Maps

The pieces hang in museums and galleries like stars, hang there like they spontaneously appeared in their corporeal forms. I understand much better that books do not get spat out fully formed. For good or ill, I know that they come in blobs and spits and sprints and marathons. I am an enthusiastic painter and […]

The War

All my growing-up years, guns were in movies and (I imagined) in the hands of people less interesting and educated than me. I had no idea why anyone would want or need a gun. I moved to the city eleven years ago. I remember hearing someone got shot in the parking lot of the drugstore […]

The Tempest

My most persistent “You’re not helping me” student– let’s call her X– surprised me yesterday. I need a pencil. I don’t have my book. You didn’t tell us to bring it. You’re not helping me. Can I go to my locker to get __________? If I hear any of these one more time, I […]

Notes from the East

On the wall at the New Museum, a fur orb, breathing as deeply and slowly as if he is in a coma. Really scary. I like to be that kind of scared. Rosemarie Trockel had a lot going on in her show. A room of white tile, an upside-down palm tree, and formerly alive birds […]