Not so Flyover

In New York this week for my son's graduation, and it was wonderful -- but I'm not going to talk about that because you have your own graduations to attend and they'll be a lot more interesting to you than ours.

Today I'm thinking about the statement "This is New York" that I've heard over and over again from various friends and relatives. Yes, it IS New York, and I've said it too, knowing the pride New Yorkers have in telling you their town is like no one else's. There's also the implicit statement that it's better - and yes, I've been guilty of thinking that as well. (The old New Yorker cartoon about the city being the biggest part of the national map certainly comes to mind.

And... New York is Ruby's town in The Beat on Ruby's Street, and she's certainly a New York chauvinist if there ever was one. But as a writer, I come back to the open spaces of the Midwest with a grateful heart, because it has given me the kind of head space I don't think I could have gotten if I'd always stayed in the city.

And hey...

...isn't that why Kerouac left to go On The Road?

Some years ago I went to a cabaret performance of a songwriter's group called Prosody. The director, Denise Prosek, talked about how she had seen new song cabarets and shows on both coasts, and how Coastally-centric they were. She wanted to amplify the Midwestern voices of songwriters she knew, because she knew they would be just as passionate and compelling... even though New Yorkers and L. A. residents tend to call this part of the world "Flyover Land."

We who live here know there's a lot more to it than that. We know that playwrights and lyricists and writers come from everywhere and not all of them want or can afford or even must live in New York. Maybe a long time ago, like in the 1950s when Ruby's story took place, or earlier, the city was more central to artistic life.

Today, walking around the Village, I see a lot of rich people and boutiques, but I don't see the artistic intensity I imagine once lived there. So, yes "this is New York." But "this is also Chicago." And Minneapolis/St. Paul. Austin. Boston. Taos. Santa Fe. Toronto. Door County. Milwaukee. And a whole lot of other places.

You may call it Flyover Land. But we know it as a place where writers and other artists flourish. And if you Google the names of your favorite artists, we think you'll know it, too.

Face of the artist: nowhere Zen New Jersey