First published 2024
Jennifer Clement chronicles her unconventional childhood in 1960s Mexico City, where she lived next door to Frida Kahlo's house among artists, communists, revolutionaries and poets. This bohemian environment sparked her creative curiosity and sense of freedom. She later traded Latin American revolutions for New York's emerging counter-culture movement in the 1980s. There she became part of the vibrant art scene, moving among figures like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Colette Lumiere and William Burroughs. She spent time at legendary venues including The Mudd Club, Danceteria and Studio 54. Clement captures the intensity and liberation that defined these two cultural moments. Her memoir reveals how both 1970s Mexico City and 1980s New York offered young people extraordinary opportunities for artistic expression and personal discovery.
Genres: 20th-century, autobiography, memoir, biography-memoir, 21st-century, cultural-studies
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, personal-discovery
Setting: Mexico City, New York
Period: 1960s, 1980s
304 pages · Hardcover · Canongate Books