Brian Cullman with Robert Gordon on ‘How to Prepare For The Past’ (Memphis)
October 8, 6:00 PM CT • Memphis, TN: Memphis Listening Lab | 1350 Concourse Ave., Suite 269, Memphis, TN 38104
Join ZE Books at the Memphis Listening Lab for an evening with How to Prepare For The Past: Travels In Music and Time, Brian Cullman’s memoir of a life in music. Cullman will be joined in conversation by the writer and filmmaker Robert Gordon.
How to Prepare For The Past: Travels In Music and Time is writer and musician Brian Cullman’s rapturous evocation of life in the bike lane—before the world was digital, when music was everything and magic was everywhere—encompassing friendships with Lester Bangs, Nick Drake, Big Joe Turner, Tim Hardin, and Paul Bowles.
The book moves between New York, London, Tangier, and points further out, gathering the encounters, near-misses, and long nights of a life spent listening. It begins with the radio as a first love: “It was all one sound. It was all one song: the drums and the words, the words without words, the rhythm and the static and the joy and amplified tears.”
About the Author
Brian Cullman is a writer and musician based in New York and in France. He has written extensively for The Paris Review, Antaeus, Rolling Stone, and The Village Voice, and has won the ASCAP/Deems Taylor award for excellence in music journalism three times. He has three solo albums on Sunnyside and is currently a member of the Lisbon-based group Rua Das Pretas.
About the Interlocutor
Robert Gordon is a writer and filmmaker in Memphis whose books include It Came from Memphis, Can’t Be Satisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters, Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion, and Memphis Rent Party. He has produced and directed eight feature documentaries, among them Best of Enemies, co-directed with Morgan Neville. He has won three Grammys, two of them for the Stax collection Written in Their Soul, and an Emmy for outstanding historical documentary.
About the Venue
The Memphis Listening Lab grew out of John King’s donation of tens of thousands of records, CDs, books, and memorabilia. On the second floor of Crosstown Concourse, it keeps that collection open to the public alongside the SoundRoom, a reference-level listening space, and a program of talks, sessions, and performances. memphislisteninglab.org
Writer and musician Brian Cullman’s rapturous evocation of life in the bike lane, before the world was digital, when music was everything and magic was everywhere, encompassing friendships with Lester Bangs, Nick Drake, Big Joe Turner, Tim Hardin, and Paul Bowles.
Release: Apr 28, 2026
Paperback ISBN: 9798988670100 • 256 pages
UK release: Jun 11, 2026 • UK Price: £14.99