An assortment of fliers, postcards, scraps of papers, tickets laid out on a table.

Papers and ephemeral from pages of my books.

This summer, I started to sell books that I decided I didn’t need to own. (It’s a nice way to get them out of the house with some assurance they’re going to be used.) Around the same time I was taking these books off the shelf, and emptying the bookmarks and notes that had been left between their pages, I saw a tweet about the Bibliotecaphilia exhibit at MASSMoCA, featuring “ephemera found in books.”

Here, a documentary on my life as a book-toter, a record of ephemera found in books:

  • Slip of paper with quotation from The Fire Next Time (circa 2005)
  • Bookmark for Montgomery Park, or Opulence an essay in the form of a building in the form of a performance by Karinne Keithley (c. 2010)
  • Post it with a tally of hours worked as a research assistant attached to a comment card from W.W. Norton & Company (c. 2008)
  • Flier from May Day Free University, “How to Create a Free University” (c. 2011?)
  • A handwritten note (not in my hand) on a perforated page from a small Moleskin notebook: “‘A Question of Class’ Interwar British Writing Documentary”
  • Receipt for Rita Dove’s Thomas & Beulah from Labyrinth Books (c. 2005)
  • Flier for Le Carré Rouge / The Red Square, General Assembly of the CUNY Graduate Center, OccupyCUNY
  • Notes in pencil from book on a small scrap of paper: “malleability of form/ cloak of apology/ person made into bat/ father invented himself like a suit” etc.
  • Flier from May Day for Fighting Sweatshops in Haiti & Around the World.
  • Bill of invented currency handed out at May Day.
  • Receipt for William Carlos Williams’ Paterson.
  • Page of a friend’s research paper on violence in Korean films
  • Bookmark: “The Mark of a Quality Book Club.”
  • Bookmark from the Center for Fiction: “The Future of Fiction is Here.”
  • Receipt for Pragmatism from Book Culture, with notes on verso: “Cash value v. exchange value?” and directions to Elmhurst, Queens. (c. 2009)
  • Pamphlet on green copy paper, “ethnomusicology at columbia university” (c. 2004/5)
  • Postcard, “Barnard Dances at Miller,” with notes on reverse, such as “songs although innovative rooted in Arabic, Egypt” (c. 2004)
  • Flier: DJ Rekha presents Basement Bhangra
  • Bookmark: “Wonder Book and Video”
  • Receipt for Critical Terms for Literary Study
  • Stamped, sealed, unsent envelope addressed to Runner’s World
  • Bookmark: Brooklyn Book Festival, featuring John Ashbery (c. 2010)
  • Ticket for Rome airport transfer bus (c. 2005)
  • Postcard: Book celebration at Barnard for Life After Death: A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion (c. 2004 or 2005)
  • Slip of paper with call numbers and titles: Orientalism by E. Said, The Subjection of Women by J.S. Mill
  • Flier from the Mercantile Library, “The Art of Fiction: Caryl Phillips” (c. 2005)
  • Handout “Is there a Mind in this Text? Interiority and the Novel” (c. 2007)
  • Index card: “2 genres of Middle Eastern instrumental music,” samai and doulab (c. 2004)
  • Index card: “3 genres of  traditional/classical Arabic vocal music,” qasida, dawr, muwashah (c. 2004)
  • Bookmark: Farmers Markets, Providence, Pawtucket (c. 2012)
  • Flier about a proposed NYC bill that would affect civilian air monitor use.
  • Prototype of a postcard for my undergraduate film project, Learning Polkas and Slokas (c. 2006)
  • Page from reporter’s notebook with notes from Achebe’s Hopes & Impediments
  • Scrap paper with call numbers, to do lists, and a note: “an awareness of the arbitrariness of borders / question of natlism, nation”
  • Bookmark: Barnard, Office of Admissions
  • Student ticket, New Museum (c. 2011)
  • Notes on Kofi Anyidoho