After a violent mugging that took a strange turn, I was left with a new imperative. I was no victim: I was a musician, among communities that were dangerously unempowered. What was I going to do about it?

Diversity is routinely invoked as a lofty but inconsequential abstraction. A true cultivation of identity diversity can help us to engage with our environment in a more immediate way, toward the betterment of all involved.