Uli Beutter Cohen - Between the Lines: Stories from the Underground

T his book would not be in your hands today without the generous help of the following people who believed in it, me, and the stories on these pages.

Thank you: Hana Delong, for going first. Heather Karpas and Kristyn Keene Benton at ICM, for making sure I landed with a stellar publishing team. Monica Machado and Caitlin Karna, for working production magic behind the scenes. Karina Castrillo, for transcribing hours and hours of audio files. Alex Daly and Ally Bruschi, for loving and looking out for artists. James Slater, for giving the most empathetic legal advice. Caroline Donofrio, Amy Fraser, va Goicochea, Erin Allweiss, Alexis Rosenzweig, Allyn Robinson, Adriana Picker, Naz Riahi, Eva Munz, Lindsay Ratowsky, Julia Kirchhoff, and Hana Kim for helping through various growth stages. I owe each of you at least twenty bucks. Glory Edim and Glynnis MacNicol, for encouraging me, and especially for Newburgh. Bridget Badore, for shining up my photography with your excellent editorial eye. Hamish Smyth and Order, for bringing the subway into this book. Lewelin Polanco, Elizabeth Breeden, Christine Calella, Kayley Hoffman, my amazing team at Simon & Schuster, thank you for rocking my world. Zack Knoll, my fabulous editor at Simon & Schuster, for offering your publishing expertise and loving friendship to me tirelessly.

My special thanks go to the communities and people who gave me a new perspective on this journey. The Stadtbibliothek Reutlingen, where my love affair with books began. Saada Ahmed, Elise Peterson, and Josh Slater; without AG there would be no SBR. Kamau Ware and the Black Gotham Experience, who changed my view of the public space. Mark Oppenheimer and Thread at Yale, where this book was first workshopped. Ruthie Ackerman and Kelly Shetron, who guided my book proposal. Moon Crew and Our Time, thank you for the magic. Team Pool, thank you for the water. To the MTA: you are wild but I love you, I really do! To the Subway Book Review contributors: you are the best, may we ride forever. To my chosen family and blood relatives: what a trip! Eric and Bobbie Cohen, Lauren Cohen and Chris Benavides, Charlie and Joel Benavides, Corinne Cohen and HoTeck Kan, Edith and Guntram Schulz, Jon Nastasi and Paula DeRose, Gabe Williams and Lisa Jaeggi, Jamie Pulliam and Meggie Finn, Simmone Taitt and Maurice Bennett, Miles Fletcher and Cosima Juniper Priestley, Adam Henry, Raymond, Eva Kimmerle and Isabel Thompson: You have my whole heart. Thank you for believing in my adventures. My other-other half, Davis Priestley, and my journey sister, Mariah Rich, I love you beyond the beyond. Egon Schbesch, my guide from another realm, thank you for shining your light on me. Moni Beutter, my patron saint, you saved me more than once and Im forever grateful. Ulrich and Christa Beutter, there is no me without you. Mumsi, der Apfel fllt zum Glck nicht weit vom Stamm. And to my forever love, Alec Cohen, thank you for finding me again in this lifetime.

Thank you to readers on the New York City subway.

I edited a portion of this book in Provincetown, Massachussetts, in a cozy rental called The Salty Dorothy. I was behind my deadline and in a complicated part of the process where after everything had clicked, nothing seemed to make sense anymore. To get things done and to escape the pre-election energy that was so thick you could cut it with a knife, I left New York for a week in October 2020. Upon my arrival on Cape Cod, the feeling of isolation was immediately unbearable. It was off-season and the pandemic was in full swing, which meant that Provincetown was eerily quiet, which I somehow hadnt figured into my plans. In Brooklyn, there were voices, music, and sirens cutting through the air. There were upstairs neighbors interrupting my day with their footsteps. Here, I was too present with myself, and I had no friends around who could distract me with a walk in Fort Greene Park. During my first day at The Salty Dorothy, after I had rearranged all of the furniture and taken two trips to the grocery store, I wanted to cry. It had been seven years since I had last felt this alone. All of those years that I had lived in New York, I had no reason to confront this kind of loneliness, solitude, and abyss one can sink into when being left utterly alone with their innermost thoughts. Instead of letting myself drown in my sadness, I decided to go for a drive in the car I had borrowed, since I couldnt hop on a subway for a change of scenery, which is what I would have done back home.

At the edge of town and literally at the end of the road, I came upon a narrow pathway made of large boulders that were covered in shells and seaweed. It led straight into the ocean, all the way to the horizon. No one was around, and there were no signs indicating whether it was permitted, or smart, to walk into the sea on this pathway. I checked my phone and figured that low tide was supposed to start eventually, making it worth a try. As I stepped onto the first few boulders, a strange fear clamped down on me. I should not do this alone. Sure, I could call someone, but there were no actual bystanders around who could save me if I slipped and fell into the ice-cold water. In New York, someone would have surely yelled over by now to ask if I was an idiot or what I was waiting for. That brash voice was so present in my head, it made me laugh. Carefully, I kept walking into the middle of the ocean while surprisingly big waves continued to crash on the boulders and nipped at my feet. Twenty long minutes later, me and the ocean started to calm down. I looked up and could see that the pathway was connected to the shore across the way. I was ecstatic, I would make it! Step by step. Boulder by boulder. The strange fear didnt leave me, but it served a purpose, driving me to find a literal connection in the middle of the sea.

We are here on this planet to make each other feel less adrift and less alone. This gigantic ocean that is our life can feel chaotic, unmanageable, and wild. I hope the stories in this book build a bridge for you, much like the boulders did for me, one by one. When we come together, we can make it to the other side.

Uli Beutter Cohen is a New York Citybased documentarian and artist and the creator of Subway Book Review. Ulis work explores belonging to a time and place through writing and photography and has been featured on TV, in print, and online by New York magazine, Esquire, Vogue, Forbes, O, The Oprah Magazine, Glamour, the BBC, and The Guardian, among others. Uli lives in Brooklyn.

@theubc @subwaybookreview

www.subwaybookreview.co

SimonandSchuster.com

www.SimonandSchuster.com/Authors/Uli-Beutter-Cohen

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