Unleashing the Hidden Passion of Lou Reed: The Art of Tai Chi – A Posthumous Compilation of Essays and Reflections by the Rock Pioneer started in 2009
Lou Reed, the trailblazing musician and wordsmith, had begun chronicling his passion for tai chi in a book back in 2009. Sadly, the project remained incomplete as he breathed his last in 2013, at the age of 71, following complications arising from a liver transplant.
However, the collection of his unpublished notes, which encompassed conversations with friends, fellow artists, and tai chi aficionados, is now set to release this week, a full decade after his demise
. Laurie Anderson, Reed’s longtime partner, said, “He started it, we wanted to finish it.” Named “The Art of the Straight Line,” the book showcases Reed’s essays and reflections on his thirty-year-long tryst with tai chi, an ancient Chinese tradition that is known to help alleviate stress and anxiety by being described as “meditation in motion,” as per the Mayo Clinic.
The book offers a glimpse into the mellower side of the once-gruff frontman of the Velvet Underground, whose contentious encounters with the press often overshadowed his finer traits.
In the book, Reed had expressed his desire to mature like a warrior and acquire the power and poise that he never had the chance to learn before, asserting that practicing tai chi allowed him to connect with the invisible power of the universe and change his energy, thereby transforming his mind
