Arts & Culture

How Joel Diamond came to play at Carnegie Hall is a Yonkers story that began at the Hammond Organ Store on Nepperhan Avenue. Diamond was born blind in one eye, but when he walked into the organ store, he could play the keyboard. He was a prodigy.

My mother told me I had a way with words. She was proud of my poetry and stories, and said I was a natural born writer. I was flattered but I didn’t entirely believe her. She was a high school dropout and suffered from schizophrenia. I’m not sure if schizophrenia caused her to drop out of high school at sixteen. She often heard voices telling her to do things.