“I am
invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the
bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have
been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me
they see only my surroundings, themselves or figments of their imagination,
indeed, everything and anything except me.”
― Ralph
Ellison, Invisible Man
“Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?”
― Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
This
month, a collaboration with Matwaala---a
USA-based literary platform promoting diasporic writings from South Asia and
recently, welcoming from other ethnicities---focuses on identities that entail
any migration, local, inside or outside the country of one's origins.
Matwaala completes a decade of fruitful
engagement with varied poetic voices. Led by celebrated poets, Usha Akella,
Pramila Venkateswaran, and her team, it makes visible the contribution
of poets who chose to share their experiences of living in a new country.
When Matwaala showed interest in a joint
project with Setu, we readily agreed.
Anita Nahal, one of our eminent guest
editors and a close collaborator, agreed to guest edit the special edition
titled: "Dual Identities".
A total
of 32 poets were selected to represent this experience, lived/imagined.
That is
migration from both perspectives---embedded and a distant view of these complex
realities and adopting a lifestyle in sync with the customs of the chosen
land---fraught with multiple challenges and full of joy and pain in democracies
where top professionals still continue to be seen from the lens of skin colour,
sometimes subtle, sometimes explicit!
It comes
with the territory.
Whether
internal or external displacement, the movement comes with its own package of
biases, prejudices, and, a determined sense of overcoming these overall
arbitrary labels, and, surviving the odds, fuelled by a deep existential
desire of integrating into the system.
First-generation
immigrants face toughest battles. They clear the ground for the next generation
who speak "propah" English---native-like---but still face many levels
of discrimination.
The DNA
continues to evolve in such scenarios everywhere and every generation has to
overcome these false barriers created by the elites of a particular colour.
Of late,
the whiteness of Oscars has been increasingly interrogated and Black Lives
Matter (BLM) as a movement mobilised the public opinion around issues of racism
and violence in America; the twin movements went mainstream globally,
resulting in remedial actions.
Black
music and Lit have been exploring these themes over the decades.
Ralph
Ellison is an enduring example.
Toni
Morrison and Maya Angelou are still relevant.
Dreaming
of a better life and more equitable cultures, artists, poets and writers keep
on writing, painting, and singing of a society of equals.
Of
desiring visibility.
Striving
towards that---being seen.
That is
the realm of serious art, not kitsch, or commercial art.
Does
migration involve nostalgia? Long term? A crippling state of recall?
Talking
of these imposed identities, Anita Nahal writes in her guest editorial:
Some
would label me as having “dual identities.” Personally, I think I have multiple
layers that lap and overlap as in a Venn diagram---human, woman, single mother,
professional, writer, and so forth. And therefore, the notion of a dual
hyphenated identity, such as Indian-American doesn’t garner my interest. What
is the need of a hyphen between those words? And neither does nostalgia bother
me nor find its way in any distinct fashion into my writings. I didn’t realize
that till readers pointed that out to me.
How true!
Anita is spot on!
So here
we have this joint project that is going to unveil the meaning of living abroad
or not living there, of the dualism, hyphenated identities---and looking at
those gilded houses from far-off native shores by those who elected to remain
rooted in the home soils.
A section
deals with critical analysis and readings of some important texts.
And the
usual fare of fine writings!
Please
enjoy!
Thanks to
our guest editor, Matwaala and other
literary friends for their kind support.
Sunil
Sharma,
Managing
Editor, Setu (English)
