1964	Attends Fifth Grade at P.S. 145 on 105th Street & Amsterdam Avenue. Stars as The Lord High Executioner in school production of Gilbert & Sullivan's "The Mikado." Designs and paints all scenery. Production tours Harlem public schools and retirement homes. Production is broadcast on WOR Radio in NYC. Invited by talent scout from Metropolitan Opera to try out for a part as a badger in "Brigadoon", but declines invitation in preference to concentrate on becoming an artist.
1965	Attends Sixth Grade at P.S. 145 on 105th Street & Amsterdam Avenue. Graduates elementary school and receives Award for Excellence in Art. Initiated into Transcendental Meditation and practices daily for 9 years. Becomes a vegetarian. Older brother becomes studio assistant to sculptor, Tom Doyle. Meets Eva Hesse and Lucas Samaras. Gregory Corso moves into family home during recovery period from mental collapse. Meets Allen Ginsburg, Norman Mailer and Jimmy Breslin.
1966	Attends Special program combining Seventh & Eighth Grades at Junior High School 144 on Columbus Avenue and 77th Street. Hears racist public lecture by Malcolm X on Harlem's 125th street. Scales buildings to bring food to besieged student anti-war protesters at Columbia University. Be-In and Love-In and anti-war demonstrations in Central Park. Learns to weld while working in a bicycle repair shop. Fabricates five innovative funny-cycles with Greg Olasz. Older brother works for Charles Ludlam's Ridiculous Theater Company. Meets Andy Warhol, Lou Reed, Joe Delansandro. Warhol's "Superstar" Ondine moves into family home.
1967	Attends Special program combining Eighth & Ninth Grades at P.S. 144 on Columbus Avenue and 77th Street. Applies to The LaGuardia High School of Music & Art. Prepares presentation portfolio with father's help. Attends three day exams in various art methods, and wins admission. Anti-war demonstrations in Central Park,NYC. Bus ride to the Pentagon March, Washington,D.C. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Meets Jimi Hendrix, whose associate, Paul Caruso moves into family home. ("EXP" on "Axis: Bold As Love", 1967)
1968	Attends Tenth Grade at The LaGuardia High School of Music & Art, on 135th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue. Sees NYC premiere of the Beatles independent movie, "Magical Mystery Tour", which crystalizes as the inspiring epitome of creative genius. Assassination of Martin Luther King ignites chaotic riots and violence against Harlem's white residents. Arson of white-owned businesses, and gunshots fired at responding firemen. Bonfires all night on many Harlem intersections. Race war. Black Panthers machine gun a NYC Police patrol car on 105th Street and escape on foot. The Black Panthers "liberate" H.S. of Music & Art, CCNY and Riverside Church. Assassination of Bobby Kennedy. Chicago Democratic Convention riots. Frequents evening coffee club in basement of church on Amsterdam and 98th Street to hear Odetta, Pete Seeger and Richie Havens. Meets David Perez of the Young Lords in East Harlem and joins neighborhood clean-up efforts. Meets James Van De Zee in photo studio in Harlem. Meets photograher Bruce Davidson who has a book published about "East 103rd Street."
1969	Attends Eleventh Grade at The LaGuardia High School of Music & Art, on 135th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue. Meets Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at Transcendental Meditiation conference at Amherst College. Meets Joseph Cornell through education department program at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, overseen by Henry Geldshaler, Philip Yenawine, and Randy Williams. Helps to install the exhibit, "The Paper Collages of Joseph Cornell." Makes animated 8mm movie "DINOSAUR DILEMMA." Invited by Richard Housner to work as Teachers Assistant in Education Department at Brooklyn Museum of Art. Saturday morning sculpture class. Reads Man Ray's "Self Portrait". Meets Isamu Noguchi. Meets Alexander Calder.
1970	Attends Twelfth Grade at The LaGuardia High School of Music & Art, on 135th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue. Visits with Joseph Cornell routinely and runs helpful errands. Attends Brooklyn Museum of Art blockbuster exhibition of Vincent Van Gogh to purchase catalog and answer detailed questions about the experience. Kent State Shootings. National Guard shoots anti-war demonstrators, wounds many and kills four. Loses all trust for established authority and believes James Madison's 1780 statement that, "All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree. " Graduates high school in ceremony at Cargnegie Hall, which is "liberated" by armed Black Panthers who force audience to listen to the Readings of Chairman Mao. Receives Art Chairmen's Association of NYC Art Award in recognition of art-excellence.
1971	Attends Freshman Year at The Kansas City Art Institute, KC, MO. Sixteen years old. Work Study scholarship as Teacher's Assistant in Shop. Excused from rudimentary introductory level art courses to work independently on drawings and poetry. Studies with David Dunlap. Cuts off long hair after armed motorist leans out from passing car on Kansas City street, pointing a gun and yelling, "Cut Your Hair, Faggot!" and fires gun at close range. Bullet hits wall six inches away. Publishes "RUBBERS RADIO PLAYS" 40 page black and write publication of drawings and poetry. Sculpture collage is accepted into group show entitled "SMALL BOXES" along with Joseph Cornell, Lucas Samaras, and Robert Rauschenberg, at University in Madison Wisconsin. Makes 8mm movie "MASKS" with fellow art student Peter Von Ziegesar. Visit Chicago together with Allan Winkler to see "Harry Who" exhibitions. Sees Jim Nutt exhibit and Red Grooms sculpture "City of Chicago" and 16mm movie "Fat Feet". Meets Arnold Crane, who is a Chicago collector of Man Ray. Corresponds with Man Ray. Invited by Philip Yenawine to teach summer school art program in the Education Department at NYC Metropolitan Museum of Art - creates own course entitled, COLLAGE FROM RECYCLED MATERIALS. Prepares educational pamphlet documenting project for publication by museum printshop, which is distributed to NY public school art classes.
1972	Attends Sophomore Year at The Kansas City Art Institute, KC, MO. Studies with Ken Ferguson. Majors in Ceramics. Meets John Gill. Joseph Cornell dies. Cornell Family writes to tell of news. Writes back volunteering to quit college and return to NYC to help work on preserving the house for an art museum, as intended by the artist. Family declines to preserve the house. Produces 16mm movie, "CASSIOPEIA" 28min., B&W. Wins first prize at Kansas City Film Festival. Meets Christo and is invited to work on Valley Curtain in Rifle, CO. Travels with fellow art student Pat Simpson to Souix Falls, SD to paint and construct 75' x 150' backdrop for the George McGovern Presidential Election Night Event. Lives at the Governor's mansion. Visits NYC studio of Red Grooms and Mimi Gross, to see happening "HIPPODROME HARDWARE." Red Grooms offers to buy a copy of "CASSIOPEIA", and all subsequent movies.
1973	Attends Junior Year at The Kansas City Art Institute, KC, MO. Studies with Dale Eldred. Majors in Sculpture and Filmmaking. Writes, illustrates and publishes epic poem "NETWORK." Produces 16mm movie, "FATHOM FACT" 48min., B&W. Red Grooms buys copy. Meets Siah Armajani, Linda Benglis, Robert Morris as visiting artists.
1974           1975	Attends Senior Year at The Kansas City Art Institute, KC, MO. Studies with Dale Eldred. Majors in Sculpture and Filmmaking. Produces 16mm movie, "DIVERS TIDE" 48min. B&W. Red Grooms buys copy. Meets Whitney Museum Curator, Marcia Tucker, who visits studio in Kansas City on recommendation from Richard Armstrong, as part of her nationwide search for "Artists Outside of New York", for consideration in Whitney Biennial exhibition. Graduates college with BFA at 20 years old. Invited by Red Grooms to make a documentary film about construction of RUCKUS MANHATTAN in NYC. Meets Ruckus Construction Company collaborators Archie Peltier, Kent Hines, Andrew Ginzel, John Arakawa. Moves into artist loft in 64 Fulton Street, with artist neighbors Jerry Linton, Charlie and John Ahern, Cindy Sherman, Robert Longo and Troy Brauntic. Shows films "Cassiopeia", "Fathom Fact" and "Divers Tide" at Rhona Hoffman Foundation on Spring Street in Soho, NYC. Meets David Hare. Works on Red Grooms' animated spectacle, "FAIR FILM" in December.