Wai‘anae, O‘ahu, 1978 (October 2016)

I am looking for you. Your home in the country is my beginning and ending, the humble Waianae house at the end of Hakimo road. On sleepless nights now in my forties, I search for the red house twenty-four years after Grandpa died, entering past the giant imported clam shells near the front door. The…

First encounters with the Middle East (March 2009)

Beit Al Serkal, Sharjah–By two o’clock, it was ninety-something degrees. This was the cooler time of year in the desert. More than sixty artists from the region and beyond were descending upon Sharjah, a tiny private country on the tip of Arabia. Artists from Iraq, Iran, America, Brazil, Italy, Germany and elsewhere were touching down.…

The Land of a Thousand Mirrors: Discovering Modern Tibet (July 2009)

You know you are in mainland China when an official points a plastic gun at your forehead in a train station. She is taking your temperature for H1N1 flu, but no one tells you this. A sign says “we will provide maximum spiritual and physical encouragement for your cooperation with laws prohibiting the transportation of…