Margo Jefferson has lost interest in the avant garde. “Is a urinal art? Is elephant dung a fit substance for creating art? Can walking be dance? Is sampling or silence or noise music? Are fractured words and stories truer to the shape of our experience than traditional narratives? Will the virtual and simulated realities made possible by the digital age threaten our identities or layer and expand them? At one time all these things were controversial. Now they are familiar. That’s why I don’t really like to use the words avant-garde anymore. I don’t really believe in them right now. They don’t take in enough variety.”