2. Surrendering to NYC

01/28/2026

What was I do to first in NYC? Hit a local diner for some Americana pancakes and diner coffee, holding that tiny c-shape mug handle, that only fits around a couple of fingers, enjoy the free-flowing hot coffee, whilst watching my husband order a mountain of food (it’s a good morning!).

And of course, since I have surrendered to the power of this town, I felt pulled to become a global member of its key institutions – Guggenheim and The Met. Being a member, allows you to bring your significant other for free to the M and for a small fee to the G, as well. And you bypass those long Met ticket lines like a VIP – sign up prior and pick up that beautiful red card at the queue with no people and walk right in! I even had a lady thank me for supporting the Met (aww, lady, the Met is doing me a favour!).

It was my first time to the G and I found it quite intimate, it wasn’t packed with people, you can easily have a piece of art work to yourself for 60 to 90 seconds, before someone else came gazing. We caught the Rashid Johnson’s: a Poem for Deep Thinkers exhibition, only days from finishing. Works included videos, stunning sculptures, art, photography and plants. What I really connected to were the videos, they were quiet in nature, poetic, revealing the ordinariness that we all share. Also, seeing plants at the gallery was refreshing. I heard in an interview the artist say that plants bring out empathy in us – which feels accurate.

Rashid is clearly captivated with words, language and empathy (books and references all around), in one of the wall labels, he quotes Audre Lorde, who argues:

“Poetry is socially necessary for maintaining mental health and even life itself, as it can articulate feelings and affects that cannot be framed in conventional prose and scholarship.”

It reminded me that art is such a necessity. There is something about art that quietens our busy minds, gets us out of our self-obsessive nature, and connects us to something ethereal that for the most part of the day sits there dormant. It makes us more human and empathic.

In the year 2020, one of the books I was obsessed with was Sarah Wilson’s ‘This One Wild and Precious Life: The Path Back to Connection in a Fractured World’ and one of many things she said that will resonate with me for the days to come, includes:

“Perhaps this is the most nourishing rule, poetry, art, deep reading, classical music all demand that we are not passive. They make us participate and bring us back to life…..”

To not be passive about our lives and feel that sense of aliveness, isn’t that what we should all aspire to feel? I can go on about importance of art and how it helps to balance me, centre my energy, raise my consciousness, or share words accumulated from great people who have given themselves to its discoveries. But, I’ll finish up with the poet Amiri Baraka (who was an inspiration for the show):

“The artist’s role is to raise the consciousness of the people. To make them understand life, the world and themselves more completely.”

I love those words. Thank you Rashid for reminding us of this.