I was at the Sundance Resort in Utah recently, attending the annual Creative Change retreat that the Opportunity Agenda hosts for people working at the intersection of arts and social justice. Lots of interesting discussions took place about the purpose of art, the differences/similarities in artistic process and political process, and what makes good/effective political art—or if there is even such a category.

It could be terrorism, but we don’t yet know. It could be someone who has a beef with Sikhs. It’s too early to talk about gun control. These statements ran in a continuous loop through my head yesterday, even when I wasn’t watching coverage of the mass shooting at an active gurdwara in a suburb of Milwaukee. Throughout the day, the hollowness in my solar plexus signaled grief and the tightness in my throat signaled panic, and I felt deep, deep resistance to the notion of saying anything about it. What is there to say that isn’t a cliché?