Diasporic

The concept of diaspora is important to me for several reasons. First, it challenges notions of "nationalism" and the idea of stable or essentialized cultural identities, occupying a "gray zone" which can be helpful in contemporary discourse. Though I am somewhat tired of these distinctions, the idea of hyphenated identities referred to above, can provide a more precise marker of cultural experience for those whose ancestry has experienced a discontinuity in physical location. The term allows for a more post-modern examination of "heritage" or nationality within ever shifting physicalities and borders.

(Unfortunately, these hyphenated identites and "fusion", most relevantly in the area of performance, now also carry with them their own sets of pre-conceptions and problematics. But this is part of a much larger debate than my blog entry can allow for.)

As a "native" English speaker, this concept is "local" for me in so far as I live in New York City. The somewhat cliched notion that the U.S. is a "nation of immigrants" is quite tangible in the boroughs of New York, where different immigrant cultures have settled or temporarily exist, redefining "nationality" in new spaces.

As far as I am concerned, I am the child of two Egyptian immigrants to the United States. I was born and raised in the U.S., and lived the last two years in Cairo, the place where my parents have now returned in their retirement.

And so, I am also currently interested in the idea of "reverse diaspora". In the U.S. we have a saying "you can't go home". Though I am unaware of the etimology of this saying, it seems especially poignant within America's (shameful) history of participation in the slave trade. And so the African diaspora, like many others, makes clear the concept that diaspora is not always a matter of choice.