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Ta-Nehisi Coates

Ta-Nehisi Coates - Ta-Nehisi Coates is a senior editor for The Atlantic, where he writes about culture, politics, and social issues for TheAtlantic.com and the magazine. He is the author of the memoir The Beautiful Struggle. More

Born in 1975, the product of two beautiful parents. Raised in West Baltimore—not quite The Wire, but sometimes ill all the same. Studied at the Mecca for some years in the mid-’90s. Emerged with a purpose, if not a degree. Slowly migrated up the East Coast with a baby and my beloved, until I reached the shores of Harlem. Wrote some stuff along the way.

Thursday At The Met

By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Jul 30 2009, 2:45 PM ET Comment

Salome.jpg


This is Regnault's Salome. I do it a great injustice by reproducing it here on this blog--you can't feel the texture. Please go see it yourself. Again, this is about knowing something is beautiful and not knowing why. It's like I love Coltrane's "Afro-Blue," but I could never really tell you why.

I do know that it's always nice to see an ample, dark-haired woman smiling at you from across the room. Well any woman really,  but today this woman. That her blouse is off her shoulder probably helps.  When I saw this I actually started smiling myself.

The Met is haunted. Whenever I'm there, I hear voices. Well one voice telling me all this weird stuff--Get rid of your cell-phone, Walk everywhere you go, Only eat food that you've prepared, After you leave here, write for four straight hours, Gather your loved ones and move to Colorado, Disconnect your broadband...

Freaky, I tell you.


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