Naked in the Streets

The celebrated poet and playwright Murray Mednick recounts his journey from an impoverished childhood in the Catskills to the poetry cafes and storefront theaters of the Lower East Side during the turbulent 1960s, and from there to Los Angeles where he became a leading figure in the theater movement that flourished there in the 1980s and 90s. Depicting his struggles with addiction, the book is lit up with poems and stories told in the author's streetwise, syncopated style.