John Cage was born in Los Angeles in 1912. He studied music with Adolph Weiss, Arnold Schoenberg, and others, later collaborating with artists such as Merce Cunningham, Robert Rauschenberg, and Jasper Johns. He died in 1992. Joan Retallack is an associate of Bard College Institute for Writing and Thinking. She is the author of AFTERRIMAGES (Wesleyan Poetry, 1995).