{"id":552,"date":"2005-05-18T07:20:00","date_gmt":"2005-05-18T11:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vmalt\/?p=552"},"modified":"2005-12-10T16:28:39","modified_gmt":"2005-12-10T21:28:39","slug":"death-by-archive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/death-by-archive","title":{"rendered":"Death by Archive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joe Nash, an archivist of black dance history, died last month<\/a>, a victim of his own archive:<\/p>\n

Last Thanksgiving, he stumbled over a pile of materials in his packed apartment in a West Harlem housing project. As he fell, he clutched at a stack of books, which tumbled down on him, according to Rashidah Ismaili AbuBakr, a friend who took care of him. Mr. Nash [. . .] lay on the floor for five days, until friends heard his cry for help [. . . .] “Every single room was storage–his bathroom, his bedroom,” Ms. AbuBakr said. “He just had enough space to lay down.”<\/p>\n

Mr. Nash never recovered from the fall, friends said; he died on April 13 at 85 of cardiovascular problems. Now, because Mr. Nash had no heirs–and apparently left no will–the city has changed the locks on his apartment door and seized his property, in preparation for auctioning it off. Archivists, dance lovers and Mr. Nash’s friends are appalled by the possibility that the collection could be scattered to the winds.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Or maybe the city locked the stuff up to keep it from killing again.<\/p>\n

Okay, it was a lame joke. But I was tired of trying to come up with a “dancing about architecture” line that would’ve pulled the story together. Sue me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joe Nash, an archivist of black dance history, died last month, a victim of his own archive: Last Thanksgiving, he stumbled over a pile of materials in his packed apartment in a West Harlem housing project. As he fell, he clutched at a stack of books, which tumbled down on him, according to Rashidah Ismaili … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Death by Archive”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-8U","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1274,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/cereal-killer","url_meta":{"origin":552,"position":0},"title":"Cereal Killer","author":"Gil","date":"January 4, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in November, I wrote about how I've boycotted the large-sized box of Wheaties at our local supermarkets because Alex Rodriguez is the featured athlete. At least I could get by with the 12-oz. box, since I had got no beef with Steve Nash. It just got worse. I hit\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Wheaties"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Wheaties","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-wheaties"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11092,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-250-dave-mckean","url_meta":{"origin":552,"position":1},"title":"Episode 250 – Dave McKean","author":"Gil","date":"January 2, 2018","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 250: Dave McKean \"Everything is in the words. 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But as a writer, you can say, 'I have an idea for a book.'\" Witold Rybczynski joins the show to talk about architecture! The renowned writer, scholar, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"how-architecture-works","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/how-architecture-works.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1211,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/breakfast-of-regular-season-champions","url_meta":{"origin":552,"position":3},"title":"Breakfast of Regular Season Champions","author":"Gil","date":"November 17, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm a man of routines. Once I hit upon a good way to do things, I stick with it. When I was on Atkins, it was no problem for me to consume 3 scrambled eggs, a spicy Thai chicken sausage, a banana, water and black coffee, every single morning. 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