Journal

As the United States ‘celebrates’ its 250th birthday in the throes of upheavel on both the domestic and world stage, I have been thinking a lot about the America of my youth and the many ways in which our civic culture and quality of life have been degraded over the past half century. I have been thinking especially of my first introduction to the nation via a fateful cross-country drive that I made with friends from Los Angeles to New York City in 1976, when I was only 16 years old, in order to participate in the bicentennial festivities of that year in the Big Apple. My latest blog revisits that journey with an eye to what I experienced along my way and what it means in the context of current American and global issues. My missive takes special account of the role of artists and creatives in shaping a better path forward, arguing that both then and now so much of our success and vitality as a working democracy is finally rooted in the vision and audacity of our creative class and youth culture.

On November 9, 1989, a wall that had divided the peoples of the East and the West in continental Europe (and around the world) since the early years following WWII came tumbling down. For nearly five decades, the Berlin Wall had stood as a symbol of state-imposed repression. On its western side, artists, students, activists,

Recent major changes in my life and in the world have inspired something of a renaissance in my creative undertakings. For much of the past five years, as I pursued action scholarship at The New School University’s Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy, my responsibilities as a public intellectual prevented me from finding the

While developing a new series of paintings this fall, I’ve been reflecting on the profound legacy of Romare Bearden. Last year, I had the honor of masterminding a multi-media exhibition and national symposium to re-introduce this mid-20th century icon to contemporary audiences. The project, a collaboration with The Romare Bearden Foundation and others, explored the

During late 2020, while spending the year-end holidays with my family in Saint-Sulpice, Switzerland, I got sick with COVID. What a lousy way to spend Christmas and New Year’s Day. It was before any vaccine was available, and a lot was still unknown about the virus. Many people my age and older (I was 60

Since my early efforts to produce visual art works, I have aligned closely with the graphic arts; and a lot of my journey as a creative person reflects that. During my high school years at West Los Angeles University High School during the mid-1970s, I got involved in various causes: the farmworker rights campaigns led

In 1999, while serving on the board of directors of the San Francisco Mexican Museum, I met Dr. Guadalupe (Lupe) Rivera Marín, daughter of the world-renowned artist and political activist Diego Rivera. We quickly became close friends, and my wife, Claudia and I began to share joyous times with Lupe whenever we found ourselves in

During the most quiet hours of the night, on Sunday, January 15, 2023, my Dear Friend, Dr. Guadalupe Rivera Marín said goodbye to this world. She was 98 years old. She had a life that could only be described as remarkable. Lupe grew up in the shadow of the Mexican Revolution, the first child of