Ricardo Cortez Cruz

The contributions in this anthology reflect the aesthetic breadth that David fostered in his classrooms. They represent multiple genres-fiction, nonfiction, even a play-and a range of voices, styles, and forms. A handful of the contributions in the anthology have been published elsewhere, in little magazines or online, but the majority of them appear here for the first time. Not all of the former students represented in this volume worked extensively with David, though most took at least one course from him. A few of the stories and essays were initially written for one of his classes or as part of a thesis he directed or co-directed, but most were written later, as former students progressed into their careers as professional writers. In one way or another, all of the works collected here reflect David's influence, either on individual writers, as mentor, or on the writing program they studied or taught in. Except for Doug Hesse's essay about team-teaching a graduate seminar with David, none of the contributions is about David in a strict biographical or autobiographical sense, although characters who resemble him do turn up in a couple of the works that, though wholly imagined, may play off of actual events involving him.

Five Days of Bleeding is the black experience in sound, a fight to dance and celebrate cultural roots, and the struggle of a dark homeless woman, Zu-Zu Girl, to have voice in White America. Taunted by the violent character "Chops," Zu-Zu sings to keep her spirit alive in New York City's Central Park. Zu-Zu and the novel's narrator have a relationship which is transformed into a stormy, dreamlike urban affair. Their oppressive situation is depicted through multiple collages of sound and image, a funky mix of original and sampled cuts, both literary and musical. The social chaos around them is remixed in a text consisting of street beats, classic breaks, and fresh-cool cadences. Bleeding proves that the loudest noises of moral panic can be gunshots, to be sure, but they can also be the very human sound of the music of hope and despair.

Follows the lives of two friends, Rooster and Clive-nem, as they try to cope with drugs, gangs, and women, while growing up in an L. A. ghetto.