Who Are You Dorothy Dean?

Dalya Benor in conversation with Anaïs Ngbanzo.

A black, Harvard-educated woman was an anomaly in the 1960s — even more so was one accepted into the downtown New York underground scene. Yet Dorothy Dean, the relatively unknown African-American writer, socialite, Andy Warhol Factory member and actress, successfully accomplished both. Now, a new book called Who Are You Dorothy Dean? exhumes parts of the late writer’s life, featuring a series of her unpublished letters, book proposals and other cultural criticisms.

In the book, published by Paris-based editor and filmmaker Anaïs Ngbanzo, Dean's universe becomes realized. Including the likes of Robert Mapplethorpe, Robert Creeley, Edie Sedgwick, Rene Ricard, and Factory actor Ondine, the compilation provides a look into the world of a brilliant mind that was, and still is, relatively unknown. Dean's life was dazzling, yet mysterious—she was known as the notorious, tiny female bouncer of Max's Kansas City and said to be the first female fact checker at The New Yorker. Dean held editorial and proofreading positions at publications such as Vogue before launching her very own bulletin of film reviews, the All-Lavender Cinema Courier, in 1976. 

Who Are You Dorothy Dean? uncovers a woman who was complicated and whip-smart, her acerbic writing and humor making a refreshing reprise for this generation. The archives of Dean are resurrected through letters with her Warholian coterie, her newsletter of biting film reviews, and original essays by New Yorker writer Emily Wells and author Ara Osterweil. 

In Wells’ introductory essay, she writes: “For a woman principally remembered as a socialite, Dorothy’s life was actually characterized to an ample degree by work—finding work, doing work, keeping work. Compiling a biographical sketch of her life beyond that achieved by [Hilton] Als is a difficult task, as her output is dispersed across letters and documents distributed by mail, and through gossip and anecdotes recalled by acquaintances. There is no comprehensive register of her published work, nor is there much published work to speak of. In all of the jobs Dorothy performed, she was something of a processor, synthesizing a massive amount of artistic and cultural information, and lacked the visibility she might have enjoyed as a writer or artist.”

On March 19, Ngbanzo takes Dean’s letters to the stage in her debut play, Dorothy, adapted from correspondence with artist Rene Ricard, model Edie Sedgwick, and music journalist Lisa Robinson. Presented at The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London, the play features a cast that includes actors Lucan Gillespie, Anders Hayward, Lily Nichol, Agnes Carrington, Marie Osman, and Emily Radice.

Here, in conversation with Dalya Benor, Ngbanzo dives deeper into the life of Dorothy Dean.

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