lines” will be available for sale. She conducts transformational writing workshops at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY. Jair “The Literary Masturbator” of Oakland will be performing as well. Jair’s book, “Touch…Poems and other writing of Love, Erotica & Sensuality” will be available for sale as well. He also has a spoken word CD available “Confessions of a Literary Masturbator.” With royalties from “Touch” Jair donated money to help poet and spoken word artist Yolo Akili produce his one man show. Sign up ends at 7:30 to get onstage. The event is sponsored by In The Meantime.

Keith Bloomfield via Flickr

Event Information:

Where: The Kickback Lounge, 4067 W. Pico Blvd. LA CA 90019 (Parking at the Catch One)

Date: Thursday, May 19, 2011

Time: 7:00p.m. Networking/ 8:00p.m.-10:00p.m. Showtime (Participants must be signed up by 7:30p.m.)

Price: Free/Donation at the door

For more information on Dorothy Randall Gray go to her facebook page and for more information on Jair “The Literary Masturbator” go to his website.

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• black lgbt artsy event: new jersey: may 7: out, loud and proud v @ new jersey performing arts center (victoryates.wordpress.com)

Fans of Harris’s books who are craving more can get more with his new book, No One In The World, which was co-wrote by RM Johnson. Johnson wrote The Harris Family, The Million Dollar Divorce, and Why Men Fear Marriage.

“This is the book E. Lynn and I have been planning on writing for five years, and thankfully, we finished it,” Johnson said. “We couldn’t wait until the day came to share this with all of you–our beloved friends. That day is fast approaching. I hope you enjoy it.”

The review is below:

Cobi Winslow, a handsome, well-educated district attorney, knows nothing about the life of his estranged twin brother Eric Reed, a career criminal raised by the foster care system. Following their parent’s death, Cobi searches and finds his brother in hopes to regain lost years. Soon thereafter, Eric’s former prison cell-mate, Blac, becomes entangled in the twins’ lives. Trouble quickly follows.

Meanwhile, Cobi navigates the pressures of society as he lives a life in the closet. The stress comes to a head when he learns that in order to inherit the wealth of his father’s estate, and save the struggling family hair care business, he must marry a woman before the age of thirty-five. The seemingly impossible task becomes more difficult when Cobi’s sister suggests paying Austen Greer, the once successful, wealthy and extremely independent business woman to be his wife. After losing everything in the recession, in order to survive, Austen must consider the indecent proposal.

Eric discovers Cobi is gay when he stumbles upon his brother during an intimate moment with a handsome senator. After promising Cobi secrecy, Eric entrusts the discovery with his ex-cell-mate, Blac. Blac endears himself to Cobi, in hopes of securing a $150,000 loan from him to pay back a debt racked by cocaine sales.

As the clock expires on Blac’s efforts to pay his lethal debtor, and Cobi’s attempts to save the family company, rash moves are executed, family and friendship bonds are tested, and life altering sacrifices are made.

Click on the link to pre-order your copy of No One in the World: A Novel (See all Multicultural Romance Books).

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Image via Wikipedia

HOMOCIDE: For Ronald Gibson by Essex Hemphill

Item:
Ronald Gibson, 20, was found shot to death in the 2700 block of Arizona Avenue, N.W. Police said Gibson was wearing a dress and high-heeled shoes at the time of his death. According to Homicide Det. Lloyd Davis, Gibson, also known as “Star,” hung out during the past two years in the area near 14th and Fairmont Sts., N.W., an area frequented by drag queens who solicit sex for money. Detectives say they have no suspects and know of no motives in the case.
 The Washington Blade, 1/8/82

The poem – HOMOCIDE: For Ronald Gibson by Essex Hemphill

Grief is not apparel.
Not like a dress, a wig
or my sister’s high-heeled shoes.
It is darker than the man I love
who in my fantasies comes for me
in a silver, six-cylinder chariot.
I walk the waterfront/curbsides
in my sister’s high-heeled shoes.
Dreaming of him, his name
still unknown to my tongue.
While I wait for my prince to come,
from every other man I demand pay
for my kisses. I buy paint
for my lips. Stockings for my legs.
My own high-heeled slippers
and dresses that become me.
When he comes,
I know I must be beautiful.
I will know how to love his body.
Standing out here on the waterfront/curbsides

I have learned to please a man.
He will bring me flowers.
He will bring me silk
and jewels, I know.
While I wait,
I’m the only man who loves me.
They call me “Star”
because I listen to
dreams and wishes.
But grief is darker.
It is a white dress
that covers my body.
It is a wig
that does not rest gently
on my head.

E.N.D

Published in Blacklight Vol. 4, No. 4

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The first time I heard Essex Hemphill‘s name was in the documentary Black Is… Black Ain’t by Marlon Riggs. His poetry was interwoven into the documentary beautifully. Hemphill began writing at age 14 and studied English at the University of the District of Columbia.

Not only was Hemphill a poet but also an activist for equality and gay rights. In 1980 Hemphill outed himself during “a poetry reading at the Founders Library at Howard University. From the mid-1980s until his death, Hemphill became perhaps the most well-known Black gay male writer in the United States since James Baldwin,” according to Dr. Wilfred D. Samuels, General Editor of A Gift of Story/Encyclopedia of African-American Literature.

Watch When My Brother Fell Performed by a D.C. Native

Hemphill “first gained national attention when his work appeared in the anthology In the Life (1986), a seminal collection of writings by black gay men. In 1989, his poems were featured in the award-winning documentaries Tongues Untied and Looking for Langston.” In 1990 Hemphill finished compiling Brother to Brother: New Writings by Black Gay Men, started by Joseph Beam. Beam died to AIDS-related complications in 1988. Brother to Brother won a Lambda Literary Award. Hemphill later published Ceremonies: Prose and Poetry (Plume/New American Library), which was awarded the National Library Association’s Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual New Author Award in 1993.

Hemphill’s poetry is in the new anthology, Persistent Voices: Poetry by Writers Lost to AIDS (See all Poetry Anthologies), edited David Groff and Philip Clark (Alyson Books). Their have been readings from the anthology in San Francisco, D.C., and New York. Other poets anthologized in Persistent Voices are: Melvin Dixon, Chasen Gaver, Jim Everhard, Tim Dlugos, Reinaldo Arenas, Tory Dent, James Merrill, Paul Monette, and Joe Brainard.

“Persistent Voices is more than a catalogue of strong poetry by poets who were equally strong (in many ways),” Bryan Borland, an Amazon reviewer wrote. “Persistent Voices reminds us of the importance of poetry, of its place in society and of how it creates a degree of immortality. It teaches us, again, of how, with pen and paper, the truly persistent voices of these men and woman continue to be heard, to change lives, and to touch souls.”

Hemphill’s poetry is immortal. His poems have appeared in Essence, Black Scholar, Callaloo, Obsidian, Painted Bride Quarterly, The Advocate, and numerous other journals. His poems Dear Muthafuckin Dreams, Where Seed Falls, and American Wedding are in the anthology. In American Wedding Hemphill says:

They don’t know
we are becoming powerful.
Every time we kiss
we confirm the new world coming.

A powerful statement.

Watch Justin Vivian Bond Performing American Wedding

At an event titled Take Care of Your Blessings curated by Black Gay & Lesbian Archive Project, rare and unpublished manuscripts of Hemphill’s were featured. “Hemphill left three projects uncompleted: Standing in the Gap, a novel in which a mother challenges a preacher’s condemnation of her gay son who is suffering from AIDS; Bedside Companions, a collection of short stories by black gay men; and The Evidence of Being, narratives of older black gay men, which he had been working on since the early 90s in order to satisfy his curiosity about cultural and social history before the term “gay” entered popular usage.” Hemphill died in 1995 to AIDS-related complications.

One of my favorite Hemphill poems is The Father, Son and Unholy Ghosts. Read The Father, Son and Unholy Ghosts below and watch two YouTube performances of Hemphill’s work.

Watch Jeremy Pace Performing Where Seed Falls

Click here to watch Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore performing at Persistent Voices: Poets reading and performing works by poets lost to AIDS curated by Kirk Read in San Francisco.

The Father, Son and Unholy Ghosts by Essex Hemphill

i

We are not always
the bravest sons
our fathers dream.
Nor do they always
dream of us.
We don’t always
recognize him
if we have never
seen his face.
We are suspicious
of strangers.
Question:
is he the one?

ii

I stand waist deep
in the decadence of forgetting.
The vain act of looking the other way.
Insisting there can be peace
and fecundity without confrontation.
The nagging question of blood hounds me.
How do I honor it?

iii

I don’t understand
our choice of angers,
your domestic violence,
my flaring temper.
I wanted tenderness
to belong to us
more than food or money.
The ghost of my wants
is many things:
lover, guardian angel,
key to our secrets,
the dogs we let sleep.
The rhythm of silence
we do not disturb.

iv

I circle questions of blood.
I give a fierce fire dance.
The flames call me.
It is safe. I leap
unprepared to be brave. I surrender
more frightened of being alone.
I have to do this
to stay alive.
To be acknowledged.
Fire calls. I slither
to the flames
to become birth.

v

A black hole, gaseous,
blisters around its edge,
swallows our estranged years.
They will never return
except as frightening remembrances
when we are locked in closets
and cannot breathe or scream.

I want to be free, daddy,
of the black hole between us.
The typical black hole.
If we let it be
it will widen enough
to swallow us.
Won’t it?

vi

In my loneliest gestures
learning to live
with less is less.
I forstalled my destiny.
I never wanted
to be your son.
You never
made the choice
to be my father.
What we have learned
from no text book:
is how to live without
one another.
How to evade the stainless truth.
Drug pain bleary-eyed.
Harmless.
Store our waste in tombs
beneath the heart,
knowing at any moment
it could leak out.
And do we expect to survive?
What are we prepared for?
Trenched off.
Communications down.
Angry in alien tongues.
We use extreme weapons
to ward off one another.
Some nights, our opposing reports
are heard as we dream.
Silence is the deadliest weapon.
We both use it.
Precisely. Often.

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Recommended Readings

Persistent Voices: Poetry by Writers Lost to AIDS (See all Poetry Anthologies)

Brother to Brother: New Writings by Black Gay Men

Ceremonies: Prose and Poetry

Freedom in this Village: Twenty-Five Years of Black Gay Men’s Writing (See all African-American Studies Books)

Looking for Langston (B&W) (See all Gay & Lesbian Dramatic Movies & TV)

Black Is… Black Ain’t

Maya Angelou Reading Still I Rise

Reading Maya Angelou’s Still I Rise made me want to be a poet at 14. I wrote silly poems, kept in a 3-ring binder, and read them to anyone who listened. By the time I started college, at 18, majoring in English (Poetry, Creative Writing, or Journalism) wasn’t an option. Computer Science was an option. Why I don’t know? I knew how to surf the web so I guess I thought Computer Science was the perfect major. Intro to Computer Science was the class I dropped fastest in college. The class was taught by an African man with a thick accent. For the first twenty minutes of class I thought he was teaching Swahili. After class I tried to read the book. It was like reading a foreign language. Circuits. Performing simple calculations. Systems. Programming. Those words were Swahili, meaningless to me. I went into panic mode. What major do I choose now? I chose Psychology. Psychology equals research and writing. I had papers due every week. My earliest lessons in “how-to write” came from my psychology instructors. One lesson that has always stayed with me is “Give Them What They Need” or make every word deliberate and on purpose.

Copyright rsepulveda

It wasn’t until after graduating from college that I thought about writing as a potential career. I was living in Ann Arbor, working at a library, submerging myself in reading “good fiction” and “good authors.” Shelving books one day on the third floor I discovered the “How To Write” section. I pulled one off the bookshelf. Two years later I started writing The Taste of Scars.

A “good job” moved me from Ann Arbor to Jacksonville. I got the opportunity to teach part-time at a career college and slowly walked away from the “good job.” A year in I was promoted to full-time and never went back to the “good job.”

Fast forward a year. My boss and I at the career college got into a heated argument. She told me she was changing my position from full-time to part-time. I told her thanks but no thanks and verbally submitted my two weeks notice. Not even two hours later I was unemployed. Since that day (up until March 2011) I devoted almost every waking hour to editing my book. I started to see life differently. Every hour I was at work, doing work that didn’t make me happy, I lost an hour to do what really made me happy, writing.

To all the high school seniors graduating this year. Don’t major in computer science because you think it’ll pay the bills. Major in life. Found out what really makes you happy. I took me a long time to figure that out.

Recommended Reading:

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (See all Biographies & Memoirs by Ethnicity & Nationality)

Gather Together in My Name (See all African-American & Black Biographies & Memoirs)

Nikon D3100 14.2MP Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-S DX VR Nikkor Zoom Lens (See all Digital SLRs)

Delaying the Real World: A Twentysomething’s Guide to Seeking Adventure (See all Health, Mind & Body Books)

Work Your Way Around the World: A Fresh and Fully Up-to-Date Guide for the Modern Working Traveller (See all Job Hunting & Career Guides)

Read the poem that changed my life below.

Still I Rise by Maya Angelou

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

Image via Wikipedia

DJ Baker interviewed Toni Newman today on his 900th show, the Da Doo-Dirty Show. The Da Doo-Dirty Show is the longest running LGBT urban daily syndicated radio program on the internet. In the interview Toni Discusses her life on the street in Harlem and many of the clients she had as a transgendered prostitute including LL Cool J, the smooth rapper, known for licking his lips during concerts and interviews.

Click on the link below to hear the interview. The link goes to Podomatic.

The Da Doo-Dirty Show is an hour long. To skip to Newman’s interview scroll to 56:40 mark or listen to the whole Da Doo-Dirty show. In the show DJ Baker discusses:

• Celebrity Apprentice and who goes home
• Who’s joining the X Factor
• Will Smith playing a slave in a Quentin Tarantino “Spaghetti Western“
• Oprah’s OWN Network
• 50 Cent canceling his headphone line
• Gay-bashing outside a Texas Gay Club
• And out music news

Toni Newman Interview Discussing LL Cool J, Eddie Murphy, Brian McKnight, and many others (This is the interview link)

If you like DJ’s radio show  also check out his late night show below.

http://blip.tv/play/AYK5vXYC

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Image via Wikipedia

A man watching porn online at a Los Angeles library sparked a major First Amendment right’s debate leading to the L.A. City Council approving porn to be viewed in the city’s libraries.

The L.A. City Council voted against installing porn-filtering software for the 72 branches within the public library system on Tuesday April 26, 2011. City libraries will make computer monitors more difficult to be seen by “moving computers to [areas] where they cannot easily be seen by someone standing behind” computer users and installing dark “privacy screens.”

“If we could maintain the level of privacy without compromising security, I think we’ll find a win-win where no one can sue the city for violating their First Amendment rights,” said Councilman Ed Reyes, a member of the Arts, Parks, Health and Aging Committee. “At the same time, we have to be cognizant that there are certain characters that don’t have the best judgement in their behavior around children, around families in our libraries.”

“The library system receives two to three reports per year of Angelenos using computers to look at porn,” said City Librarian Martin Gomez.

Martin Gomez described “the incident at the Chinatown Public Library” in detail to council members “when patrons told librarians that adults and children waiting in line to check out books could see an individual viewing Adult Entertainment content on a computer.”

Even though library patrons can view porn they aren’t allowed to watch child porn, porn with minors under 17, or “engage with other patrons while viewing pornographic material.”

The debate over watching porn in public libraries is a huge across the states. In New York it has reached fever pitch. The faith-based group, Morality in Media, has called for New York Public Libraries to block porn stating “allowing patrons to watch internet porn on library computers is illegal.”

“There is no First Amendment problem in blocking porn at libraries. They have an obligation to protect children from pornography,” said Patrick A. Trueman, president and CEO of Morality in Media.

New York Public Library officials understand that seeing porn being watched by another patron maybe offensive however it’s a right protected by the First Amendment.

“Customers can watch whatever they want on the computer,” said Brooklyn Public Library spokeswoman Malika Granville.

In April a library patron waiting to use a computer at the Brooklyn Public Library punched out another patron he saw watching porn. The attacker was charged with assault, disorderly conduct, and harassment.

Will Los Angeles and New York’s policies set precedence in other states like in Washington where library patrons are kicked out for watching porn.