Rectangular World

CYRUS DUNHAM CYRUS DUNHAM IS AN AMERICAN WRITER, ACTOR, AND ACTIVIST WHO HAS CONTRIBUTED TO THE NEW YORKER, ARTFORUM, AND GRANTA. HIS FIRST BOOK, A YEAR WITHOUT A NAME: A MEMOIR, WAS A LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FINALIST. ARTWORK BY MARTHA DIAMOND We lived on the fourth floor of a six-story building. We entered on Broadway, the east-facing side, though we never caught the sunrise because the buildings across the avenue were taller than ours. We had half the floor, long and skinny, Broadway back to the airshaft. My sister and I shared the room facing the shaft, gray light all day from two dim windows. On the other side of our back wall was the other half — the west-facing side of the building, split off, with a whole other entrance on Mercer. I knew vaguely of the people who entered on the other side — a modern dancer, an…