Gentler Worlds Through Art

Born in Jamaica and becoming a United States citizen in early adulthood, I have been fascinated by the construction of identity: internally by the self and from the outside by stereotypes and visual culture. I call for an appreciation of differences in identity through a notion that artist Lorraine O’Grady stresses of both/and for seeing and thinking. Both/and does not set up difference in terms of dichotomies that hierarchize. In this chapter, I describe key pieces and highlight how my work can be a catalyst for social change that considers the body-mind in addition to new non-hierarchical understandings of difference. A further hope is for Art to take us beyond languages and systems that have created many of the issues and divisions we face to help cultivate gentler worlds.