Anne Baxter:
The written word is not my medium, but I feel Ted would be pleased if I at least made an attempt to honor him and his “Teducation” though this great website. I first met Ted in Paris. It was 1988, and he came to my sculpture exhibit. My hermit tendencies didn’t seem to phase him – we understood each other in a certain way as fellow Cancerian crabs. Ted has always been and continues to be for me the most incredible Muse. He dedicated his life to art and to artists, and always had an amazing ability to connect with all sorts of people from all sorts of backgrounds, completely through the heart. To be around Ted was to be around life/ fire.
Once many years ago Ted had a “finissage,” a party to end his art exhibit. He did a poetry reading, along with some other poets. It was nice. I remember I was sitting in the back, depressed because I was having trouble paying the rent again. At the end, Ted made me stand up and told everyone, “look at her, you will someday see her work in the museums!” He was always encouraging to artists in this way, and I know there were many he inspired who went on to make a very good living. Ted “teducated” me on this subject: when people asked him what he did for a living, he told them “I breathe.” Then he would tell them something like, “MONEY – what you really want to ask me is how do I get my money!”
Once Ted invited me to his birthday party. He said the only condition was that I had to bring him a present, and this one year he only wanted things that were practical, like underwear and socks. He “teducated” me that he didn’t believe in following the fashion styles, as it supported the consumer culture. However, it can be noted that Ted had his own unique style, and
always looked completely elegant. He told me his sock information: size and color preference (I think it was red or black). Then with great passion, he started to give the details of his underwear preferences, which I found a little embarrassing, so I told him I’d just get him socks.
Ted and Laura sent me his book of poems in April of 2003. Laura says she thinks it was the last time they wrote something together. Regarding my two-year old son, Ted wrote, “I hope he helps make world a marvelous poem to live in”. I’ve been thinking a lot about Ted during the last two days, since I learned of his passing, and now I am pregnant with a new idea for a
sculpture. TED LIVES!
eeglazer:
It never entered my mind that Ted would leave us like he did or how much his passing would hurt. I met Ted in the summer of 1995 while I was living in Paris. He clued me into both the poetry and social scene there (most importantly, the Sunday dinners at Jim Haynes where I made many good friends and acquaintance). If I had not met Ted I probably would not have stayed in Paris longer than that summer. He was a profoundly good friend and mentor to me. He will be missed but he will not be forgotten.
The Unknown Beat
12 May 2002
If you didn’t know
The unknown beat
You missed the beat
Ted’s beat
Ted’s bag
Ted’s truth
A lucky few
Have been teducated
Through his jazz lips
That trumpeted the truth
Of the beat
The beat that would not
Be beaten
The beat that would
Beat back
The beat that would not
Be berated
The beat that would
Be T rated
For Ted
Trumpets
Timbuktu
Two words
Teducation
Truth
And most importantly
Aardvarks
Giraffes
Rhinos
And Bird
(in the singular sax tense)
Ted walked the beat
Crayon in hand
Slappy* in hand
Laura in hand
Heart
Soul
Picturing poetry
Poeting pictures
On the LauraTed Slappy Show
Ted’s café classes
Taught the rhythm
Of the unknown beat
The melody
Of surrealism
The truth
Of teducation
This is Tedicated**
To the truth of the beat
That moves my shoes
C’est vrai
And stop buying those damn cigarettes
* “Slappy” was Ted’s very old movie camera that needed the occasional slap to get it going.
** Many thanks to my father Mark Glazer for suggesting “Tedicated”
William Cody Maher: For Ted Joans
First time we met was in Paris in 78 at Shakespeare Books. We began a poetry reading series. One afternoon Ted and I came out of a Marx brother film ( Ted always said he was a Marx brother. Not Karl but Groucho). A voice from across the street “Hey Ted.” It was Aime Cesaire,the great Poet who wrote Return to My Native Land. Ted was nomadic in spirit. For the next 20 years I would run into him. Sometimes reading poems together and sometimes just by chance in different cities. I am trying to organize a tribute to Ted in Berlin where he spent a good deal of time on his way back and forth to Paris and the Sahara. Ted is still out there. He is a guide. Trust him!
This picture I took at the Modern Art Museum in 97 I believe. A young black woman security guard had earlier approached us to say that we could not take the picture. The painting is of Charlie Parker from Ted. Ted attempted to ted-ucate the girl by explaining not only that he painted the picture but that she should learn more about her own history…she called the police. A police woman came and despite a shoving match of words we finally were allowed to take a picture of Ted standing proud before his painting of Charlie Parker at an exhibit in honour of The Beats. Apparently there are rules about taking pictures of art in a Museum even if you are the artist that painted the picture you can be put in jail for having someone photograph you…has anything in america changed…..?
