Vicky Jackson had no friends. She lived in a world of her own making, as all great poets do. But her private world was under constant attack. She was being monitored, taped and digitally enhanced (before it was in).
This invasion became a powerful metaphor for loss of identity and a central theme of her work. She was discovered by Black Yak beatnik Hymie Parks in 1979, when she was working as an extra in Flashdance (the original teleplay). Until that time, her work had never been codified or even appreciated as work, per se. She was merely diagnosed as "schizophrenic," as if that could begin to describe her talents.
Hymie began booking her at downtown New York performance art venues and transcribing some of her work, which led to this 1981 winning chapbook. Her career peaked in 1983, when the Village Voice called her "weirder than Patti Smith," but soon after she denied having a career at all and went back to her job as NYC Transit Authority porter. You can still catch a performance now and then on the A train, but unfortunately no schedule of events is available.