I have lived outside of America for the past 16 months. During this time and throughout my travels as an "artist-in-residence," I have tried hard to be present in the places I have landed like Bangalore, Yamaguchi, Johannesburg and Nairobi. Despite a genuine effort, I have regularly succumbed to my...

Although he has not made any appearances in JK Rowling's novels, Anish Kapoor is a wizard. Of the art kind. The American Oxford dictionary tells us that the word "wizard" is synonymous with other potent designations: virtuoso, maestro, wunderkind, and, most tellingly for this story, guru. Yes, these...

"Birthdays are important to Marina Abramović," starts the New Yorker profile of the performing artist currently finishing her three-months retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. Abramovic believes that "birthdays mark the moment that the performance of living officially begins." With those words fresh in my...

I borrow this title from Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie, who insightfully asserted that hearing only one story about a people or nation leads to ignorance. Ms. Adichie posited that "The single story creates stereotypes. And the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they...

For the past three decades, Anna Deavere Smith has always performed barefoot - while at the same time walking in the well worn crocs of doctors, or trading them in for the stilettos of super models without breaking her stride. She has lived in the dying bodies of...

In the past several weeks I have been called a racist, a sexist, and a media whore. I have been criticized, critiqued and questioned (not the least of which involved the NYPD and the United States Secret Service). I have been labeled one of the...