Gotta Go Gotta Flow
Gotta Go Gotta Flow: Life, Love, and Lust on Chicago’s South Side from the Seventies
Step back into the smoky, electric, and soulful world of 1970s Chicago nightlife with Gotta Go Gotta Flow. This stunning collaborative masterpiece seamlessly marries the raw, flash-filled photography of Michael Abramson with the fierce, rhythmic poetry of National Poetry Slam champion and Guggenheim Fellow Patricia Smith.
Between 1974 and 1977, Abramson frequented legendary Black nightclubs on Chicago’s South Side—including Pepper’s Hideout, Perv’s House, the Patio Lounge, and the High Chaparral. Equipped with a small Leica camera, he captured thousands of vivid black-and-white images. Rather than focusing on the venues themselves, Abramson immortalized the night people: the glamorous trendsetters, the lovers locked in tight embraces, and the dancers moving effortlessly to the rhythm of the jukebox under the late-night streetlamps.
Decades later, acclaimed poet Patricia Smith—who grew up near these very clubs—breathes new life into these arresting images. Through 89 brilliant poetic responses, Smith channels the voices, attitudes, and heartbeats of the people in the photographs. Her “singing words” bring a gorgeous blur of togetherness, seduction, fashion, and urban vitality right off the page.
Hailed by Booklist as “a supremely arresting and affecting match of potent images and singing words,” Gotta Go Gotta Flow is an unforgettable time capsule. It is a must-have for lovers of photography, poetry, African American culture, and Chicago history.
Product Details:
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Format: Hardcover, 200 pages
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Publisher: CityFiles Press (November 2015)
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Genre: Poetry / Photography / Photoessays & Documentaries
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Features: 157gsm high-quality paper with flood varnish over rich sepiatone and black-and-white images.
Out of print; first printing, 2015, hardcover. [5.1]
$ 75.00
