Andrew Laties – författare

I AM NOT MY SO-CALLED ILLNESS

This celebration of Samuel Laties braids his visionary and humorous fiction, poetry, and essays together with Andrew Laties’ reminiscences—along with the tale of Andy’s struggle to invest Sam’s death with meaning by rescuing a legendary bookstore. In counterpoint, son and father explore mortality and redemption, mental illness and creativity, education and exploitation, morality and hypocrisy, and the transcendent power of imagination.

SAMUEL LATIES was publisher of The Jeff’s Class Tribune. He attended Near North Montessori, North Star Self-directed Learning for Teens and Holyoke Community College.

ANDREW LATIES wrote Rebel Bookseller: Why Indie Businesses Represent Everything You Want to Fight For—From Free Speech to Buying Local to Building Communities, which won the Independent Publisher Award and is available from Seven Stories Press.

IN 1980, A WHITE KID SAW TWO CORRUPT COPS KILL A BLACK MAN IN CHICAGO.

THEN HE HELPED SEND THEM BOTH TO JAIL.

"Don''t worry about us."

Monster-man opened his eyes wide and growled, "We''re just CRAZY!"

When 19-year old Andy Laties moved to Chicago to study Great Black Music with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, he entered an unexpected apprenticeship in what it really means to be a white ally against racism. The Music Thief is a coming-of-age story that traces Laties'' evolution as a creative activist and community leader, offering a compelling pattern for direct action as a means of improvising a life of impact.

LIVING UR SONATA reveals the transcendent truth of Kurt Schwitters'' 1920s epic of nonsense. The Nazis burned Ur Sonata and mocked Schwitters'' visionary art as degenerate. Today widely performed, Ur Sonata inspires us to reject nationalism and overcome language barriers to embrace our common humanity. With urgency and humor, Andrew Laties brings tales of Kurt Schwitters'' dramatic life into resonance with stories of Laties'' own forty years performing, encouraging readers to seize the hour and sing along with Ur Sonata.

Includes full text of Ur Sonata.