IDENTITY CONSTRUCTS:

Creative expressions of cultural identity in the lives of young artists

by

Cynthia Grant

A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements

for the degree of PhD
Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
University of Toronto

© Copyright by Cynthia Grant (2008)

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 IDENTITY CONSTRUCTS:
Creative Expressions of cultural identity in the lives of young artists
Doctor of Philosophy 2008
Cynthia Grant
Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning
University of Toronto

Abstract

The thesis explores issues of identity formation, particularly surrounding young

people's understanding of themselves as members of ethnic groups and the impact their

emergent knowledge has on the production of art. The thesis draws on postmodern

theories of identity, multicultural art and youth culture with a focus on second generation

immigrant experience. The questions that inform the study surround the means by which

young people 'voice' their preoccupations with their cultural identity through creative

expressions. How, specifically, might that be realized in their creative processes? How

do students understand those transformative moments in their own lives?

Employing an interpretive ethnographic approach, this study inquires into the

ways in which young people use creative expression in performance and poetry as a

means of meaning-making and in doing so find possibilities for critical reflection. The

investigation considers both the creative works and their life narratives which establish

the dual focus of the individual chapters. Each case study begins with an analysis of the

cultural work, bringing aesthetic considerations of representation and racialized identity

into a cultural studies framework. This interdisciplinary framework unpacks how,

through the creative process, matters of individual and cultural group identity are

surfaced, examined and, possibly, reconciled.

 In particular, the inquiry focuses on those young people who find themselves

dealing with the tensions associated with cultural mismatch, who negotiate their identities

in a hybrid world. Second generation immigrant experience of ethnicity is provisional,

and may be marked by acculturative stress between the generations. Through creative

expression, young people negotiate the contradictory experiences of multiple worlds of

home, school, and peers (Phelan, Davidson & Yu, 1993), of discriminatory experience

and/or the consequences of migrancy in a global landscape. The analysis takes up the

nature of the disorienting dilemma and the anxieties that the young people experience,

uncovering clues in the creative expressions and through in-depth interviews.

The rich multi-perspectival visions of identity posed through artistic works and in

dialogue offer evidence of the possibilities for meaning-making and identity formation

among young people. Finally, this study sheds light on the pedagogical possibilities for

positive intervention in school settings and elsewhere for educators or community, social,

or cultural workers. Arts based education offers a unique set of possibilities for the

positive expression of ideas, unresolved tensions, and lived experiences of young people.

in
 Acknowledgements

Many people have been a part of, and informed, this rather long journey. My work as an
a/r/tographer, to invoke the word that seems to describe my "situatedness", has been the
result of the convergence of my areas of interests. So, there are a myriad of thanks.

For the times within the magical world of artistic practice, I thank my collaborators, for
the theatre involves constant group process. From the days of Nightwood Theatre with
Maureen and Kim, Aida and Peggy, Amanda and Lina, and the many others who were
actively engaged in transforming voices in the theatre, there resonates the power of the
margins. At Company of Sirens, the social justice mandate focused us on the issues of
the day, moving us out into the community, speaking of race, gender and equality. For
Susan, Sheila, Diana, Catherine, Heather, Marcia, Laurie and the many others who
believed that we could be part of the transformation, I tip my graduation cap. To the
women of the Womens Cultural Building, I fondly recall the possibilities. You all
deserve recognition for the commitment and power of your artistic practice for you too
are educators.

My time as a teacher has been a wild and wonderful journey from my times as an adult
educator at Seneca College with the Somalian women, through the arts specialty school
and my current Scarborough school. Students have taught me much of the world, their
worlds, and the critical space of engagement that may be possible.

As a researcher, there are those who have been influential and present in unique ways.
Of particular note, I appreciate my committee members from whom I have learned both
through their writings and in their classrooms. With respect, I feel fortunate that
Professors Jim Cummins, Edmund O'Sullivan, and especially my supervisor Linda
Cameron taught me of negotiating identities, transforming the world, and the many
delights of teaching and learning. Their sustained interest in my work encouraged me to
complete. As well, Professor Alan Filewod and David Booth saw me over the finish
line, each bringing a unique perspective to my hybrid academic work.

Within the academy, I have enjoyed the company of colleagues who engaged in critical
studies while maintaining fascinating lives. The line-up changed over time. Sherry,
Enam, Eve, Jacqueline, Dolana, Nuzhat, Lisa, Maria, Fateneh, and others livened up the
academy. I note special times with CUPE sisters Shirley and Maureen. Finally, I wish to
express my appreciation for the great support of the computer lab staff, Tony and
Alfredo, who were key to my completion.

Finally, to my family and friends, I appreciate your interest and that you understood that
this project involved a sacrifice of time with you. I hope that we may enjoy a renewal.

IV
 Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION 1
Creative Expression, Voice and Identity 3
Art, Adolescence and Anxiety 4
Research Questions 6
Case Studies and Chapter Outlines 7
Implications of this Study 10

CHAPTER ONE 15
Background to the Study 15
Notions of Culture, Ethnicity and Identity 15
From Anthropological Understanding to Cultural Theory 18
Speaking Across Differences 21
Youth Identity Formation 24
Youth Culture Research, Youth Subcultures
and Second Generation Immigrants 26
Cultural Identity.... How Newness Enters the World 30
Arts Community, Equity Discourses, and Intercultural Understanding 32
Teaching as Practice and Intervention:
Anti-racist and Multicultural Practice 33
Inclusive Practices and Creating Space for Student Voice 35
Youth Culture in the Po-Mo World of Media and Fashion 40
The Arts as Experience: From Plato to Dewey 42
Public Policy on Learning and the Arts 46
CHAPTER TWO 51
Frameworks and Methods:
Multiple Lenses for Creative Expression and Identity 51
Educators and Their Role 51
Participatory Research 52
The Researcher and the Researched 53
Classroom teacher as researcher 54

v
Research Design 55
The Case Study Approach 56
Critical interpretive ethnography 59
Arts-based educational inquiry 60
Life Histories 63
The interviews 64
On Ethical Engagement 68
Researcher - identify yourself 70
Analysis and Meaning-Making 72
Social Analysis and Psychological Dimensions/Aspects of Identity 74
Aesthetic Analysis of the Cultural Significance:
On the Art of It All 76

CHAPTER THREE 83
The Young Poet of the South Asia Diaspora 83
The Context for Voice-ing 83
Indo-Canadian Reality 84
Inspired Pedagogy and Inspiring Personal Narratives 86
Lived Experiences 87
Cultural Transmission 89
Gendered Experiences 91
Racism within the Community 93
The Creation of the Poem 95
The Poem as Sociological Text 96
The Cathartic Release as Aesthetic Experience:
The Power of Poetry 99
Voice-ing identity, gaining independence 101
Ethnographic Inquiry: Comparative Studies 103

VI
 The Political Times and Sikh Identity in Canada 105
Bhangra, Clubbing, and the Visual Delight of the Singh Sisters 108
Cultural products and identity 111
Cutting Edges of Post-colonial Ethnographic Surges 112
Racialized gangs 113
Canadian Sikhs, "high " culture and ethnic enclaves 116
Concluding Thoughts 119

CHAPTER FOUR 122

Staging Family and the Cultural:
Young People Investigate Worlds with Marty Chan 122
The Context for Voice-ing 122
The Project 126
The Chinese Family in the West 129
Play-ing Family, Playing Cultural Contestations,
Ridiculing Stereotypes 131
The Reflection on the Project 131
Arts Production as Experience 132
The Paths, Conversations and Values 136
Naming and Constructing Identity 141
Naming Oneself as an Artist 143
The Role of Media in Stereotyping and Its Fallout 146
Concluding Thoughts 149
Hyphenated Identity in the In-Between 154
The Aesthetics ofHybridity and a Hybrid Aesthetic 156
CHAPTERFIVE 158
Performing Race 158
Description/Documentation of Performance 159
Critical Race Theory Analysis of the Work 160
Race and Representation 160
The Semiotics of Identity: "Signs " in Youth Culture 163
Phenomenology of Identity 165
vn
Reflection on the Project
Ascribing Identity: The Burden of "Acting White'
What Whites See
Theorizing the Body
Children and Black Identity
Paths, Conversations and Values
Concluding Thoughts

CHAPTER SIX
Testimony of a Life Ruptured
The Last Setting of the Sun
The Context for Voice-ing
Exile and Testimony
Performing the Self
On Healing Through Speaking
Trauma and Care within a Family Model
Final Thoughts on Fredy fs Trauma and Testimony

CHAPTER SEVEN
Poetic Testimony
Dark Cloud
Poetic Text as Healing
Muslim Identities) in the West
What About Jihad Versus Mc World?
Final Thoughts

CHAPTER EIGHT
An Educator's Case Study

vin
The Background to Inclusive Educational Practices 209
Multiculturalism 211
In the Schools, the Cartographies of Difference 214
Altering the "Dominant" Curriculum:
Talking Practice and Its Limitations 218
School Newsletter 223
Commentary 225
First Language, Accent and Embrace or Denial of Identity 229
Schools and Change 232
The Community Mix: Community Programming of the Arts 234
Final Thoughts: Problematics in a Post 9/11 World and Backlash 236
Popular Culture and Pedagogical Possibilities 237

CHAPTER NINE 239

Conclusion 239
Cultural Diversity and Creativity 239
How Newness Enters the World 240
Soothing Expressions, Belonging, Social Bonds 244
Learning Possibilities and Learning Measures 247
Exploring the Dimensions of Inclusive Anti-Racism Education 250
Postcolonial Spaces 253
Youth Research: Practices and Perils 257
Arts-Informed Research 259
Change to the Canadian Culture Scene 260
Altering the Arts World in Canada 261
On Constructing Identity 263
From Diaspora to Disney 266
REFERENCES 273
APPENDIX 299
SCARBOROUGH REMIXed 299

IX
 Dedication

To my mother, who both influenced and supported me

and

To my children, Zoe and Dylan,

whose development has been awesome.
May you know the joys of a life fully engaged
And the magic of ideas, art and people

x
 INTRODUCTION

Pier Giorgio di Cicco, the second Poet Laureate of Toronto, spoke at the
Humanitas Festival on May 31, 2006 about the nature of the city and the voices within it.
The occasion was the book launch for an initiative entitled Diaspora Dialogues, a project
of the literary community whose purpose is to support "emerging writers from diverse
backgrounds" as stated in the program for the evening. Di Cicco speaks from the
experience of being born in Italy, and raised in Montreal and Toronto. Subsequent to
degrees from the University of Toronto, he published an extensive body of poetry that
speaks of the spiritual journey of life. That evening, Di Cicco embraced the idea of a
"literacy of grace" through which writers "validate our individualities" and "authenticate
our commonalities". During the readings, the audience would hear the poetry, prose and
fiction of writers whose backgrounds ranged from across the globe. Of the need to
support and encourage these authors, Di Cicco said that there is a "need to know where
we come from.. .to know where we're going". Indeed...
The poet describes the very human desire to know not only oneself, but also one's
place in the flow of history and communities. Now, this process takes place in what
McLuhan prophetically named the global village. Here, the local and the global merge in
a world of exilic and diasporic identities in what even The Simpsons television program
offhandedly names a "po-mo" world. De-stabilized and de-centred, the world of
contemporary culture(s) becomes one in which the questions of "Who am I?" must be
navigated with ever greater care, competence and resilience. Young people who are part
way through the metamorphosis of a life's journey must make meaning of their lived
realities within the conflicted forces of contested spheres of influence and community.
My life's work has involved me in dialogic engagement with artists, fellow
researchers and students of various ages as we have investigated, in our various ways,
just how meaning making and identity may be possible. Along the way, my identity as
writer of this thesis has been informed by my background as an artist, educator, and
researcher in a variety of settings.
Over the past decade, I have inhabited the world of youth, of young people
encountering the world, moving toward adulthood, negotiating meaning and

1
 2

identifications. This is the process that Wexler so cleverly describes as 'becoming

somebody'; a key site for this negotiation occurs in schools, where people are "engaged
with each other in the interactional work of making meaning. These are places for
making the CORE meaning, of self or identity among people" (Wexler, 1992, p. 155).
With this in mind, there must be careful consideration of the role of educators, those of us
who teach and those of us engaged in research.
Sonia Nieto (1996, 2000), a highly influential voice surrounding multicultural
education in the United States, describes both the landscape within which schools
function and the responsibility that educators bear to take action.
Our schools reflect the sociocultural and sociopolitical context in which
we live. This context is unfair to many young people and their families
and the situations in which they live and go to school, but teachers and
other educators do not simply have to go along with this reality. I believe
one of our primary roles as educators is to interrupt the cycle of inequality
and oppression. We can do this best by teaching well and with heart and
soul. (p. xxii)

Most teachers would claim a commitment to teaching well, but few see their role
as one of intervention in the inequality and oppression of their students.
Fundamentally, then, teaching has political implications.. .but this was old news
for I had encountered Paulo Freire in conversation with two education professors, Roby
Kidd and Alan Thomas, at OISE many years ago. In an aphorism that would remain
indelibly etched in my mind, Freire spoke of the role of educators: "As educators, we are
both politicians and artists." (Edmunds, 1976). Through a reading of Giroux, bell hooks
and other theorists of critical pedagogy, talk of the "hidden curriculum of racism" fuelled
my desire to find a means to work through the arts in a manner which would open up the
world of the students. After all, students have a unique voice for they have unique
experiences of family, of religion, of language and culture that give each of them a
distinctive voice. However, the curriculum perpetuates the power of the dominant groups
in terms of whose stories are taught and how they are taught.
Global hybridity characterizes life today in the classrooms of the city, and the
metropolis requires a rethinking to respond to this altered demographic. This new
composition of humanity is increasingly composed of transnational and multicultural
residents, of migrants and refugees, of post-colonials who either choose-due to
 3

economics — or are forced — due to instability — to move. The Toronto of today lives
the narratives of this global polyglot. The polyphony of multiple voices is both exciting
and terrifying as identity negotiation creates an almost audible rumbling in our streets and
in our schools. Babel-like, there is a compelling urgency for educators to re-negotiate the
pedagogical possibilities.
Thus, this thesis is written from the position that modern identities are being
dislocated, fragmented, and decentred (Bhabha, 1994) due to several factors: the shifting
demographics as more people re-locate in a web of global migration unparalleled in
human history; influences of family and the cultural customs of home are withstanding
pressures of popular culture through technologies unavailable in any prior civilization
making the home culture vulnerable to fragmentation; the polarity of cultures interact in
new ways whether that be East-West, refugee or privileged Canadian school child. These
are just some of the radical and powerful influences coming to bear.

Creative Expression, Voice and Identity

The thesis locates itself within a critical pedagogy and cultural studies framework,
as I explore both the life and the artistic work of young people. Drawing on the
interdisciplinary analytic possibilities, the writing within this work teases out the politics
of representation within some key artistic expressions of young people whose
understanding of themselves was in a powerful phase of recognition of their identity. In
particular, this thesis focuses on the possibilities that creative experience offers in the
provision of powerful models for perception and conceptualization, with particular
interest in engaging young people in explorations of cultural identity.
Ideas of voice-ing are at the core of artistic expression as well as at the core of
critical pedagogy. The discourse surrounding voice has been associated with critical
pedagogy through the work of many scholars of note, including Giroux, Simon, Macedo,
Shor, McLaren, Yates, Fine, and Weis. bell hooks (1989) speaks of coming to voice in
this way:
the idea of finding one's voice or having a voice assumes a primacy in
talk discourse, writing, and action.... Only as subjects can we speak. As
objects, we remain voiceless — our beings defined and interpreted by
others.... Awareness of the need to speak, to give voice to the varied
 4

dimensions of our lives, is one way [to begin] the process of education for
critical consciousness, (hooks, 1989, p. 12)

The distinctly Freirean terminology, acknowledged by bell hooks in several of

her writings, can be seen in the final phrase as it resonates the well-known book title,
Education for Critical Consciousness, written by Freire a decade earlier. The discourse
of 'difference' and 'voice' associated with liberatory border pedagogy carries with it
particular political notions of self.
Considerations of the aesthetic of the postmodern also come into play within the
thesis. How do the ruptures and the fractures of the "chowder" to adopt the term used by
Guillermo Gomez-Pena (1992-3) to describe the hybrid zone of the border identity, find
voice? Drawing on postcolonial theories of hybridity, this question carries on from the
musings of Salman Rushdie about "how newness enters the world". This has been taken
up among cultural studies theorists, serving as the title of Bhabha's (1994) seminal
chapter in his collection in the area of hybridity. The idea, of how newness enters the
world, forms the basis for much of this inquiry with and among young people as they
negotiate their life worlds.
In an era when the mixing and interconnecting of people from different ethnic and
cultural backgrounds takes place in the metropolis, and especially in a city like Toronto,
as educators and as artists we must understand that identities of the border zone are
destabilized, opening up the possibility for dynamic change.
In terms of artistic expression, there is a sense of self-expression that speaks to a
willingness to know oneself and thereby gain a self-awareness or understanding that is
not possible otherwise. When the work involves exploration of the 'self directly as
several of the creative expression included in this study do, then there has been a
conscious subjectivity at play with an apparent goal to articulate with truthfulness one's
inner state. Interiority and subjectivity suggest self-awareness (Wilber, 1995) but among
second generation immigrant youth, the issue of self and subjectivity enmeshes in the
complex contestations of diasporic identity within migratory communities in the global
village which, for a contemporary urban teacher, may be present on a daily basis.
 5

Art, Adolescence and Anxiety

My investigation considers the complexity expressed within creative work in

unpacking the processes of becoming and belonging, forming identifications and identity
interrogations. Underlying and informing the investigation is the notion that art becomes
an exercise of thought, an expression of the anxieties and contestations surrounding
identity. Young people are at a crucial stage of human development in their lives,
particularly surrounding their social understa nding of themselves in the world. In terms
of stages, there are a number of characteristics common to the many stage theories
developed by Freud, Piaget and Erickson as this period of life has been portrayed as a
"period of turbulence, doubt, growing awareness, liberation, experimentation, etc.
Essentially adolescence is a period of adaptations and adjustments" (Furnham, 1991, p.
194). There have been calls from varied quarters to explore identity intervention during
the process of adolescent identity development.
Among art therapists, studies explore the artistic sublimation in the art work of
children, notably Edith Kramer (1973) l9 the esteemed European-trained art therapist,
whose work at New York University has influenced generations. For Kramer, art widens
the range of human experiences as it creates equivalents for such experiences. The world
of symbols may evoke genuine emotions, enjoyed without guilt, an alternative to acting
out. My work explores possibilities for art in the realm of social and emotional learning,
increased self-awareness and the development of higher-order thinking.
For Vygotsky (1971), art becomes an exercise of thought, an expression and
release of the anxieties surrounding identity. In effect, "Art releases an aspect of our
psyche which finds no expression in our everyday life" (Vygotsky, 1971, p. 244). This
idea of release offers the possibility for the easing of psychological stress and, more
importantly for the analysis undertaken here, the "knowledge is transformed; it becomes
something more than knowledge because it is merged with non-intellectual elements to
form an experience worthwhile as an experience" (Dewey, 1980, p. 302).

1
Edith Kramer and her influence would not have come to my attention except through her former student, the gifted
art therapist Herschel Stroyman, who not only introduced me to her work but also sent me to her studio in New York
where we discussed her work including her early training with Freidl Dicker-Brandeis whose work with children
during the holocaust is commemorated at the Jewish museum in Prague.
 6

As the young people give shape to their lived experience through their creative
expression, the "products of art are, in a sense, lived experiences transformed into
transcended configurations" (Van Manen, 1990, p. 74). Turning now to the field of
cultural studies, Stuart Hall's (1996) image of "suturing" as the response to de-formation
in identity formation and the all-too-human attempt to stitch or repair that which suffers
stress and damage. This study concerns itself with young people who are questioning
some aspect of their cultural identity, not seeking resolution, but rather some way to work
through the dilemmas. Herein lies the power of creative expression: to provide a means
by which some make sense of their experiences as cultural and racialized 'minority'
subjects. However, that presumes the answer to the flow of questions.

Research Questions

The thesis focuses on young people who are grappling with their cultural identity
through creative expression. The research inquires into the ways in which young people
use creative expression as a process of meaning-making in their ongoing identity
formation at a crucial time in their lives. This becomes a means to further our
understanding of the conflicts within the social worlds of young people, especially
second generation immigrant children, whose lived realities place them in the hybrid
zone (Bhabha, 1984). The implications are considered in terms of our evolving
conception of processual identity form ation of contemporary youth.
The chapters provide discrete investigations of individual case studies, each of
which explores particulars of both cultural identity and creative expression through
taking up both the evidence of the creative work and through engagement with the
creative young people.
The questions which guide and inform this study have to do with notions of
belonging and negotiated identities within the spheres of home and communities with a
particular interest in the creative process.
Would there in fact be an "empowered sense of belonging" from undertaking
artistic explorations, in "claiming one's difference (from mainstream or dominant
national culture)"? (Ang, 2001, p. 11) Do such creative practices act as a catalyst
developing the resilience required for maturation?
 7

From this, more questions emerge about how students may utilize creative
expression in order to process key issues in their lives. How do the home values of the
students and their previous experiences provide them with a social analysis of the world?
How, then, in finding themselves in the "in-between", do young people seek a creative
expression for some of the issues that have confounded him/her?
With these social contestations, the release offered through creative expression
may emerge from "anxieties" (Vygotsky, 1971). In what ways do the hybrid tensions
surrounding struggles with parents or with society constitute the material for creative
expression for young people? How and through what forms might they choose to
represent their personal struggles around cultural identity? Even more intriguing for both
the viewer and the researcher, is how students construct both the artistic form and the
image of her/himself through an act of meaning making revealing how young people
understand such transformative moments in their own lives.
The questions also lead to issues of community and what may be understood
about specific communities through the young people and their creative expression
within the particulars of the context of the community within Toronto at the time. These
works are contextualized in current social and cultural developments, especially artistic
trends in the hybrid zone.
The study emerged as I challenged myself as a classroom teacher to consider how
to facilitate conditions in which a student may comfortably express her/himself in terms
of who they are or what they are living in terms of the struggles surrounding cultural
identity. That is, what types of pedagogical practices encourage students to explore their
cultural identity and what are the benefits of explorations within the classroom or the
school? In short, how can educators challenge racism and open up spaces for liberatory
voices?

Case Studies and Chapter Outlines

This thesis engages in an investigation of several case studies each of which

surrounds the process of creative expression of young people when cultural identity is the
key inspiration or textual framework at the core of their meaning-making. The thesis
analyzes aspects of the cultural tensions as they play out with the research participants
whom I have had the great honour of following on their journey into young adulthood as
 8

their teacher, and sometimes into their lives as young artists as a researcher, mentor and
friend. The selection of the research participants occurred during a period of time when I
was both a researcher, investigating how schools respond to culturally diverse
classrooms, and a classroom teacher of dramatic arts and English. My research informed
my practice.
Within this framework, I became fascinated when, in being presented with certain
transformative work by students, their very identities seemed to be made visible in
process, in the struggle. Witnessing unique, exciting, creativity surrounding cultural
identity, observing "identities-in-the-making" through complicated expression within the
creative act, the material was ripe for investigation. That this activity was both healthy
and healing would become increasingly evident to both the participants and me over time.
As the thesis presents the stories and the creative expression of the young artists
who, perhaps, through the process of the work recognized some traces of his/her cultural
identity, the research analysis seeks to capture a "reverse anthropology" (Gomez-Pena,
2000) involved in their exploration. That is, the young people are understood to be
investigating their social worlds in and through their creative work.
Following a review of literature in the areas of cultural theory, arts and knowledge
production, youth identity and ethnic identity (Chapter 1) and a discussion of the research
approach and design (Chapter 2), chapters 3 through 7 present the five case studies that
form the centre of this study. These case studies focus on students who are grappling with
their cultural identity through artistic work examining both the creative release, the works
as texts, and the interests of the young people in utilizing 'voice' through poetry or
performance.
In Chapter 3, the poem, Indo-Canadian Reality, written by a young South Asian
female, involves a clever portrayal of the Indian diasporic community from the
perspective of the second generation. The writing plays with cultural codings and
generates a rich hybrid remix. The individual "voice" of the poet takes place within a
community that now constitutes the G.T.A.'s largest immigrant grouping. Further
ethnographic investigation of this population raises issues of interest to educators and
other social scientists.
 9

Chapter 4 investigates a theatre project that drew together a group of youth from
Chinese-Canadian families within an arts-specialty program. More specifically, these
youth are part of the "C.B.C. generation", which has nothing to do with media but rather
signifies their country of birth — Canadian-born-Chinese — setting these youth apart
from youth who immigrated from China. Their intense engagement with a contemporary
Canadian play, Mom, Dad, Vm Living with a White Girl, by professional playwright
Marty Chan, afforded the young people a space of liberatory pedagogy. Their experience
suggests that projects rich in relevance to the lived realities within families that
experience cultural conflict offer a means for identity investigation and valorization.
Chapter 5 documents the intimacy and complicated nature of a solo performance
art piece, shared with a single class written and enacted by a young man inevitably
defined and 'gazed upon' for his skin colour: black. A searing piece of critical race
theory enacted, the piece, like many a performance, existed only for a moment in time
and lives on in the memories of the viewers. Within this intimate setting, the powerful
legacy of postcoloniality plays out. Such is the immediacy of the performative act.
Chapter 6 surrounds the testimonial performance of an El Salvadorean refugee,
through a form of storytelling autoethnography that was part of several theatrical
presentations including the International Conference for Transformative Learning at
OISE in 2001. The analysis explores testimony as a means of processing personal trauma
due to refugee experience, the exilic problematic.
Chapter 7 presents a poem written in the wake of 9/11 by a young Muslim female
living in Mississauga, offered as an act of healing. Disturbed by the terrorist act, she
lyrically suggests common anguish. This raises the spectre of Islamophobia and its
troubling manifestations within media and society.
The study furthers our understanding of the means by which young people,
through creative expression, come to understand not only themselves and their
identifications but also their group(s). Contained within chapters three through seven are
articulations of the dilemmas, the contestation, the conflictual pieces the young people in
this study experience. Feelings of estrangement from their social world and their group
affiliations, the anxieties, find an outlet through the creative impulse as articulations
move into an imaginative sphere of re-presentations of their preoccupations with
 10

belonging within their social worlds. At the center of the identity formation for the
young people is their family situation so this comes into play frequently within the case
studies.
The case studies are discussed in terms of meaning-making surrounding culture
and identity and, particularly in the first two case studies, broaden into discussions of the
social and cultural group context. The studies involve youth engaged in cultural
production that provides a means for them to reconcile the tensions of their social world
as they understand themselves caught in the dilemmas of identity construction within
contested spaces of the cultural communities of the Indo-Canadian (Chapter 3) and
Chinese-Canadian families (Chapter 4) in Toronto. The youth recognize that their life
worlds are very much in process. Within each set of choices there are conundrums as
parents and the social community of which they are a member generate conditions of
tension and contestation. Thus, the study reflects upon the young peoples' interest in the
interaction of cultures as it plays out in their lives, the lived experiences of identity
tensions and anxiety and the transformative potential of creative work.
As acts of healing, the works discussed in Chapters 5 through 7 become dialogic
moments of exposed pain and testimony. Chapter 5 begins with a close reading of the
performance with a particular semiotic analysis of race and stereotype and broadens into
issues of black youth who experience racial discrimination, yet struggle to name it so.
The performance opens up issues of the postcolonial experience of subordination and the
immediate challenge for young black males to construct a sense of identity in response to
the gaze. In Chapter 6, the story of a refugee reveals the altered trajectory, or rupture, of a
life due to particular political conditions. The processing and sharing of this experience
offers audience members new knowledge and the creator the possibility to both be heard
and heal. The poet of Chapter 7 creates a poem as part of her post 9/11 offering toward
healing in an invitation to understand shared grief. Each of these pieces raises issues of
the capacity of art to transform.
Following the case study chapters of the young people, Chapter 8 documents my
own case study as an educator within the context of, and an interest in, the history of
inclusive education in Ontario. This chapter explores the historical background and goes
on to discuss some of the difficulties I have encountered in seeking a pedagogical space
 11

that supports the exploration of cultural identity in a meaningful way, within the rather
tight strictures of status quo pedagogical spaces.

Implications of this Study

The implications of this study pertain to the area of research broadly involved
with the investigation of youth identity formation (Jenks, 2005; Wyn & White, 1997)
with a focus on questions of cultural identity (Du Gay & Hall, 1996). The focus of the
thesis involves successful identity interrogations through creative work, engagement with
the creators and explorations of the social worlds of young people suggesting
implications for pedagogical practice, especially in the area of arts education carrying on
from Dewey, Greene and Eisner.
The young artists in this study proceeded with a sense of empowerment that can
only come from a recently gained sense of agency and voice. Anxiety, understood within
a postmodern view of the world, is worked through via acts of representation only
possible in works of art. The narratives or, in some cases, the pastiche the youth created
encapsulate processual understandings of identification struggles in their distinct creative
and content choices.
By examining the case studies, not only may this study illuminate some of the
negotiations of identity these young people undergo, but also these creative examples
may stimulate further discussion of pedagogical practices and issues of representation
within the context of identity negotiation. This investigation sheds light upon the way in
which artists and educators can re-conceptualize some of their practices in order to
facilitate openings for cultural expressions of identity.
The prospect of students expressing their lived realities of hybridity or as
racialized group members brings to the fore the burning issues surrounding how young
people can find a place in this society. This thesis involves the contestations associated
with how to find a self-concept that provides a sense of belonging. Due to the dialogic
nature of artistic work, the young people in this study felt validation and a sense of the
importance of in his/her life.
The investigation, sustained over a long period of time, examines the particular of
the case studies while locating the research in the social sphere of Canadian cross-cultural
relations. As a complementary component to the study as a means of contextualizing and
 12

in order to portray current societal movements/cohesion within the project of cultural

diversity, the investigation notes recent key developments in which the city embraces the
community. Not surprisingly, the last decade has produced some notable new trends as
the demographics of the city inevitably impacted on everything from the tight restrictions
on street vendors wherein only hot dogs were approved eating fare to the higher echelons
of culture wherein philanthropy extended to the newly rich from certain communities
bringing, for instance, the Michael Lee Chin crystal to the Royal Ontario Museum
(ROM).
Inclusionary exhibitions at mainstream art institutions (for example, the Sikh
exhibition at the ROM) and significant public events/dialogues (for example, at
Harbourfront during the Dim Sum Festival) provide evidence of hybrid experiences
within the communities of which the young people are members.
The dominant community, as portrayed in this study, has demonstrated increased
zones of inclusion for marginalized communities and that process in itself becomes
notable contextualizing research to the positionings of the social groupings. Furthermore,
this becomes an odd phenomenon as certain educational practices remain intractable,
such as those explored later in the thesis.
This investigation seeks to make a contribution to current research in arts
education with a focus on social diversity and equity. It provides readers with insights
into educational practices and project models that can facilitate the process of "coming
into one's skin", to borrow bell hook's phrase (2004). Tapping into the key periods of
identity consciousness for youth, or rather young adults, as they come to recognize their
identity location could and should be one of the primary objectives of secondary school
teachers. Border pedagogy allows conditions in which:
critical educators can develop pedagogical conditions in which students
can read and write within and against existing cultural codes while
simultaneously having the opportunity to create new spaces for producing
new forms of knowledge, subjectivity and identity. (Giroux, 1992, p. 31)

In the end, this thesis provides multiple examples of how educators may address
the high-stakes relations of difference, belonging and meaning with an understanding of
relations of power-knowledge within the complex landscape of Canadian schools.
Through such meaning-making, we may, as noted sociologist Reginald Bibby advocated,
 13

go beyond "scratching] the surface of the potential social and personal benefits of our
diversity" (Bibby, 1992, 2000, p. 177). The case studies in this thesis contribute to an
understanding of how creative projects with a focus on identity constitute a
transformative pedagogy for young people at a crucial stage in their development.
In our increasingly diverse classrooms, issues of social integration affect young
peoples' sense of belonging. Both social policy and school practices benefit through
furthering our understanding of what sorts of collective affiliation are being negotiated by
students in our schools. Our young people now face new considerations surrounding
inter-racial dating, arranged marriages and career aspirations and increased family
tensions due to generational conflicts. Young people need space for processing, not
necessarily resolution, as young lives are further complicated by racism and other
inequities leading to psychic trauma. These are sociocultural phenomena that affect
society in terms of our social cohesion and changing societal composition.
Diasporic identity has become the norm in many schools in the metropolis and
yet, as classroom teachers, we have perhaps been too attached to the texts of our own
youth, the canonical offering identifications for us but not our current student bodies.
This subject becomes the subject of the penultimate chapter in a consideration of the
barriers to curricular change which would offer liberatory pedagogy.
As educators, we must open up the spaces — positively — for young people to
express their cultural ruminations and meditations or their experience of marginality.
"The tradition of critical pedagogy .. .represents an approach to schooling that is
committed to the imperative of empowering students and transforming the larger social
order in the interests of justice and equality." (McLaren, 1994, p. vii) We must enable
individuals and groups that have not been heard, whose voice has had no play in the
school's day-to-day culture, to take stage and portray their stories in a manner which not
only empowers those individuals, but transforms the conceptions of the other groupings
of students as well.
Finally, this thesis involves an intercultural study through an interdisciplinary
interpretation. As the Hermes figure in the interpretive process, I had a central role in
transforming the research participants' creative expressions, their stories and
conversations about themselves into a scholarly work that falls within the practice of
 14

interpretive ethnography. Further, this document serves as only part of the larger
undertaking as my role within the process, at times, was as facilitator. The investigations
and meditations that took place through dialogic engagement with the young people in
this study, together with their creative expressions, have provided me with hope. Their
stories stand as a testament to the possibilities of the next generation. In this, my
"cobbling" together, to play with the term of Maxine Greene, lies a pedagogy of hope .

2
The "pedagogy of hope" alludes to Freire's more recent work.
 15

CHAPTER ONE
Background to the Study

The thesis draws upon critical theory practices that interrelate modes of inquiry
drawn from a variety of social science disciplines. In each of these disciplines, the study
of individuals and society interact and interplay as considerations of cultures are
undertaken. Both educational scholars and arts scholars have gained important methods
and approaches to ethnographic fieldwork.

Notions of Culture, Ethnicity and Identity

The word 'culture' has had a long history with an evolving meaning. The classical
German understanding viewed culture as rocks of intellectual-spiritual formation. Kultur
represents those values, shared systems of meaning, signification and symbolization of
people as a homogenous group. The founder of anthropology in the Twentieth Century,
Franz Boas, brought this definition into a system of social science with culture being
conceived as a mold that shapes lives. Within the family, this would involve parents
socializing a child in the ways of culture, reproducing practices in order to enculturate the
child, to tell him or her that "this is what We do, so do it; and that is what They do, so
don't!" Of course, the process happens in daily rituals and patterns of behaviour. (Gupta,
1996, p. 10)
The usage of culture in the academy, as it derives from social anthropology,
began to expand with the work of Malinowski, Margaret Mead and the structuralist
theories of Claude Levi-Strauss. Culture involves the systems of signification,
representation, symbolization, and social practices and refers to the unique expressions of
a particular collective. The distinctive "webs of significance" in which a human
community finds itself enmeshed (Geertz, 2000, p. 5).
Ethnic communities adhere to a cultural system and ethnic identity is important as
it enables people to belong to a group, providing a culture as well as possible social,
economic, and emotional support. Cultural collectives show "a certain stability in the
traits and tastes, styles and routines that its participants have learned to cultivate"
(Baumann, 1999, p. 22). This stability results in individuals feeling comfortable with
people, because the symbols and norms of behaviour are accepted and familiar. Key to a
 16

sense of self is a sense of commonality with others established by being a member of the
group. This group affiliation, or sense of belonging, enhances the emotional stability of
the individual.
In more recent conceptions of culture, instead of the idea of a photocopy machine
turning out identical copies, culture is seen as far more dynamic and part of a process.
Ideas of cultural regeneration and cultural transmission surround why and how ethnic
identity may be transmitted to the next generation. The dynamics of this process are
complex for, like a river, ethnicity can have many sources. As it flows, the components
can merge with others and separate again taking different forms and meanings, depending
on the time and context. As well, the rapidity of change may alter due to circumstance.
As beautiful as the analogy of the river is, I am not sure that the metaphor continues to
hold meaning due to overuse; the image is as old as Heraclitus, the pre-Socratic
philosopher, whose famous aphorism, "you cannot step into the same river twice" sought
to represent the dynamic nature of logos as he understood the human condition of change.
All things flow. Again, Heraclitus. Thus, all phenomena of human experience conjure
the river. The processual nature of experience 'flowed' back into currency with modern
philosophy, to play with the metaphor further.
Experience changes dramatically after immigration and cultural transmission
faces new challenges. In response to the changing circumstances, members of an ethnic
community must adapt their cultural concepts and, perhaps, practices in contact with the
new society and the existing culture or cultures within that society. Various terms have
emerged for this process including transculturation, a term coined in 1940 by Cuban
anthropologist Fernando Ortiz to describe the "transformative process undergone by a
society in the acquisition of foreign cultural material - the loss or displacement of a
society's culture due to the acquisition or imposition of foreign material, and the fusion
of the indigenous and the foreign to create a new, original cultural product" (Taylor, D.,
1991, p.61). As family members deal with the process of change within the community
or the family, they must deal with the new factors involving language, work and
schooling. Parents are very important in the cultural transmission within the family as
they maintain or advocate for a set of values and lifestyle seen as key to the continuity of
practices of the group.
 17

With respect to the experience of experiencing a new country's culture, the phrase
"caught between two worlds" arises frequently. Herein lies the challenge, one well-
articulated by Durkheim. His definition of acculturation and the stages has been the basis
for much sociological inquiry in the area of cross-cultural experiences due to
immigration. At the most basic level, researchers understand acculturation to occur when
a person is introduced into a new cultural environment and that person begins to acquire
traits from the new country's culture (Schnittker, 2002). In this situation, there are those
who are keen to drop their prior ethnic affiliations and acculturate to the new society.
However, there are those who value their own group membership and have little desire to
acculturate to the values, religions, beliefs of the new society. This range of possible
responses may vary over time. Within a family there may be differences among the
members. Historically, men might make the adjustment sooner than the women who
stayed at home. The young people within a family who reject their own language and
familial values may be viewed as traitors to family and old friends. These are some of a
range of experiences deeply affected by circumstance and cultural community conditions
with respect to socioeconomic status and acceptance, and phases of integration.
The idea of culture lost its singularity as we are now living in an interconnected,
intermingled world in which virtually all nation-states have become spaces where various
economies, peoples and cultures intersect. Here, they interact. Nation-states have
become spaces of global flows, in which the "confluence of cultural difference and
diversity has become increasingly routinized. In short, the world is now a space of
complicated entanglement, of togetherness-in-difference." (Ang, 2001, p. 4) Co-existing
in and among difference, today's young people face the challenge of a lack of cohesion in
the social world. With cultural diversity, issues of plurality and inclusion come into play.
My research is interested in cultural transmission as it plays out in the stories of
young people, and whether or not they sink or swim within the river of change as the
cultures mix. How do they navigate the turbulent waters of cultural flow in a state of
'togetherness-in-difference'? The hazard for young people attending schools is that they
may find themselves facing cultural interference or cultural conflict. The rules or values
of one culture may be significantly different from the other or others as there are the
multiple cultures associated with popular culture, peer culture in a single situation or
 18

domain. When this happens, students may deal with emotional and cognitive stress.
They are "caught", they are confused, they are negotiating....

From Anthropological Understanding to Cultural Theory

The anthropological conceptualization of culture has become much more

complicated through certain discursive lenses as notions of postmodernism and post-
structuralism, diaspora and transnationalism, have brought critical, political edge to
cultural analyses. Ideas of culture have become much more fluid, disorderly, and
generally uncertain. Coinciding with this, the disciplinary boundaries dissolve and
reform in a culture shift, what Anthropologist Clifford Geertz (1983) described as
"blurred genres: the refiguration of social thought"3. Speaking to and of this, the cultural
theorist tradition, in the United Kingdom initially, has been highly influential in thinking
through cultural identity, race, popular culture, and the postmodern. This thesis draws
on, and has been influenced by, those theories resulting in a stronger political analysis to
the interpretation of the art work, the interviews, and the ethnography.
In Culture is Ordinary (1958), Raymond Williams, the influential cultural theorist
in Britain, captured the dynamic understanding of culture that led the way for cultural
theorists of the Birmingham School:
Culture is ordinary: that is the first fact. Every human society has its own
shape, its own purposes, its own meanings. Every human society
expresses these, in institutions, and in arts and learning. The making of a
society is the finding of common meanings and directions, and its growth
is an active debate and amendment, under pressures of experience,
contact, and discovery, writing themselves into the land. The growing
society is there, yet it is also made and remade in every individual mind.
(Williams, 1958, p. 75)

This, again, reinforces a broad-based sense of culture involved in the ordinary of

everyday life and moves the discourse toward the idea of meanings. Societies express
meanings. In this theory, culture does not stand still or repeat itself; instead, there are
constantly changing meanings. Additionally, this broad definition of culture challenges
the exclusivity of the term as one applied to the fine arts, associated with the idea of
"high culture". Instead, culture is conceptualized as any activity which encompasses
 19

aspects of experience within societies. These activities are in a constant state of flux,
creating and variegating their harmonies almost like a perpetual jam session.
Culture offers particular interpretive possibilities when viewed as "the play of
signifying practices" where "social meaning is constituted, appropriated, contested and
transformed; the space where the entanglement of subjectivity, identity and politics is
performed" (Brah, 1996, p. 234). Brah builds on Williams' view that the making of
minds occurs through the learning of meanings and through 'testing of experiences' and
the making of new meanings. This idea, when applied to young people at a key phase of
their development, seems to more adequately encompass the grand project of coming to
identity, a process which involves reconciliations and contestations of so many more
aspects of experience than those surrounding ethnicity alone.
The idea of testing of experience ties in well with notions of identity formation as
"identity provides a way of understanding the interplay between our subjective
experience of the world and the cultural and historical settings in which that fragile
subjectivity is formed" (Woodward, 1997, p. x). This conception serves as a means to
understand the ways in which individuals construct identity as part of their understanding
and formation in their lifeworld. Identity, especially in the heterogeneous world of
Toronto, becomes a positioning that has as much to do with difference as about shared
belonging.
The notion that identity is singular has been problematized. Many studies of
cultural identity quote Stuart Hall's vision (1991) of multiple identities, in itself a sort of
free-floating definition of cultural infinity:
It is the politics of recognizing that all of us are composed of multiple
social identities, not one. That we are all complexly constructed through
different categories, of different antagonisms, and these may have the
effect of locating us socially in multiple positions of marginality and
subordination, but which do not operate on us in exactly the same way.
(p. 57)

The understanding of identity as complex constructions mediated through

multiple positions has caused a shift away from "essentializing" identity. The "risk of
essentialism" has emerged as a concern in response to increased analysis of categories of

3
This serves as the Chapter One title in his book, Local Knowledge: Further Essays in Interpretive Anthropology.
 20

race, gender, and class, especially through the discourse of identity politics. This critical
zone comments on power relations involved with the legacy of colonialism and
patriarchy but the reproduction of these categories, of race and gender, may re-inscribe
those as permanent markers. This, at the very time when, particularly in the writings of
Stuart Hall, the concept of race is best understood as a "floating signifier".
In undertaking analytic work which takes up categories of race and ethnicity as
this thesis does, I run "the risk of essence", a phrase associated with Gayatri Spivak
(1993). The "strategic use of essentialism" is undertaken in order, one hopes, to think
differently. There are acts of inquiry that necessitate it. After all:
We will never know what an identity is unless we have tried to dissolve it
into situational identifications; we will never learn what culture is until we
understand it as a dialectic, that is, double discursive, process....In other
words, we need to find out empirically how exactly people manage to
shape dialogical identities while at the same time reifying monological
ones. (Spivak, 1993, p. 140)

Discussions of dialogical identities describe a politics of recognition, which

Bourdieu (1990) noted would only be possible through a group's "capacity to mobilize
around a name" (p. 481). In this process, the individual seeks a form of representation as
"new kinds of subjects... to discover places from which to speak" (Hall, 1990, pp. 236-
237). This politics of self-(re)presentation lies not in the establishment of a definitive
identity but rather in finding "avenues for new speaking trajectories". Hall reminds
readers of the "precariousness of identity" (pp. 236-237).
In this world in which naming and categories are both asserted and dissolve, and
one in which the forces of globalization and migrancy muddy the boundaries of cultures,
the concept of hybridity emerges. Hybridity is a concept which confronts and
problematizes all these boundaries, although it does not erase them. As a concept,
hybridity belongs to the space of the frontier, the border, the contact zone. Hybridity
"always implies a blurring or at least a problematizing of boundaries and as a result, an
unsettling of identities" (Ang, p. 16). This, the hybrid zone, acknowledges the mixed up
togetherness, the 'complicated entanglement' of life in the 'in-between' and serves as a
shorthand for the complexities and ambiguities of politics in postcolonial and
multicultural worlds. Clifford (1988) describes a world in which "people work out
 21

specific, situationally determined modes of 'hybrid accommodation with national and

transnational forces'" (p. 367).
Homi Bhabha (1990) elaborates upon the hybrid with themes of cultural
displacement. In his discussion, he connects it to broader issues of cultural identity and
national identity, noting a tension between the national narrative that fixes people as
objects with claims to historical origins, and the processual, "which marks the people as
subjects performing their own narratives in the day to day acts of living." At the same
time, they are "historical 'objects' of a national pedagogy." This creates a "conceptual
ambivalence of modern society", due to what Bhabha terms a split which poses particular
issues surrounding "writing the nation." (p. 297)
This leads to the ambivalent construction of nation and, from here, the literature
and talk of inclusion easily moves into the carnivalesque world of Jameson's legendary
postmodern panopticon. Stepping out of the elevator into the lobby of the Bonaventure
Hotel with the unexpected juxtapositions conjures the spectre of "the great global
multinational network and decentred communicational network." (Jameson, 1991, p. 44)
The vision caused by demographic displacements renders a Babel-like4 scene. The mind
is confounded. In this world, the globe becomes a space filled with human subjects who
are themselves constituted as floating signifiers.

Speaking Across Differences

Before we move into a world where the essentializing of race and identity politics
give way to the fluid and hybridized world of Stuart Hall where social difference borders
not only crumble but cease to leave "traces", I shall examine the context within which the
case studies found life.
The retention of notions of specific ethnic identifications institutionalized in
Canadian political policy for decades produces fixed identities of hybrid, hyphenated
Canadians. This hyphenated multiculturalism placed Canada in the forefront of state-
based multiculturalism and fostered a conception of the population as coming from
elsewhere, and then retaining that identity in balance with a Canadian identity. As a

4
The idea of Babel seems to be re-emerging as a trope. The film, Babel, brilliantly linked narratives across several
continents suggesting the geopolitical linkages and distress. Alberto Manguel developed a chapter of his Massey
lectures (2007) surrounding culture and pluralism around the image of Babel.
 22

policy, there was some appeal since there exists a tendency to hold dear the old history
and narratives of one's immigrant past, or at least among immigrants of the Trudeau era.
This offers security, too, as the retention of old identities affords an anchor in the early
stages of establishing a life within the new country. Even now, during a period of large-
scale planetary reconstruction or globalization, the comfort of holding two passports and
two forms of identity seems to be part of the human impulse to hold onto one's past while
moving forward into the new country.
The bi-cultural identity offered to those immigrating to Canada stands in contrast
to the American model of the assimilationist melting pot. There are problems with both.
The competing forces of the desire for absorption into the dominant culture and the need
to define oneself through distinction of difference may place individuals in a situation
conducive to stress. Some of the literature of 'border crossing' would suggest that
hopscotch is an easily maintained lifestyle among those of complex or hybrid identities.
However, my research suggests that young people experience unsettled identities with
complicated visions of a dual struggle.
Of this, Homi Bhabha (1994) speaks of the period of the century's edge as a time
of existence "living on the borderlines of the 'present', for which there seems to be no
proper name, other than that shifting prefix 'post': postmodernism, postcolonialism,
postfeminism" (p. 62). Soon he conjures up the image of the world in which we live as a
"moment of transit where space and time cross to produce complex figures of difference
and identity, past and present, inside and outside, inclusion and exclusion" (p. 62).
Within this experience the individual young person may find, indeed must find, her/his
way into adulthood while navigating a complex negotiation of identity. The role of art
and creative expression within this process has gained increasing interest among cultural
theorists, and more broadly as some key writers and filmmakers as well as visual artists
have gained wider reception and receptivity for their narratives.
Bhabha turns to the work of art historian Michael Baxandall to describe the
impact of the work on the spectator who may not share the same cultural identity or be
unfamiliar with the identity location of the artist. In conditions of such difference, "the
systematic incompatibility of another culture's concept with one's own culture not only
makes the viewer work but reminds him or her of cultural difference." (p. 63)
 23

The dominant culture of white mythologies takes several generations to mix. In

the meantime, we are engaged in a process of cultural material passing from one society
to another in what may be described as:
the act of translation between cultures culturally incommensurable or
strange, which then allows an understanding of the "other" to emerge from
an elision, an uncanny alienation, of one's own cultural priority.. .cross-
cultural understanding requires the recognition of "open border" in
between objects and cultures (Bhabha, 1994, p. 64).

Bhabha has described in the most lyrical terms the space of difference when he
conjures up the image of people poised at the seam of difference between the "totalizing
powers of the social as homogenous, consensual community" and the contestory forces of
disparate interest and identities. The nation space then "becomes liminal signifying space
that is internally marked by the discourses of minorities, the heterogeneous histories of
contending peoples, antagonistic authorities and tense location of cultural difference"
(Bhabha, 1994, pp. 212). From the interstitial spaces marked by the processual arise "the
minority discourses that speak betwixt and between times and places" (p. 227). And it is
in the 'betwixt and between' that so very many of the young people, immigrant children
or children of immigrants, racial minority members, find themselves "negotiating
identities" to pick up on Cummin's (1996) phrase.
One of the primary concerns with cultural identity as taken up in the thesis
involves the processes of identity construction, the ways in which this is negotiated in
and through the construction of the self. This idea of assemblage is complicated by
Spivak (1993), and extended through a couple of vivid metaphors. She states that we
"'write' a running biography with life-language rather than only word-language in order
to 'be'. Call this identity!.. .our running self-identikit" (p. 4). This brilliant image of the
kit powerfully suggests the project of assemblage that constructs the individual self
through the required bits and the accidental bits.
There are indeed multiple aspects to identity as individuals can be members of
many different cultural groupings and have multiple group identities. The many pieces
must be organized and re-organized as the confluence of forces of home, family, school,
peers and social regulation requires. The return of agency in this is notable. This image,
like others, suggests that there are no absolutes in the acquisition of "culture". Indeed,
 24

readings of the process demonstrate that, although it is "true, culture maketh man",
nevertheless, it must be remembered that "it is men, women and youth who make
culture". Further, that "all making of culture, no mater how conservative, is also a
remaking" (Baumann, 1999, p. 26).
My interest revolves around the remakings and expressions of culture and cultural
identity evident in both the creative expressions and the lives of particular young people.
Their identi-kits and their assemblage are the source of the inquiry. The focus surrounds
the 'construction' of youth through social processes, most notably through various
experiences within schools and their families and how these are worked through in their
creative expressions.

Youth Identity Formation

The movement from childhood to adulthood is fraught with internal chemical

warfare, even for those who 'become' in stable environments. Adolescence is described
as the storm and struggle period. For many, this is a time when they will struggle with
moral issues, institutions of family and the community ranging from economic and
political to their religious affiliation, social positioning and class issues which may be
clarified at this point in their lives.
In Eriksonian and neo-Eriksonian theory in the work of Marcia, youth identity
formation is described as involving exploration of a range of life choices in a
developmental pattern where "individuals in late adolescence are able to conceive a
clearer sense of identity than those in early adolescence (Erikson, 1980)." Successful
resolution of the exploration is reflected in the "individual's high level of comfort with
self, a sense of direction in life, a feeling of sameness and continuity of the self, and
confidence that significant others value and support the self." (Graf, Mullis, R., & Mullis,
A., 2008, p. 57).
Teenagers are at a crucial stage of human development in their lives, a period of
time when they seek increased independence from home influences. Forefront in their
evolving sense of self is their social understanding of themselves in the world. Within
this, the development of a personal sense of identity, recognizing the young person's
position within the socio-cultural worlds of the family, the school, and the larger society,
must be acknowledged as one of the key efforts/functions which will impact on their
 25

ability to fulfill other aspects of their adjustments including issues of body image,
sexuality, and the establishment of emotional and psychological independence from
parents and establishing reasonable vocational goals (Furnham, 1991).
Identity construction is a process of negotiation. Since the young person exists in
the multiple worlds of home, school, peer grouping and, possibly, work, s/he is
positioned within multiple discourses in everyday practices (Wyn & Woodman, 2006).
The possibility of multiplicity may produce tensions, dissonance, and anxiety as a result
of different, diverse, and contradictory subjectivities. A number of subject positions are
possible:
identities are never unified but consist of multiple processes of
identification that are constructed by different, often intersecting and
sometimes antagonistic discursive practices that make particular
identifications possible. (Chappell, Solomon, Tennant, & Yates, p. 8)

The lack of unity may be exacerbated by the multiple sets offerees at play.
Baumann (1999, p. 84) speaks of the complexity involving "crosscutting cleavages" of
class, religion, language, country of origin, gender and education.
This study involves the ways that young people come to conceptualize themselves
and others — and to express the process — in cultural terms through creative expression.
Rather than a fixed notion of identity, "identities may be seen as (variably successful)
attempts to create and maintain coherence out of inconsistent cultural stuff and
inconsistent life experience" (Dirks, Eley, & Ortner, 1994, p. 18). Similarly, ethnicity is
not about absolute differences but rather may be conceived as a "socially pliable
construction" (Baumann, 1999, p. 59). Yet, with respect to children and adolescents,
there is the ascribed ethnic criterion as the way others see them, which includes an
assigning of background: both in terms of lineage and their physical characteristics of
skin colour and physical features. To distinguish between this and how the subject
responds to this, Rotheram and Phinney (1986; 2008) include performance criteria which
refers to the extent to which children feel and act as group members.
This criterion drives the creative expressions of young people, particularly as the
creator struggles with ascribed ethnic identity with underlying assumptions of
behaviours, morals and customs. Clearly, the ethnic identity behaviour varies depending
on the status of the group as well as on the degree of ethnic heterogeneity and
 26

homogeneity in the lives of the adolescents (Canino & Spurlock, 2000). This becomes a
highly relevant factor in school settings not only for the young who are in the process of
forming identifications but also in terms of the means by which the school may address
this aspect of personal and social development within programming and curriculum.

Youth Culture Research, Youth Subcultures and Second Generation

In terms of youth culture research, several theorists have influenced the field with
Habermas establishing a conceptual framework From Habermas, the concept of
lifeworld is pivotal to understanding of identity. The concept refers to the horizon
towards which one as a social being creates meaning, in everyday life. It is in the
lifeworld that one gathers continually - both consciously and unconsciously —
background knowledge which is based upon previous experiences in everyday life. This
knowledge is required in different everyday situations. The experiences are created with
other social beings, including family, friends, teachers and others, in different situations
which are both private and public.
Within an increasingly complex world of experiences, there has been a
reconception of individuals and identity. Thus, social analysis has moved away from the
unified individual with a biologically determined identity and toward a view of
individuals as contradictory, socially created subjects. Stuart Hall expresses the new
conception of individual:
We can no longer conceive of 'the individual' in terms of a whole,
centred, stable and complete Ego or autonomous, rational 'self. The 'self
is conceptualized as more fragmented and incomplete, composed of
multiple 'selves' or identities in relation to the different social worlds we
inhabit, something with a history, 'produced' in process. The 'subject' is
differently placed or positioned by different discourses. (Hall, 1996 p.226)

Thus, different circumstances may call forth different segments of the lifeworld
horizon, causing youth to act in a different way.
At times, youth in the study demonstrated uncanny insight into this aspect of
identity, perhaps because of how challenging life choices have become in this complex
world. On different occasions, young people may find themselves with a group and
choose similar lifestyles. That is, in a specific situation a subject may be 'dominated' by
 27

a particular arrangement of the subject's different "identities" due to the surrounding

people. Thus, the social production of identity proceeds according to the social context.5
With a social-cognitive view of adolescence, the emphasis within this study
concerns itself with the processes by which young people conceptualize and learn to
understand themselves and others including their thought, emotions, intentions and social
behaviours and the society in which they live. This period of life involves an intense
period of assemblage with the identi-kit. S/he may "try-on" personalities, as one might a
hat or may "walk" along certain paths, while disdaining others (a sexual or career
metaphor?). Yet, the processes of self-discovery or "becoming" that come to determine
and define the self are more complex and painful than adults remember or imagine.
In terms of the development of social knowledge and the imparting of social
knowledge, the most powerful primary socialization agent would generally be understood
to be the family. Together the family members contact, assess, and evaluate the outside
world. From the daily contact with the outside, there are opportunities for family
members with their distinct backgrounds to engage in a dynamic exchange about
meanings and knowledges. This takes place within families that may range from
authoritarian to indulgent.
Beyond the family, there are a wide range of factors which affect developmental
identity for teens including the physiological effects of puberty; the effect of the media;
the increased independence offered through greater mobility without supervision; the
ability to choose which rules to follow and which to break; increased intellectual capacity
and interests in needs and desires beyond the merely physical; and the ability to "fashion"
identity through such things as music and clothing choice. The increase in elements of
influence has led some researchers in the area of identity formation to suggest a
modification of Erikson's model to a "postmodern identity, one that does not always
yield a unified self [with] particular significance when examining identity development
across cultures" (Graf et al, 2008, p. 57).
Social factors associated with immigration/migration come into play as more
people in the world are on the move than at any other point in history. The effects of
migration on identity-formation cannot be limited to the first generation of migrants but

5
This discussion of subject and subjectivity emerges from Fiske (1989) and Hall (1989).
 28

must continue to the second and third, in particular, especially when these migrants are
"of colour", because their "visibility" affects the possibility for assimilation. Graf et al.
(2008) note that Erikson's views on identity development evolve from an independent
view of the self rather than an interdependent view which, historically, most cultures
(including Asian and Arab) emphasized more.
In terms of the effect of migration in the development of identity, there are several
factors which would impact the lives of those affected. In moving, a person leaves a
familiar place and enters a new and alien place. Cultural migration may result in a
change of, and possible competition with, cultural values. The language of the new
country may require acquisition with a sense of loss of communicative abilities. For
some, the dominant religion of the new country may be different. The migrant may leave
a place where s/he is a member of the dominant grouping or a recognized ethnicity and
enter a space where s/he may be the member of a minority group. Cultural norms around
the treatment of women may change in the new country and new gender roles may be
introduced, expected, or necessitated due to work conditions.
Second generation youth, in particular, seek a means of reconciling their identities
through their social interactions as they bridge the worlds of home, school and peer
groupings (Phelan, Davidson, & Yu, 1993, 1998). At that juncture in life, youth often
face choices within contested grounds, unlike the first generation whose identity has
already formed with a sense of home as being elsewhere. Thus, the hyphenated identity
that so often is referred to as quintessentially Canadian plays out in that next generation
whose experiences have been grounded in a Canadian world and education system but
who, frequently, carry the codes and customs as well as communicate with the languages
of cultures from away, from the land of their parents.
All of these factors complicate identity-formation and the chosen (consciously or
not) behaviours of immigrant teenagers in Canada. Coupled with the absence of a clear
conception of 'Canadian-ness': a national identity that seems to be defined by its lack of
cohesion, the choices of "belonging" or the struggle to find this belonging, is at the crux
of teenage identity politics for the Canadian immigrant or second generation young
person. Belonging is not "just about memberships, rights and duties.... Nor can it be
reduced to identities and identifications, which are about individual and collective
 29

narratives of self and other, presentation and labeling, myths of origin and destiny.
Belonging is a deep emotional need of people" (Stevenson, 2003. p. 333). For young
people who encounter very different spheres and spaces of identifications, there are
multiple situations and requirements within the belonging.
Parental pressures and parents' culture generally define the boundaries and
determine how those young people negotiate their encounters with the outside world. In
setting limits or promoting values, ethnic families often claim "our culture" as the reason.
These may be referred to as hegemonic ethnic community forces. The prevalence of
fundamentalist positionings must not be over-exaggerated, a possible danger among
liberal educators. Some parental transmissions or impositions of ethnicity may propel
young people to push and pull at the limits of ethnic boundaries within which the family
operates. Pushed with the notion of "our culture", it is clear that some of the young
people are finding within creative expression a means of interrogating this: What does
this mean to me? Am I free to form relationships? How far does that go? There is
evidence of the desire to be a trusted child while pushing for greater exposure to people
and practices outside the "essential culture" frameworks. This resembles questions of all
youth but the complexity increases with acculturation differences.
Not surprisingly, research supports the common sense idea that teenagers are at a
crucial age to experience the acculturation differences. "In minority families, the
acculturation difference is most likely to present itself between parents and their
adolescent children" (Szapocznik & Kurtines, 1993, cited in Crane, Ngai, Larson, &
Hafen, 2005, p. 403). Larger acculturation differences between parents and adolescents
are related to greater family conflict and disruption. This may result in adolescent
depression or other expressions of internal conflict, especially if the family members are
unable to communicate about these tensions.
It is possible that while parents are holding on to the norms, beliefs, and
practices of their culture of origin, which emphasizes interdependence and
respect for authority, their adolescent children are under the influence of
the North American culture, where independence and self-assertion are
more valued. Parents and adolescents are then likely to have conflicts
over discipline, social interaction, activity choices, curfews, and so on.
(Crane, et al., 2005, p. 408)
 30

The tensions between parents and the second generation youth become one of the
key negotiations. The older generation holds the belief that the young people are both the
inheritors and transmitters of customs and cultural practices. Fear of loss motivates many
parents to exert pressure on the children to conform. Indeed, this style of parenting for
traditionalists may place young people in untenable circumstances. Working through the
conflicts of values may be something that the child desperately wishes yet finds s/he has
little means or context. Meanwhile, the parent fears that the young person may take on
the traits of the new culture, traits seen as corrupt or disrespectful. Those youth who are
more likely to internalize these conflicts may have feelings of depression and sadness
(Crane, et al., 2005). The family itself may experience pressure that may lead to changes
that compromise family functioning.
This research investigates the experiences of acculturation with and among young
people. Few of the participants migrated themselves, but rather they are dealing with the
experience of their Canadian-ness up against the cultural expectations and traditions of
their parents. As second generation, the young people are in the generation most likely to
face the contradictions as the first generation probably exerts a stronger hold while
retaining a strong attachment to the culture of the country from which they immigrated.
By no means is this an absolute, but as the data surrounding mixed marriages indicates,
by the third generation mixing seems accepted practice.
Cultural Identity.... How Newness Enters the World
In the wake of the postmodern imagination, the interest herein lies with meaning
with respect to cultural identity. For many, the memorable lines of Salman Rushdie in
defence of The Satanic Verses, a brilliant passage, has become a trope for discussions
within the postmodern and postcolonial theoretical texts. Rushdie, in describing his own
work, has captured some aspect of the world of hybrid combinations by which
revolutions enter the world.
The Satanic Verses celebrates hybridity, impurity, intermingling, the
transformation that comes of the new and unexpected combinations of
human beings, cultures, ideas, politics, movies, songs. It rejoices in
mongrelization and fears the absolutism of the Pure. Melange,
hotchpotch, a bit of this and a bit of that is how newness enters the world,
and I have tried to embrace it. The Satanic Verses is for change by
 31

fusion, change by conjoining. It is a love-song to our mongrel selves.

(Rushdie, 1991, p. 394)

The notion of celebration as combination, reconstitution and alteration speaks to

the possibilities of hybridity as forging a newness that welcomes the conjoining of
cultures and cultural materials and products whether that be in the area of politics, ideas
or movies and songs. Fusion in the global village. Yet, critics6 of Rushdie object to his
use of the term 'mongrelization' with the implications and connotations of the term as an
unhealthy mix.. .less valued than the pure.
That Rusdie's phrase has become one around which so much has been written7
suggests its potency. Clearly, the fact that his text - a novel - on which he was
commenting had been the source which elicited a fatwah, making Rushdie both famous
and infamous, probably accounts for the attention paid to it as well. For me, the phrase is
now inextricably linked to my observation of young people who are charting new waters
as they explore their identities in process. As these young people name their experiences
and create works which express the anxieties, the pain, the conflicts of their experiences,
of their hybrid worlds, this is how newness enters the world.
Conceptions of the mix within art had emerged well before Rushdie. Bakhtin's
(1981) theory of the novel developed the idea of the literary form as embedded in a
society of diverse forms of speaking and writing. Notions of multi-discoursed relations
in a multi-voiced society provide the basis for aesthetic theories of polysemy, the
multiplicity of meanings in the reading, the dialogic in speech genres. This follows a
cardinal principle of semiotics: that all language and signifying structures are
polysemous, not only in the sense that they mean many things at once, but also that they
may say more than they want to say (Bakhtin, 1981).
The multiple meanings become apparent within the works of young people
making their voices heard as part of an act of identity construction for multiplicity
informs their world views and life experience.

6
Among them, Kobena Mercer in his book Welcome to the Jungle.
7
The catalyst for this was Homi Bhabha's chapter 'How Newness Enters the World' in his book, The Location of
Culture.
 32

Arts Community, Equity Discourses, and Intercultural Understanding

A further motivation in producing this investigation involves the urgent need for
the arts community to assess whose voice has legitimacy within the sphere of Canadian
culture. By documenting these young voices and investigating the resonances of
meaning-making, this constitutes a call for greater access within the professional sphere.
With respect to the arts community, there has been a period of contentious
discussions surrounding issues of equity and access in the arts over the last fifteen years.
Played out in the mainstream press as 'voice appropriation', this distorts what has been a
necessary period of struggle to re-dress some of the systemic institutional and societal
barriers in place for artists.
Questions were posed about who and what defined artistic merit and the very
stark reality of privilege in terms of the creators of Canadian culture (Gagnon, 2002).
Notions of multiculturalism were interrogated and critiqued in the artistic community as
it had become clear that mainstream was synonymous with white practice and
representation while racial and ethnic "others" were marginalized. Coalitions were
formed, studies were undertaken both within and without the formal arts funding
institutions (see the Canada Council Racial Equality document of 1992; the Toronto Arts
Council document of 1994). Courageous First Nations and artists of colour described the
problematics of long-term systemic exclusivity and exclusion. Conflict strained
organizations such as the Writers' Union of Canada where, during the early 1990s,
several panels surfaced issues of racism in the arts with a desire to improve access and
equity. This culminated in the Writing Thru Race conference in 1994 which triggered a
backlash. Pierre Berton suggested that tax payers' money should not be committed to
such a conference. Michael Valpy, a prominent columnist in the Globe and Mail
"described the conference as 'apartheid' and a manifestation of a 'cancer' threatening
'the continued existence of a Canadian cultural identity'" (cited in Tator, Henry, &
Mattis, 1998, p. 105). This suggests the explosive nature of dialogue surrounding issues
of racism in Canadian arts community (see Chapter 4 of Challenging Racism in the Arts
for a more detailed account). Some of the challenge was to "engage in artistic strategies
that de-centre whiteness as the normative category within the articulation of Canada as a
nation in its artistic production." (Gagnon, 2002, p.58).
 33

The objective of "opening up spaces" within the arts corresponds to what the
thesis seeks to facilitate. The arts provide a unique possibility for intercultural
understanding, something that anti-racist educators continue to call for. Lopes and
Thomas (2006) believe that we need to develop creative and diverse learning activities
that will build cultural bridges aimed at interracial, cross-cultural, and anti-racist dialogue
and learning. Framed in this way, the presentation of the case studies furthers cultural
bridge-building and enhances our learning about each other as the arts make dialogic
encounters possible where people may encounter one another complete with the cultural
signs and signifiers. There are other metaphors for such positive outcomes.
In her study of community arts based projects, Darlene Clover speaks of creativity
in community involving a 'connective imagination' that results in a powerful means to
"open new cross-cultural conversational doors" (Clover, 2006, pp. 51-52). The
suggestion of dialogue between rooms or houses suggests that the dialogue reaches across
differences into other rooms, an idea that metaphorically captures the rich possibilities.

Teaching as Practice and Intervention: Anti-racist and Multicultural Practice

That the act of teaching is inherently political has been stated earlier through
Freire and on through bell hooks and Giroux. This thesis unpacks some of the value in
working with the cultural identities of the learners. Educators must become "cultural
brokers" to help create a psychologically beneficial pedagogical space for all students.
The need, most especially for white teachers, to consider the reproduction of dominance
within their practices raises the stakes. Indeed, one of the concerns for me in my practice
o

involves how I, a white teacher, can work "against the grain" in terms of the
reproduction of white power relations toward students.
There are various versions, some theoretical and some instructional, of what
teachers need to do and become in order to be effective inclusive teachers. In Letters to
Marcia, Enid Lee (1985) utilized a fascinating format of instruction, the exchange of
letters, for a reader/teacher to reflect upon in terms of teaching practice. This early book
was provocative in some early ruptures, leading to interrogation of practices. In the
'Typology of Multicultural Education', an appendix to the Davidmans' book (1997) on

This alludes to the book, Teaching against the grain : texts for a pedagogy of possibility by Roger Simon (1992).
 34

multicultural teaching, there are more suggestions for how teachers and teachers-in-
training might continue to develop more effectiveteaching practices for heterogeneous
classrooms. The fact is that students' lived realities and experiences in families and
communities may be quite out of the familiar framework and cultural understanding of
the teacher and school. That issue prompted a growing body of literature to address the
matter including Geneva Gay's (2000) Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory,
Research, and Practice and work by Au and Kawakami (1991, 2001) on cultural
congruence in instruction.
One of the leading experts in multicultural education in the United States, James
Banks (1994) describes the mainstream-centric curriculum as denying students the
possibility of understanding both their own and other peoples' cultures as it perpetuates
racism and ethnocentrism in both school and society. An advocate for the
implementation of a multicultural curriculum, he describes four levels of integration of
multicultural content (Banks, 1994, p. 219) Level 1 is the Contributions Approach which
focuses on 'heroes and holidays'. In anti-racist circles, this approach may be critiqued
for its tokenist manner of multiculturalizing the schools through what is cynically
described by British anti-racist educator Barry Troyna as the three Ss: "saris, samosas,
and steeldrums"9. While derided, it is still a positive measure in classrooms as a way for
children to come to understand something of our cultural pluralism. Level 2 describes
The Additive Approach which adds "content, concepts, themes, and perspectives...to the
curriculum without changing its structure". For many teachers who themselves are a
product of a Eurocentric male-dominated curriculum this would be a huge struggle to
implement with limited resources to support teachers. Lately, in Ontario, curriculum
reform has reverted us to staid traditional curriculum, now compulsory. With
Shakespeare mandated as the only dramatic reading in regular English classes for the first
three years of secondary school, the canon has re-asserted itself.
Level 3, The Transformational Approach, changes the curriculum structure to
"enable students to view concepts, issues, events, and themes from the perspectives of
diverse ethnic and cultural groups". This would require someone skilled as a
 35

transformative educator who possesses that unique ability to create the learning
conditions for empathetic understanding. Level 4, The Social Action Approach involves
"students making decisions on important social issues and taking actions to help solve
them". The level of empowerment of students goes beyond practices of student-centred
learning into the realm of handing over power and possibility to them.
The Banks' chart could be compared to the more highly politicized analysis of
critical pedagogy which advocates for an educational practice that interrogates "truth"
leading the students to apprehend that knowledge is socially constructed. Further, critical
theorists believe that teacher and students should be engaged in curriculum
transformation through deconstructing existing knowledge paradigms and being actively
involved in the creation of one's own knowledge (Giroux 1992; Shor 1992; Gay 1994)
Jim Cummins'(1986) influential article in the Harvard Educational Review set out
the institutional characteristics of schools which either "empowered" or "disabled"
students. Key principles involved the incorporation of minority students' language and
culture into school programs; minority community participation; pedagogy which would
promote students' active use of language to generate their own knowledge; and
assessment professionals "who would become advocates for minority students" (p. 22).
In Britain, the Swann Report of 1985 marked a significant period of educational
reform with a clear commitment to anti-racist practices. Indeed, the comparative
discourses of the British and the American typologies need to be noted here. In the
American context, the term anti-racist did not take hold whereas in Britain that term
signaled the movement from what has come to be termed 'shallow' Multiculturalism to
'deep' Multiculturalism. In the United States, terms to distinguish between levels or
degrees of practice have not been so clearly defined. In Canada, critical and resistance
multiculturalism began to identify itself as anti-racism education, particularly among
popular educators and in the work of George Dei, Sherene Razack, Carl James. As usual,
Canada occupies ground between American and British frameworks, with some
favouring the use of the term anti-racist to clearly signal the socio-political and anti-

9
Noted in his book, Racism and Education, this phrase has come to be one of the two or three mobilized as a
shorthand for shallow Multiculturalism as critiques were advanced and addressed the limitations. Note the title
Beyond Heroes and Holidays by Enid Lee et al.
 36

colonial perspective of a practice that interrogates power relations and moves beyond
heroes and holidays.
In research conducted by Phelan, Davidson and Yu (1993, 1998), the word
"world" was used to describe "cultural knowledge and behavior found within the
boundaries of students' particular families, peer groups and schools... each world
contains values, beliefs expectations, actions, and emotional responses familiar to
insiders" (p. 53). These researchers found that adolescents moved across borders between
their worlds of family, school and peers in four prototypic ways ranging from smooth
transitions to resisted transitions between worlds. Phelan et al. found that students'
ability to cross borders directly affected their educational outcomes, and indirectly
affected their work experiences and future lives. They found huge variations in the ability
of youth to manage transitions between their multiple worlds. Parents who move
smoothly between multiple worlds and teachers who take a personal interest in students
can make a significant difference in helping students to negotiate the borders of their
worlds. Yet, many children and adolescents are left to navigate without support.
The adjustment of immigrant children and adolescents depends on the nature of
the transition to their new world and their pre-immigration experiences (Ogbu, 1992).
Immigrant children and adolescents can also be challenged by their families' status as
newcomers and their parents' lack of knowledge of the new society. The ways in which
these young people acculturate and negotiate their family expectations and obligations as
well as the way they are received by the new society, often with the school as most
significant, contribute important variations in all aspects of their development.
On matters of language as well as race and ethnicity, the student may well feel
excluded or rejected as their cultural identity is not valued in the dominant culture.
Sometimes, minority group members carry with them a feeling of being devalued within
the classroom as their experiences do not seem to fit into the dominant mainstream
curriculum. Termed a cultural mismatch, in a school system that has been prescribed a
Eurocentric curriculum, in the majority of Toronto classrooms, most of our students
would fall outside the dominant curriculum, the dominant ethos and historical
frameworks taught in the schools. That cultural mismatching has re-asserted itself as an
 37

enforced norm-ing in the aftermath of a chilly resumption of education core values of a

neo-conservative agenda, speaks to the times.
In a review of traditional curriculum, as taken up in Chapter 8, it becomes clear
that the system and the individuals within continue to reproduce a version that leads to a
world in which inequalities remain unrecognized as 'manufacturing consent' serves to
reproduce ' one-dimensional man' 10

Inclusive Practices and Creating Space for Student Voice

Differences in time and space, physicality, language, and communication

affect the way students enter school, the way they are received there, and the ways
in which they learn. How we receive students from diverse communities and how
we learn from them has been largely ignored because we have come to think of
differences as a problem, not as a resource.

The challenge now is to integrate the knowledge that diversity is a strength

into curriculum that will move beyond token multiculturalism. So many of our
curricular approaches have been content to rely on a holiday mode of history or
celebration. But the complexity of the urban setting demands that we move past
this model. (Cahan and Kocur, 1996, p. 35)

Acquisition of social knowledge (attitudes, beliefs, political frameworks or

ideologies, concepts) involves stages. A coherence of social knowledge remains
impossible unless the schools and individual classes commit to the development of
innovative pedagogy that would allow for meaningful de-coding and reflection for the
young person. The question, and one which repeatedly needs to be posed:
What are, and how can educators act as catalysts in, the development of
understanding for youth about themselves within society and the social world of, on the
one hand, their parents and the home(land) culture and on the other, of the Canadian
dominant culture?
This concern influenced the writing of this work as the research provides some
evidence of innovative practices. With an increasingly complicated demographic
spectrum in any classroom, the familiarity that a teacher has with the social and historical
realities of different cultural groupings may be limited. Yet, there is an obligation to
bring together our teachings and learning to respond to the many and specific cultural

10
The allusion here to Chomsky and Herbert Marcuse, both influential in considerations of North American culture,
offers a shorthand for the implications of the dominant curriculum.
 38

groupings in our classrooms and their ways of learning. We must begin to understand the
experiences and histories of these cultural groups. Cahan and Zoya, in their beautiful
book on multicultural education within a visual arts framework assert that:
We should be educating young people as whole human beings who value
themselves, their world and other people, and who approach that world
and its people with the desire to understand them. The end result of
education should be a person who values the environment and looks at the
pieces of the world not as separate, but as being irrevocably intertwined
and interdependent. We didn't talk about education like that, and
therefore, we are not getting there at all. (Cahan & Zoya, 1996, p. 5)

Teachers must remain conscious of ethnocentrism of the curriculum. The fact

remains that few students complete their primary and secondary education with attention
to the broader cultural landscape, despite the fact that cultural plurality is a lived reality in
their classrooms.
This cultural heterogeneity - a unique feature of Canadian schools - prompted a
team of OISE researchers under the principal investigative team of Linda Cameron, Jim
Cummins and Antoinette Gagne, to undertake a long-term research study funded by the
Social Science Humanities Research Council. The research took up issues discussed
within Jim Cummins' framework (Cummins, 1996; Cummins & Sayers, 1995) which
highlighted the constructs of educator role definitions and educational structures as
mediating between the broader social context, the macro-interactions -and the direct
interactions between educators and students. These educator-student interactions - the
micro-interactions - are viewed as direct determinants of educational outcomes for
culturally-diverse students.
The study involved active participatory observation in five culturally and
linguistically diverse schools, interviews with individuals and small groups,
conversations with faculty members, students, some parents, administrators and support
personnel and the shadowing of students and teachers through a number of full days.
(Cameron, Gagnon, & Cummins, 1996)
During the course of spending time in schools, the results were disappointing for
some of us as the curriculum remained quite fixed, ethnocentric, and narrow. Apart from
the odd project which allowed students to focus on their countries of origin, there was
little acknowledgement that the changed global situation necessitated a broader spectrum
 39

of curricular selection. Students might have a keen interest and need to engage across
borders but instead the dominant culture delivered a rather moribund curriculum.
This project involved 'shadowing'11 students, allowing some measure of walking
in the shoes of those whose identity location positions them on the margins. The various
groupings of students and the varied social identities in any individual school affect all
aspects of a school culture(s). Students come together in a mix of demographics
particular to the school, and the dynamics of intercultural relations play out in classrooms
and hallways in a response to perceptions and conceptions. The danger exists that,
without pedagogical practices that build in equality, young people exit the schools
without a broadened sense of community and inclusion, divided and, in the case of
racialized groupings, holding differences.
This period of a young person's life involves an intense pre-occupation with
cultural understandings and identity formation while dealing with the tensions posed by
the conflicting worlds of the home, school, and peer culture (Phelan et al., 1993). Here,
the teacher and the curriculum become paramount. Equally significant for culturally-
diverse students' academic success are the interactions between educators and students.
"Micro-interactions between educators and students form an interpersonal space within
which knowledge is transacted and identities are negotiated. Studies for some time have
provided clear empirical support for the importance of human relationships in accounting
for academic success and failure in culturally-diverse school contexts (Fordham, 1990;
Poplin & Weeres, 1992)" (Cameron, Gagne, & Cummins, 1996). As teachers, we present
young people with particular messages, particular frameworks within which to make
sense of the world. Still, "there seems to be a general consensus that young people's
conception of the social world can be understood in terms of a 'knowledge system'
different from, but clearly related to, that of adults." (Furnham, 1991, p. 13)

11 At one stage of the research, I traveled with South Asian females who were largely ignored in the classroom for a range of reasons including:
the way in which boys took up the talking space and misbehaved; the fact that teachers, for reasons that might include a sensitivity to those they
read as shy, did not ask them to participate. This shocking experience of the lived reality of invisibility in the classroom had quite an impact on
me as an educator.
 40

Youth Culture in the Po-Mo World of Media and Fashion

Many of the young people choose to explore the personal and social level of their
environments very aware of the rapidly changing environment that they live in. Not only
do home, school and peer worlds exist, but also the intense bombardment of media opens
up the world. Mass media extends the life world of young people to a larger world than
the local; the ever-increasing use of ipods and blogs and the cyberworld creates an
interconnectedness unknown in any prior civilization. Thus, youth live in a world where
the predictability of life and the local consistency have altered tremendously since the
time of previous generations. This creates greater complexity to the process of identity
formation. Indeed, youth understand that there has been "a pluralization of life
possibilities" where individuals can choose among different alternatives. The choice of
the moment is not static but subject to change, choice, and alteration. In such a world,
personal identity is fluid and changeable (Hall). (Reimer, 1995a, p. 67)
Postmodern values and lifestyles involve a "reorganization and blending of
elements. Popular culture is mixed with high culture" and the individual becomes mixed
up with the social. "For the non-postmodern sensibilities (often of the older generations)
this may appear contradictory." (Reimer, 1995b, p. 123) In art, this has led to
fascinating examples of innovative forms of bricolage (see discussion of the Singh sisters
of Britain in Chapter 3); in contemporary music, the practice of fusion has become
ubiquitous.
The importance of lifestyle to youth in current times cannot be ignored. The quest
for identity though brands as symbols and markers places a high premium on technology
and clothing. Everything that young person acquires - from brand-wear to cell phone -
seems to suggest identity in a world pre-occupied with fashion and celebrity.
In terms of the process of individuation which has traditionally been key to
identity for young people, the new rapid and radical changes of social life have altered
the range of possibilities. Traditional bonds with family and class affiliations are
becoming less important as individuals take responsibility for their lives (Beck, 1992).
Young people no longer follow in the footsteps of their parents when it comes to lifestyle
but rather may choose independently how they want to live.
 41

This is true of all young people whether speaking of the dominant group within
Canada or the more recent immigrants. The difference, of course, is that the gap between
North American lifestyle choices as prescribed by media and the real lived experiences of
immigrant families, with their traditions of 'back home', may be vast. The children
whose families have come from village cultures without access to much technology face
greater chasms between the worlds of their parents and the lifestyles available in Canada.
Another change in the conception of lifestyle among youth has to do with a sense
of impermanence. No longer are they forced into one single choice of lifestyle but rather
it is quite possible to try out and change lifestyles, especially through the expanded
possibilities of the media (Reimer, 1995a). This may allow young people to become part
of sub-cultures. Theorists of the Birmingham school described individuals as belonging
to a shared subculture when there are u a set of social rituals which underpin their
collective identity and define them as a 'group' instead of a mere collection of
individuals". (Reimer, 1995b) They adopt and adapt material objects - fashions and
possessions - and reorganize them into distinctive 'styles'. The individual becomes
expressed in and through the collectivity which may create rituals of relationship,
anything from a special greeting handshake to gendered expectations (and, indeed, some
subcultures take male pride in placing women into relationship paradigms of past eras).
Style and fashion hold increasing importance in our commodified culture.
Immigrant children do not escape this and often seek a sense of belonging through
Western dress. Sometimes the home does not accept the fashion of the school
community and, especially among girls, there is a practice known as 'switching'
surrounding fashion. In the fall of 2007, the headlines surrounding the murder of Aqsa
Parvez at the hands of her father (allegedly) resounded globally: 'Girl murdered over
refusal to wear hijab' . This drew attention to the fact that the victim, Aqsa, had sought
the freedom to wear clothing similar to the females in her peer group. Notably, those
pictures were soon broadcast as Facebook provided ready documentation. Switching may
be required to retain acceptance in each 'world', that of home and that of 'school' and

12
Such headlines may reduce the complexity of the schism between the parents and the children and the role of
clothing. Certainly, in the days following the report, there were panels broadcast with Muslims from a range of
political and cultural positions challenging one another about the cultural dynamics of this tragic event.
 42

'peers'. With the switch, there can be questions of disaffiliation from the world of
'home' and parents. In all cultures, parents monitor dress as part of their parental role.
Fashion has become part of creative self expression with youth. This
representation through style is also a re-presentation of self to the world. With so much
at stake, there are pressures and the clash of values is highly problematic.
Generational and intercultural frictions represent spaces of enormous creativity
as racialized, gendered, and ethnicized power play out new visions and knowledge about
the particular social worlds and identities of those living in the borders. Within the
practice of critical pedagogy and specifically anti-racist education, these contrapuntal
(Said, 1993) histories lived as silenced histories must find voice in our classrooms and
schools for the stage of adolescence marks such a crucial stage in the development of the
young person (Giroux, 1992). With respect to identity, the opportunity to define
themselves as legitimate and authoritative speakers about their cultural location, as the
youth in the case studies do, in itself assists the young person in moving forward with
both the external and internal conflicts.
There is an urgency for educators to engage in transformative pedagogy in order
to open up the possibilities for our students to deal with their lived experiences as
heterogeneous social subjects. The experience of discourses of difference offers rich
material for pedagogical practices that may foster meaningful processual
representations... that may emerge through creative expression.
The Arts as Experience: From Plato to Dewey
The desire to transform experience and ideas into meaning-making works dates
back to early civilizations. During the period of antiquity, when the Sophists were
scheduled to arrive in a town, they would create 'epideixis' which is translated as
'exhibition'. As thinkers, they would write ceremonial texts, spectacle-texts, which
would summarize their thinking in a condensed fashion. Then, the community could
witness and interpret the representations.
In those times, the stories of gods and humans were shared in vast arena-like
stages in such places as Epidauros where, together, thousands in an audience would be
brought to catharsis by the performance of tragedies and laughter in the comedies of an

Bourdieu speaks of the sophist visits in the opening to his essay 'Thinking About Limits'.
 43

evening. Understood at that time so long ago, was that through the stories people could
be engaged both through affect and cognition. 'Anagnorisis', which translates as
'recognition', was realized by the population to occur when the central character
recognized the human condition or dilemma or tragic flaw which informed his particular
life journey. Thus, the idea that knowledge production and human understanding are
transmitted through the arts has been known for centuries.
Furthermore, the arts were deemed so potent as to be dangerous. The greatest
thinkers of the time, the philosophers Aristotle and Plato, both wrote at length about the
power of art both in terms of its emotional impact, what we now discuss in terms of both
effect and affect, and its power to transmit ideas. Indeed, Plato, most clearly in his
masterpiece, The Republic, cautions against allowing certain art forms within the ideal
society. Decrying the dangers of unrestricted musical listening and fearing a Dionysian
and Bacchic response, Plato urged censorship. Music was deemed the art form most
dangerous to the state as music could stir the passions uncontrollably. Other artistic
forms, Socrates suggested in his most serious tongue-in-cheek manner, could be utilized
in the social control of the population, in ensuring the Republic might run smoothly.
Artists were powerful generators of political response as well as provocateurs, arousing
the public with their work. The arts were positioned with enormous significance in the
life of the social world of the planned ideal community.
Accounts of civilizations in Africa offer a similar history of the arts as central to
the life of the society. In Yoruba traditions, there is a deity of art and creativity,
Obatala/Orisanla, "who models and sculpts people to life (Nzegwu, 1992)". Among the
Mende of Sierra Leone, the traditional art form of masquerades featured a mask, Sowo,
who becomes an "artistic center around which revolves the intellectual, social, and
spiritual life of the Mende Community" (Boone, 1986, p. xxi, as cited in Hudson, p.
135).
With this history, the marginality of arts within the disciplines of the academy
stands as a peculiarity, no doubt a function of the adoption in the West of the dominance
of the Apollonian view of the world over the Dionysian as Nietzsche suggested in his
work, The Birth of Tragedy/ The Genealogy of Morals. As the social orientation moved
to rational and logical forms of knowledge with an ever-increasing privileging of
 44

scientific knowledge, knowledge production became associated with certain ideas, texts
and forms of communication. In short, the role of the arts and the respect for the arts in
the academy became less central in our understanding of ourselves and our societies, not
because the arts were not still influential but they were perceived to be less significant.
While there will never be a resumption of the key role of the arts in the education
of the people as that of Plato's The Republic, the understanding of art and its role in
human experience would again occupy a set of great thinkers with the advent of
psychology as a social science. Notably, Vygotsky was able to draw on the writings of
many while generating his own original theories of the arts and the self in his book The
Psychology of Art. Vygotsky (1971) introduces several ideas of meaning making
associated with artists and creative expression: a. his understanding that, due to an
elevation of feeling and resulting transcendence of individual feelings, there is a
generalization to the social sphere where the nature of this process is "concealed from the
observations of the artist himself (p. vii) b. his understanding of the function of art in the
life of society and in the life of man as sociohistorical beings, (p. 4) c. the colossal
complexity of the influences acting upon art including the idea of art as an exercise of
thought (p. 34) and artistic description as emotional and discursive thinking (p. 44). This
book stands as an elaboration of the "extremely complex social function performed by
art" (p. 247).
With an interest in the emerging field of psychology, Vygotsky developed the
idea of art as a response that is unconscious and the release of psychic forces from stress
(p. 77). Of particular interest for this framework of my thesis is the idea of 'anxiety' as a
source of creativity which finds its origins in the work of early psychological studies of
artists. Vygotsky quoted the well-respected psychiatrist, Otto Rank, "Psychologically
speaking, the artist stands between the dreamer and the neurotic; the psychological
process is essentially the same in all three. It differs only in the degree of intensity..."14
With an understanding that this also potentially pathologizes the artist, the notion seems
to be borne out in the frequently tormented existences of great, and not that great, artists.

14
Otto Rank eventually treated some of the most legendary artists of his time, artists whose work was transgressive
and highly sexualized. Anais Nin, who along with Henry Miller was a patient, chronicles some of her sessions with
Rank which elucidates the psychological state behind her confessional writings, a stylistic genre which owes a debt
to her.
 45

One of the most influential educators of the twentieth century, John Dewey,
retained a lifelong passion for the arts, devoting much of his academic life to
considerations of art while his longstanding reputation and legacy would be secured in
the field of education. Within a series of lectures, complied in his book, Art as
Experience, Dewey draws on the thinking of the great aesthetic philosophers and the
artists, to ruminate on art in terms of its production, its meaning and its role in
civilization. Key to his thinking, as the title suggests, is the notion that art transforms
experience: "In short, art, in its form, unites the very same relation of doing and
undergoing, outgoing and incoming energy, that makes an experience to be an
experience" (p. 60). Experience and its continuous nature may also be analyzed as an
energy producer beginning from an 'impulsion' in Dewey's terms. Emotion comes into
play as well as expression as a means of processing the experience. A work of art
involves the "expression of the self in and through a medium." Artistic expression, then,
offers a means of self-knowledge.
What is intimated, to my mind, is, that in both production and enjoyed
perception of works of art, knowledge is transformed; it becomes something more
than knowledge because it is merged with non-intellectual elements to form an
experience worthwhile as an experience, (p. 302)

Indeed, Dewey understood that the artistic expression might provide the
possibility for "clarification of turbid emotion" (p. 80). Like Vygotsky and Rank, he
understood the arts as transforming experience.
Tangled scenes of life are made more intelligible in esthetic experience:
not, however, as reflection and science render things more intelligible by
reduction to conceptual form, but by presenting their meaning as the matter of a
clarified, coherent, and intensified or "impassioned" experience, (p. 302)

Here, the idea of "tangled scenes of life" may hold particular appeal to young
people who are at a stage of individuation, seeking separate paths in the world. The
possibility of passionate expression of experience through artistic exploration led Dewey
to declare that "art is the most effective mode of communication that exists" (p. 298),
Artistic expression promotes a greater understanding of the self through an
exploration of ideas and feelings. Herbert Read, like others, saw this transformation of
feelings into communicable form as a unique aspect of the aesthetic education. The
"coordination of the various modes of perception and sensation with one another" would
 46

allow voice to those "modes of mental and emotional states which would otherwise
remain partially or wholly unconscious; the expression of thought in required form".
(Hickman, 2004, p. 9-10) This type of learning or knowledge production has been
discussed as a 'route to self-knowledge'. Halstead spoke of the arts as being necessary in
the education of the human spirit. Through creative expression, the exploration involves
a looking inwards, a focus on personal identity and individual development. This includes
developing a sense of self and of identity within a group; personality and behaviour;
educating the emotions; developing qualities of character; developing the conscience and
the will, (ibid., p. 148)
For young people who face a period of what Erikson described as identity crisis,
the arts may well provide a powerful contextualizing space for understanding of the
conflicts that they face, at times inextricably linked to their dual identities.

Public Policy on Learning and the Arts

Confining ourselves now to the contemporary discussion of arts education in our

immediate community, there have been several declarations of commitment to the arts.
In a submission to the Royal Commission on Learning in 1993, a coalition of arts
associations representing all levels and areas of specialization within arts education15,
endorsed by a myriad of groups ranging from the National Ballet of Canada to the Zoom
International Children Film Festival, outlined the learning afforded by participation in the
arts. Their stated belief was that the arts programs in every Ontario school must:
Develop the capabilities of each student;

• Reflect the cultural diversity of our society;

• Be responsive to the needs of the diverse special populations

present in our schools;

• Connect with the content of the wider curriculum.

The Ontario Arts Council (1993) based its philosophy of arts education on two
principles. The first focused on the benefit to all (their italics) learners as the fostering of
"creativity, curiosity, innovation and initiative", was not specifically with the intention to

15
The Arts Education Council of Ontario, the Council of Drama in Education, Dance/Community of Educators, the
Ontario Music Educators' Association, and the Ontario Society for Education through Art),
 47

develop poets or painters, or botanists or biologists but rather "well-rounded, productive

human beings who will apply their talents in whatever domains will most enrich them
and the society around them."
The second principle particularly is relevant to this investigation.
Cultural literacy, which is acquired in large part through the arts, is
fundamental in today's society. By cultural literacy we mean having a
positive sense of our histories and our potential, a sense of one's own and
others' cultural identities and an understanding of how these identities
interact to form society. This is a fundamental life skill in today's world.
The arts play a major role in the development of cultural literacy, (p. 5)

The adoption of terminology such as 'cultural identities' in the context of a

discussion on the role of arts education at that time reflects the progressive stance of the
arts agencies. The notion that such understanding constitutes 'cultural literacy' placed
the arts education discourse in the forefront of critical pedagogy both then and now.
Linked to this thinking would be the understanding among educators that the arts ought to
play a central role in the development of children's understanding of themselves and the
world. Yet, this understanding has remained one popular only within school systems
such as the Waldorf school where the design of the curriculum reflects the deep influence
of the theories of Rudolf Steiner who believed that inner development, consciousness and
spiritual thought would be realized through cultural practices such as eurythmy and
drama and architecture.
Lately, there have been efforts, especially in the United States to demonstrate the
way in which a child's participation in arts education will contribute to improved
academic results. That the value of the arts would be measured in terms of the resultant
cognitive functions and the improved math test scores occurs in a climate of high stakes
testing. Indeed, some studies have specifically been designed to prove the relationship.
For example, a study by James S. Catterall, a professor of education at the University of
California in Los Angeles, found that students who had more involvement in the arts in
school and after school scored better on standardized tests. (Pogrebin, 2007)
In the summer of 2007, two Harvard educators gained prominent New York
Times coverage for their impending book about the role of arts education in schooling.
In an era of high-stakes testing, these same two authors, Ellen Winner and Lois Hefland ,
had created a controversy in 2000 when they published a book on the relationship
 48

between arts education and a child's academic achievement. The results of their research
led them to conclude that a child's participation in the arts did not improve their
academic scores. This had incensed some advocates for arts education who pointed out
that the book failed to include some of the ways that the arts do enhance learning and the
overall development of the child. With their current book, the authors conducted a study
in New York schools with the proven result that "students who study the arts seriously
are taught to see better, to envision, to persist, to be playful and learn from mistakes, to
make critical judgments and justify such judgments." (Pogrebin, 2007) Such skill sets
are invaluable in terms of life, though not valued as highly as scientific knowledge.
In the same New York Times article, the esteemed academic Elliot Eisner
cautioned against basing the merits of the arts on academic testing, "Not everything has a
practical utility, but maybe it's experientially valuable." (ibid., p. 1). As the professor
emeritus of education at Stanford University, Eisner, along with Maxine Greene, has
contributed greatly to our renewed understanding of the cognitive benefits associated
with arts education and artistic experience. His work, in his book, The Arts and the
Creation of Mind (2002), supports the position that there is a transformative power of
learning through art, involved with the unique insights that artistic knowing provide to
both the creator and the interpreter of the art. Eisner speaks in terms of multiple forms of
literacy and defines literacy as "a way of conveying meaning through and recovering
meaning from the form of representation in which it appears" (Eisner, 1986, p. 5).
Gardner (1990), similarly, in his respect for multiple learning styles, has
suggested that art education is more than "a vehicle for promoting self-expression,
imagination, creativity, and knowledge of one's affective life" (p. 35). His interest in
human development and cognition has been highly influential among practitioners as
well as theorists in broadening conceptions of the many literacies that are possible.
Through artistic production, people find a multiplicity of ways of
encountering and representing their lived experience. With different
forms, artists find a means of expressing subjectivity through a knowledge
construction which may take the form of self-study or social observation
to reveal insights only available through this process. This understanding
may be applied at all levels from the observation of artwork produced in a
daycare to the more recent exploration of the arts in arts-informed research
in the academic setting. (Gardner, 1990, p. 36)
 49

This research suggests that the value of participation in creative expression of

identity, especially the cultural identity, may contribute enormously to the child's ability
to understand his/her social context of being, including relationships within the family, at
school, and within the broader cultural framework of the metropolis. As such, there are
various images that emerge as descriptors for the complex 'web', in itself an image.
Similar views of the value of expression emerge from the evolving discipline of
performance studies. In this area, scholars have expanded and integrated their notions of
arts disciplines and the relationship to communication theory and social theory. The
recognition of the transmission of cultural meanings has stimulated a broadened focus
and a deepened understanding of the educational value of performance as an experience
shared by performer and audience:
... made up of material to be interpreted, to be reflected upon, to be
engaged in - emotionally, mentally, and perhaps even physically. This
particular sense of occasion and focus as well as the overarching social
envelope combine with the physicality of theatrical performance to make
it one of the most powerful and efficacious procedures that human society
has developed for the endlessly fascinating process of cultural and
personal self-reflection and experimentation. (Carlson, 1996, p. 199)

The interest in 'cultural and personal self-reflection' drives the creative

expression and also drives this study. As an audience member, I was part of the
relationship Carlson suggests engages creator and audience/witness to interpret.
Inevitably, the transgressive or resistant expression intrigued me, the expression that
challenged simple configurations of 'ethnic identity' but rather suggested a spectrum of
possibilities. These case studies, then, offered themselves for exploring the work as
'socially efficacious performances' (McKenzie, 2001, p. 29). Again, the convergence of
thinking or meaning-making invites varied scholarly disciplines to the 'wild garden'16 of
identity expressed in creative expressions.
When provided with a space, a truly creative space of artistic expression, what
young people may choose to represent might be the mutability of representation of self.
In short, the creative expression may suggest the switching as the creator delves into the
anxiety surrounding self-image. The case studies demonstrate the possibilities of 'trying

16
This acknowledges Adult educator dian marino whose book, Wild Garden (1997), expresses a community arts
respect for the full possibilities for critical, exploratory and complex interpretations through creative work.
 50

on' identities via lifestyles utilizing opposite means of expression - one in written text, a
poem (Chatper 3), and another through embodiment in a performance art piece (Chapter
5) where the creator chooses his image in order to somehow be seen and consumed by an
audience.
The thesis presents the case studies of several creative works written and/or
performed by young people, with most taking place within a school setting. The
particular subjects and works were identified to be highly suggestive of the processual
nature of cultural identity within contemporary communities in Toronto. Each work,
upon investigation, displays insights, each creative expression manages to be both
evocative of emotion and provocative in terms of issues of identity and community.
 CHAPTER TWO
Frameworks and Methods:
Multiple Lenses for Creative Expression and Identity
Educators and Their Role
Carlos Torres, now head of the Freire institute, conducted in-depth research with
graduate students as a visiting scholar one summer in Toronto, a summer when my own
identity was more clearly that of an artist educator with strong political views. As part of
the course, students viewed a video documentary of Freire in dialogue with professors
Alan Thomas and Roby Kidd back in 1976 in Toronto. Paulo Freire spoke of the
absolute need to understand that 'as educators, we are both politicians and artists'. What
resonance of the multiple roles ... an educator, artist and politician ... these roles must
inform the work. Pedagogical practice is not neutral; educators are not mere transmitters
of information. Key to his transformation of the style of engagement with students was
Freire's (1964) vivid rejection of what he termed the 'banking method' of education.
Instead, the teacher was to be involved with facilitation of the 'conscientizao', the
coming to consciousness of the learners which was at the heart of his Pedagogy of the
Oppressed.
Paulo Freire powerfully argued the case for liberatory education, for a pedagogy
that would transform the world. He developed the idea of praxis, the meshing of action
and reflection. This concept, though not original to Freire, gained educational currency.
He called for educators to revise their understanding of themselves in relation not just to
their teaching practice, but in terms of their theoretical frames. According to Freire,
dialogue must be the basis of educators joining with the learners to name the world.
Further, there must be no speaking for another. To avoid domination and move toward
liberation, Freire (1964) declared a methodology wherein the investigators and the people
would 'act as co-investigators' (ibid, p. 97).
Freire's dialogic engagement and the politics and artistry within teaching inform
my practice as both classroom teacher and researcher. The development of critical
consciousness through meaning-making informs not only my own practice as a guiding
objective but also serves as the basis for moving forward with participants in assessing
his/her life's journey.

51
 52

As a researcher, one of the benefits of serving as a teacher involves the on-site

presence, the consistent position from which to be with youth in process. Furthermore,
however, through the inspiration provided by Friere, bell hooks and others, I would be
explicit at times in my interventions to open up the space for young people to engage in
meaning-making.

Participatory Research

Participatory research had a deep influence on the movement to both see the
researcher as part of the story, and to demand that the researcher understand him/herself
as part of the story. Again, the idea of objectivity receded as researchers across
disciplines accepted that there was no neutrality of the research. This mollified the
concerns that the results would be invalidated because of the change caused by the
involvement of the researcher. The idea of altered results may well be true, but this does
not make the research invalid.
Changing the power relationships between ourselves, both as teachers and
researchers, and our subjects, be they adults or children, should not diminish the work but
enrich it. Within most areas of the academy involved in social science research, there is
an understanding that interviews are themselves an act of co-constructed knowledge.
Thus, the researcher feels an obligation to reveal his/her identity location so that her/his
positioning is made transparent. Further, it may be incumbent on the researcher to well
document how it is that his/her involvement is affecting, not necessarily compromising,
the results. Research must be interrogated in terms of power-relationships between
researchers and their 'subjects' and the nature of the political purposes for the research,
(see, for example, Ang, 1989)
Certain researchers advocate that the researcher 'give over' some of the
responsibility for the research in an effort to shake up that relation of "hierarchy among
the knowers" (Maguire, 1987). Clearly, this was seen to be consistent with social justice
views, among feminist and liberal or radical researchers. However, as well, there were
arguments that the nature of the knowledge produced would be stronger, a better
reflection of the actual processes occurring.
 53

The Researcher and the Researched

Research methodologies within the social sciences seem to surround questions of

relationships. Relationships between researcher and those researched; relationships
between theoretical understanding and that which is being investigated anew in an effort
to produce new knowledge. The web of frameworks explored earlier influence the
methodology. Part of the challenge, most especially for those whose intersecting roles of
teacher and graduate student become the context within which research is conducted,
involves separating the moments of research from those of teaching. Arguably, those
critical moments cannot be discretely studied with the same methodological practices that
those functioning in the context of an academic position might achieve. In particular,
notions of rapport with the research subject are deeply affected by the relationship of
teacher-student which involves daily interaction.
One distinctly different aspect to this project of investigation involves the fact that
it took place over many years, usually beginning with the experience of my involvement
with the participant as a teacher. Thus, first encounters and relationships were
established as teacher/student without any intention beyond this. This raises a key feature
of the law: mens rea or intent. With some amazement, it may be noted that in terms of
the case studies in the thesis, at the time of the creative expression, I lacked intent in
including the person or the artistic work in the project.
A rather amusing image of the academic with respect to studies in anthropology
or ethnography has to do with the tendency to arrive after-the-fact or after-the-
phenomenon and then transform the phenomenon: "By definition academics arrive after
the event when owls have flown. In the area of cultural studies, or the anthropology of
selves, the appearance of the academic lends gravitas and dignity to manifestations of the
popular" (Stanton, 2001, p. 350). This particular hazard of a research undertaking may
be avoided by teachers whose on-site presence provides a continuity of interaction and
observation.
 54

Classroom teacher as researcher

During almost five years at a Toronto school, my teacher-based research role

became an inevitable product of context. This positioning did not allow for separation or
distance as I was engaged in practice and observation while being on staff part-time at a
Toronto secondary school. Although not conscious at the time that I would encounter
rich data through meeting and working with very special students, over time the reality
has sunk in that I was a teacher- researcher through my practice.
My role within the process was multiple. In some cases, I was a facilitator for
'finding voice', acting as a catalyst or animateur for students in my capacity as a
Dramatic Arts teacher in a very active Arts specialty program. The role that I played
emerged from the obligation that I felt to fulfill the theoretical mandate of an anti-racist
educator. I was committed to providing a context for exploration, the encouragement of
original expressions, the creating of space for projects about identity either within the
classroom or as part of co-curricular activities. As such, I struggled with the on-the-
ground challenges to find a way to de-centre the ethnocentric curriculum practices. My
understanding of inclusive educational practices were applied when possible and my
relationships were forged with students on terms that positioned me as a committed
teacher. I attempted to enact ideals of liberatory education involved with cultural identity
exploration to benefit an individual, group or the whole school culture.
At the time, I had no intention to focus my research on the outcomes of certain
educational moments and experiences in this setting. There was no ulterior motive, only
the desire for small interventions in the lives and educational worlds of students when
possible. With respect to the ethical dimensions of the work of research, the researcher
role emerged much later. On the one hand, this maintained a separation between what I
offered as a teacher and what I might 'take' as a researcher. On the other hand, this has
necessitated documentation somewhat retrospectively. Perhaps, the greatest advantage of
this situation involved a level of purity. Inescapably, within the classroom there are
structural relations involving power which preclude a comfortable narrowing of distance.
To be blunt, the ethics of such dual relationships are inherently suspect, at least for this
researcher.
 55

At no point while teaching the young people did I declare my research interest as
that interest was focused elsewhere. During my sustained period of engagement as a
regular teacher, the young people were not subjected to, nor were they subjects of,
inquiry to serve the needs of the researcher. The prolonged relationships within creatively
enriched space allowed me to operate in a manner such that theory was no longer an
abstract concept but rather an embodied living inquiry, an interstitial relational space for
creating, teaching, learning, and researching in a constant state of becoming (see
Britzman, 2003).
On the matter of facilitation and the involvement of the teacher, I suggest that
there are a myriad of possibilities for meaningful pedagogical moments. Based on
17

Spivak's etymology of the word 'facilitation', the act of facilitation has a sense of
removal of blockage and, therefore, a possible psychological dimension for young
people. Thus, I make explicit some of my relationships and continue to do so within the
textual analysis. The problematics of research, though, clearly extends in my case to my
outsider status in terms of the cultures-in-the-making of those whose stories I facilitate.
These representations originated with the young people and, while I mobilize critical
frameworks of meaning-making, I make no claims that I speak for the originators. In fact,
I remain aware that this study involves me, a white artist, researcher and teacher,
exploring and analyzing the creative expression of 'other peoples' children', a term
associated with the seminal writing of Lisa Delpit, Other People's Children: Cultural
Conflict in the Classroom. This must be kept in mind by any readers of the work.
Research Design
The thesis adopts a qualitative research methodology that "recognizes that reality
is a social construct in which complexity and context of the emerging data must be
considered; the subject, not method should be the primary focus" (Glesne & Peshkin,
1992, p. 7). The subjects within the study are the producers of the creative expressions,
which establish the dual focus of the inquiry as the investigation considers both the
creative work and the lives of the young people. The methodology embraces a form of
critical ethnography with a focus on the creative expressions of young people analyzed

17
Spivak footnotes the term noting that a dictionary meaning traces the term back to Freud when he was developing
a neurological model of the functioning of the psychical apparatus in 1895.
 56

through an interdisciplinary framework and forms the case studies at the foundation of
this study. The methodological approach considers the case studies as both arts-based
educational projects and as life histories in order to provide insight into the negotiations
of identity among second generation immigrant youth. The research is designed to
employ multiple methods for investigation of the the case studies. Long-term
relationships were established with certain young artists subsequent to the time they
produced some of their earliest 'representations of cultural differences', voice-ing -
whether it be poetic, dramatic, or didactic - a sense of who s/he is in the world as defined
by culture. In addition to these texts, interviews form a primary source for the qualitative
data which complements the textual analysis of the creative expressions. Thus, the study
becomes rich in ethnographic data provided from more than one source, rendering this a
hybrid ethnographic study.
Within the analysis and meaning making, several sociocultural frameworks come
into play as well as psychological theories of identity formation and educational theories
of learning. As well, the artistic work lends itself to aesthetic considerations and inter-
textual readings of the work. This offers a full range through the multiple lenses of
cultural studies theory.

The Case Study Approach

Encountering the works of artistic expression which constitute the basis for my
case studies was the result of several years of facilitation and observation. As a teacher
in an arts-focused high school, I was surrounded by young people who were engaged in
some form of arts learning. With an interest in transformative learning and the practices
of creative expression, there was a type of work that intrigued me. How exactly did I
select the particular works in this study and the young creators? Quite simply, they
selected me. The processes of young people in a state of identity-constructing through
and within the act of creative expression emerged and tended to inhabit my mind parallel
to my investigations of cultural theory. Not only did the aesthetic feeling influence my
selection, there was also, in each case, a notable vibrato of identity construction and/or
transformation in the work or, in the case of the performance, among the group members
such that I found writing about these cases irresistible.
 57

I came to understand that through these particular stories and experiences and,
most especially, their artistic work, there would be the basis for new knowledge about
how it is that contemporary youth engage in rich investigations of their identities-in-
process and complicated entanglements within. That is, the witnessing of certain
transformative pedagogical enactments dictated their inclusion in the thesis.
As someone interested in diasporic culture, I was drawn to those performances
that explore disruption and discontinuity as a means aesthetically of representing the
challenging competing forces or discriminations in their lived realities. Not only are the
works about the self of a personal nature but also these particular creative expressions
contain rich social commentary. The creators seemed intent on exposing some aspect of
the "dialectical process of interaction that influences both the individual and the social
structure (Mead, 1934; Berger and Luckmann, 1966)" (Sardiello, p. 119).
With a sociological and anthropological set of interests informing the analysis, the
individuals and their life stories and, even more significantly, their creative works
provided illustrations of the social reality of contemporary struggles of the 'in-between'.
Within these creative expressions, the young people form a reading of their own identities
constructed within cultural and historical relations as a way of engaging 'agency'
(Brodkey, 1996) and move forward with self-awareness. Thus, I include those creative
works which explore multiple identity positions or identifications since, through such
presentations the creators are interrogating social spheres and discriminations within the
possibilities of the contact zone as a site of conflict (Pratt, 1992).
Another means of selection occurred due to my friendship with English teacher,
Peter Marmorek, whose special gift involved his ability to animate and nurture promising
writers. In the course of our discussions about the scope of the study, he recommended
two young poets whose work, he believed, represented significant voice-ing of cultural
identity. Additionally, in his view, these young writers had demonstrated extraordinary
talent in capturing aspects of contemporary cultural phenomena. Contact was made with
these participants by introduction (Chapter 3 and Chapter 6).
The young people provide impassioned examples of the effect that affirming their
cultures had on them and, conversely, on how negating their languages and cultures
 58

negated a part of them as well. Indeed, through expressions of cultural identity, these
artists are making highly political statements, sometimes in the guise of personal stories.
From Chapter 3 though to Chapter 7 individual chapters are complete in
themselves, each focusing on a particular case study or grouping of young people whose
artistic work and interviews reveal new understanding of the interplay of identity and
creativity, sociocultural forces and the development of contemporary Canadian young
people.
The case study chapters that form the core of the thesis are presented through
three to four components: the artistic work/poem or a description of the work under
discussion; analysis of the creative expression; a profile of the young person with a focus
on factors that may have influenced the creation of the piece, the identity struggles; a
discussion of the community contexts or demographic features; and the pedagogical
implications.
The artistic works: Near the beginning of each chapter, I have included either the
poem or a description of the performance, the creative works through which the young
people voice their understandings of identifications and contestations related to their
cultural identity. The work is original to the young person/artist who then becomes part
of the discussion within the chapter. The exception involves Chapter 4 where the
creative work is a professionally written play by Marty Chan, a Canadian playwright of
Chinese ancestry. In this case, the focus of the chapter shifts to the group of young
people who produced a production of the play and the impact on their cultural identity
exploration within that process.
Analysis of the creative expression: The analysis of the creative work following
draws on a variety of aesthetic and theoretical perspectives across a number of academic
disciplines and fields. Generally, I begin with a consideration of the aesthetics of the
piece with a focus on the meaning-making of the work in terms of self-expression. The
framework utilizes a cultural studies framework, looking for the traces of social and
political meaning as well as the personal relationship of the artist to the work.
A profile of the young person/s and community/cultural notations: This emerges
through the interviews and the commentary provided by the participants who offer
observations on the intent of the piece (artist's intentionality) and the sorts of ideas and
 59

tensions within his/her life that may have contributed to the creative process. Media
reports and selected material pertaining to other related significant cultural productions or
events in the cultural life of the cultural groupings are included as well.
Pedagogical practices and implications: Within the descriptions of the context of
creation, the possibilities for pedagogical practice are either suggested directly or inferred
in the case studies based on the evidence of teacher involvement as catalyst. The
penultimate chapter (Chapter 8) serves as a case study surrounding the attempt to operate
within the systems and points to some of the problematics of pedagogicacl change witin
the constraints of the vagaries of schools and governement policy. The experiences
suggest serious complications for practitioners committed to inclusive practices and
some of the barriers towards curricular change.
Critical interpretive ethnography
The case studies emerged after my sustained contact with individuals in a process
of identity formation that was being enacted and transformed through cultural expression.
From my position as teacher, I best could engage in what James Clifford describes as "a
means of producing knowledge from an intense, intersubjective engagement" (Clifford
1988, p. 24). My daily life as teacher removed the work from that of a visiting
ethnographer. The depth of my observations of certain students within certain unique
projects could never, it seemed to me, be as authentic as those which took place before
me... the transformative enactments, through creative expression, of cultural identity.
Ethnography is enmeshed in writing and representation of the other with an
interpretation of culture through an "assemblage of texts" (ibid., p. 31). "A world cannot
be apprehended directly; it is always inferred on the basis of its parts" (ibid., p. 38). As a
process for me, this has been an extended period of reporting and my "tales of the
fieldwork" (John Van Maanen, 1988) return me to key moments experienced in
situ, either in a school or, in the case of Fredy's story, on a stage.
The thesis joins a growing body of literature18 that engages in critical educational
ethnography. The particulars of my venture have involved participants who distinguished
themselves as young creators/artist/students whose expressions were rich in suggesting

There are several dissertations, for instance those by Elaine Chan, Sara Promislow, and Zahida Ali, which engage
in an ethnographic exploration.
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the multiple worlds and contestations that may drive creative expression. As part of my
undertaking, I am gesturing toward an analysis of youth culture, particular youths - those
whose diasporic identities are forming - who have found in creative expression a means
of processing their identities. As well, this interpretive ethnography involves interpreting
conversations. Besides the formal interviews, I have continued to have conversations
with these young people as they have matured and made life decisions. At times, I have
mentored these young people as part of the process of giving back to those who have
offered me their stories.
Interpretive Ethnography is a "way of studying and speaking about culture"
through a "layered response to, and a critical extending of, how we think about and do the
work of being a scholar". (Goodall, 2000, p. 55, 57). The various strands: the creative
expression, the interviews, and the sociological understanding of the communities within
which these young people are negotiating their identities provides a composite picture
from which the particular and the whole shed light upon pedagogy and the practice of
both artistic exploration and teaching and learning.
This, then, becomes a 'hybrid ethnographic text'19 (Goldstein, 2002, p xxi) as it
combines the ethnographic study with discussions of cultural identity, community
patterns, other cultural/ethnographic texts.
Arts-based educational inquiry
As someone whose life work for decades involved the educational possibilities
emerging out of the arts, I have been drawn to the arts as a site for my own educational
inquiry. Inevitably, my research world converged with my life as an artist and teacher,
especially as I had the unique context for observation within an arts-specialty secondary
school. More importantly, though, my belief in new forms of knowledge-production and
the unique expressions that the arts afford for explorations of culture and identity would
lead me inevitably to this as the basis for research. Familiar with the power of expressive
language, and the unique possibilities for empathy and self-disclosure offered through the
arts, I bring my aesthetic tastes into the commentary. Like others undertaking such

Tara Goldstein describes her book, based on her research project in schools, a hybrid ethnographic text. Goldstein
has taught critical ethnography for some time, with several of her students producing works in the field.
 61

research, my work is informed by the belief that the arts provide an access to forms of
experience to which individuals otherwise have no access.
In the area of arts and psychology Vygotsky, following Freud, suggested the
"colossal complexity of the influences acting upon art" in terms of the artistic process.
As a result, he believed that "the work of art, rather than its creator or its audience, should
be taken as basis for analysis." (Vygotsky, 1971, p. 24) Out of respect for this position, I
begin most of the investigations with a description and analysis of the work of art from
the perspective that this study intends to shed light on how it is that cultural identity
and/or identifications play out in the work. While examining the artistic expressions of
young people, the framework for analysis is predicated on the belief that the work is a
site of knowledge (Barone, 2001). Further, the conceptualization of the work of art as a
crystallization of the thinking and affect of the artist suggests that the work must speak
for itself or, put another way, that the artistic process means that the artist has completed
a full expression, "I have said what I have said" (Vygotsky, 1971, p.44).
There has been renewed interest in the role of the arts as a process of knowing as
an increasing number of qualitative researchers have extended their educational research
work with and through the arts. There are various terms which describe emerging and
evolving developments. These include: "arts-based research (Barone and Eisner, 1997;
Eisner 1993), arts-informed research (Cole, Neilson, Knowles and Luciani, 2004),
A/r/tography (Irwin & de Cosson, 2004), and practice-based research (Candlin, 2000;
Frayling,1997)." (Sullivan, 2006, p. 20)
As elaborated by Tom Barone and Elliot Eisner in their chapter in the book
Complementary Methods for Research in Education, there are several possible features of
inquiry which might be used as design elements and/or to determine the extent to which
an inquiry can be characterized as arts-based. Among them: "the creation of virtual
reality; the presence of ambiguity; the use of expressive language; the use of
contextualized and vernacular language; the promotion of empathy; personal signature of
the researcher/writer; and the presence of aesthetic form" (Cole & Knowles, 2001, p.
214).
The quite recent field of inquiry known as a/r/tography would seem to suit the
methodology that I, as an artist with twenty years in the professional theatre, and teacher
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for twenty, with some overlap, and researcher as my days in the academy extended and,
yes, overlapped. Drawing from these multiple areas, the artographer deals with an
"evolution of questions... inquiries emergent, generative, reflexive and responsive,"
(Irwin, Beer, Springgay, Grauer, Xiong & Bickel, 2006, p. 71).
With the idea of knowledge production as central to the act of creation, the
engagement with art no longer finds its value in 'art for art's sake' but rather interprets
art, "transforming the role of artist-as-object maker, to artist-as-(re)searching guide" and
"giving subjects whose creations are repeatedly in/trans/formed by ongoing social
interactions." Arts-based inquiry also provides scope for examining representations of
language such as symbol, image, text, performance, popular art, music and culture as
artefacts of contemporary culture (Diamond & Mullen, 1999).
Thus, the arts provide a means for the creator to understand the world. In the case
of young people, my particular interest has been in those moments when the young
person finds voice through the particular creative process to know both him/herself and
his/her location in the social world. Knowing here describes the processual knowing, the
knowing of the tensions and contestations and finding a creative means of re-presenting
that to the world.
In a sense, the subjects or case studies which form the basis for individual
chapters were themselves involved in arts-based research. That is, their search to express
individual identity and/or explore cultural identity arose within the context of the creation
of works of imagination. It is possible to create, transform, critique, and promote shifts in
thinking through artful inquiry (Diamond & Mullen, 1999) which precisely reflects the
evidence provided by the creative expression of these young people. The following
chapters document moments in which young people found "recognition" of their cultural
identity as they explored, both in and through artistic work, their own cultural identities,
within their own cultural milieu.
As the starting point for investigations and reflections in the chapters ahead,
creative expression leads inevitably into the area of aesthetics and criticism. However,
the intent of the analysis of the creative works focuses particularly on the ethnographic
evidence and cultural relevance within the product and the production of the work. Thus,
the methodology begins with aesthetic investigations understood as a means of cultural
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discourse and ethnographic research. In undertaking aesthetic considerations, the

research draws on a variety of critical discourses in the field as the varied forms of the
work demand. As needed literary and performance techniques may be conceptualized as
choices exercised by the young artist with particular rationale or impact on the viewer.
Undertaking this research and methodology allows for an understanding of the
function of art in the life of not only these students but in this society as a whole. This
builds upon a basic concept underlying Arts-based inquiry which understands "the arts as
a way of re-searching the world to enhance understanding" (Irwin et al., 2006, p. 70).

Life Histories

At times, the thesis operates within the parameters of narrative inquiry. Stories of
lives are produced but with a particular sense of purpose. As Connelly and Clandinin
state, "one of our tasks in writing narrative accounts is to convey a sense of the
complexity of all the T s , all of the ways each of us have of knowing" since "the study of
narrative.. .is the study of the ways humans experience the world" (Connelly and
Clandinin, 1990, p. 10). Indeed, my interest in how the young people experienced the
world drove the research processes. Their life stories, in particular as those stories
informed their creativity, constituted the second aspect of investigation.
The life story research focus, principally conducted through interviews, was
undertaken as complementary to the understanding of the sociocultural imaginings
generated within the creative work. Unlike full life history research, the intent of
conducting discussions with the young artists was not to generate full portrayals of their
lives but rather to discuss with the young people how they saw the world, more
specifically the cultural worlds of which they spoke in their work. At times, this offered
the young people an incredibly unique opportunity to reflect on family and their
experience of schooling and to speak of their communities. However, the writing of their
lives surrounds the particular interests of the research topic and as a result familial details
such as the sibling distribution or the social status are revealed only if deemed relevant
within conversation as to why the young person created the work or holds the world view
as s/he expressed it. Partly, this respects a level of confidentiality, especially as the
participants could not anticipate full anonymity since their artistic work already publicly
identified him/her.
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The added reason to limit full biographies involves my desire as a researcher to

focus attention on how it is that the creative expression works through cultural identity.
This is informed by the belief that within the creative works are ontological issues
involving the way the young person makes sense of the world. This coincides with, or
allows for, a working out of meaning schemes within the act of creation. The difference
with respect to intent needs to be named at the outset; the limits, at times, may frustrate
reader interest in aspects of the life history which are not addressed. Other concerns of
ethics, having to do with boundaries and trust, are discussed later.

The interviews
All recollections of experiences, reflections on experiences, descriptions
of experiences, taped interviews about experiences, or transcribed
conversation about experiences are already transformations of those
experiences. (Van Manen, 1990, p. 54)

Young people, in the throes of adolescence, as noted earlier are working through a
great deal about who they are. Artists, in the throes of creativity, are also working
through who they are. With young artists, a period of time after the creative process
affords them time to understand and contextualize their artistic experience and allows
them some time to engage in meaning-making rather than speak of the crystallized
experience of creativity, as Vygotski considered it.
The interviews and the commentary provided by the participant offer observations
on the intent of the piece (artist's intentionality) and the sorts of ideas and tensions within
his/her life that may have contributed to the creative process. Interviews were conducted
a significant period after the case studies were created, when the young people were over
18 and of the 'age of consent'. This offered time for the young people to mature and
continue along the process of identity formation as they left secondary school and headed
into their lives as young adults, pursuing further education. This stage of life has quite
recently been named "emerging adulthood", that period of time when young people gain
a sense of relative independence subsequent to childhood and adolescene but they have
not yet enetered the period of adulthood and the responsibilities. This afforded the
opportunity to reflect back on that time and the project in their lives during a stage that
was ideal in terms of reflections for "emerging adults often explore a variety of possible
life directions in love, work, and worldviews" (Arnett, 2000, p. 469).
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The interviews were conducted in the summer of 2004 in the form of

conversations between us, usually just the participant and me in a place of her/his
choosing. The exception to this involves an interview with two members of the group of
Chinese-Canadian students, who were interviewed together. In the case of the young
poet of Chapter 3, the interview was a first meeting as her participation was facilitated by
her former teacher. The second poet, Yomna whose poem appears in the second portion
of Chapter 6, was not available for an in-person interview so her responses were sent via
written communication. Her inclusion, due to the nature of her creative work, seemed
vital although considerations of her life choices are not fully explored as her participation
was more limited.
The manner of conducting the interviews would fall under the "hermeneutic"
category as defined by Van Manen:
The art of the researcher in the hermeneutic interview is to keep the
question (of the meaning of the phenomenon) open, to keep himself or
herself and the interviewee oriented to the substance of the thing being
questioned. "The art of questioning is that of being able to go on asking
questions, i.e., the art of thinking", says Gadamer (1975, p. 330)
(Van Manen, 1990, p. 175)

In the thinking through, this style of interview operates with the expectation that
the Interviewee becomes co-investigator (ibid., p. 98) as together we seek meaning.
Since the interview was to focus on matters of cultural identity, I began most interviews
explaining this; the broad issues of culture and identity allowed the interviewees to speak
of how they understood themselves. There were lively exchanges, delight in the
recollection of a period in the life of the young person that was rich, complex and
meaningful, perhaps progressively over time. Through this exchange, as Woodward,
(1997) states, it is hoped that the spirit of inquiry embraced an interactional reformulation
of the research relationship.
Data collection was emergent and, to an extent, evolved with the maturing of the
participants. In conversation, both the researcher and the researched had the benefit of
time to heighten our separate awareness of the influences at play at the time of creation.
The young artists comment upon a period in their lives when, their art would suggest,
they first came to consciousness about certain key aspects of their cultural identity. Due
to the fact that I knew most of them during that period in their lives, I was able to conduct
 66

informal discussions with them in a manner conducive to co-construction of meaning-

making. My previous role as a teacher who encouraged their creativity, who was
receptive to personal and cultural considerations/issues assisted in us, together, finding
ways to re-examine the text or performance event. At other times, in my role as teacher
of those students, I am able to reflect on observations or suggest with the student what I
interpreted from the work.
One of the joys of interviewing a young person with whom a researcher has
established trust involves the passion of the young person to describe the experiences and
attitudes of a prior period. Of course, the invitation to speak and process the experiences
or to speak of the creative process valorizes the self of that young person. Interviews
become a form of self-report and, in this case, the young people delighted in describing
the changing nature of the identi-kit. Attitudes, beliefs and values were spoken of as in
process and in development.
The lag time factor between the creative expression and the interview might also
lead to altered perceptions of the nature of the work, the authorial intention of the time,
and the audience reception. Indeed, due to the fact that, in many cases, the young people
were at pivotal moments in their formation, time has allowed the possibility for extended
study which may influence the participants' understanding of his/her own motives and
inspirations. By this, I would suggest that cultural work, born during a period of struggle
for consciousness, may be better understood by both author and researcher after a period
during which the subject consolidates his/her identity issues of that time.
The style of conducting interviews was definitely altered by knowing the young
person from a particular context within a shared community. As well, an initial period of
catching up on life events would be necessary. Frequently, the young people had
encountered complex worlds beyond their family and Toronto communities. Of
necessity, much of this material cannot be included due to limitations of focus within the
analysis and the over-riding interest in the creative expression. Occasionally, the later
events are included when it becomes apparent that such inclusion demonstrates some
aspect of cultural identity formation connected to the creative expression which
constitutes the focus of the study. And, in terms of family, the young person being
interviewed, due to age, no longer lived with his/her family on a full-time basis and
 67

therefore, was freer to comment on the constraints of family life during the earlier period
when s/he had been involved in the artistic venture.
Since the interviews were conducted after some time, a concern might be that
students would read more into those key experiences due to the lag time. However, I
think not. The selection of these students in those moments of creative expression was
based on a recognition of the transformative possibilities occurring for them at those
times. Transformative moments require time to consolidate. Yet, the possibility exists
that time alters the perception of that actual occurrence. The retrospective position may
alter the unconscious impetus of the youthful engagement. For several of the participants,
the key contexts of exploration and creation affected their life paths, their academic
choices, and even the cultural identity of the people that the individual would
subsequently date. The lens through which the subjects at the point of the interview now
understood themselves, perhaps not more deeply, but rather from a position further along
in the continuum of processual identity development.
The vantage of time also cleared certain dynamics which are potentially
problematic in terms of power relationships between researcher and researched. Since the
formal interviews occurred years later at a point where issues of evaluation, or mark-
granting, would not complicate the communications, some of the power relationships
associated with a teacher-student relationship had disappeared. With the young person
attending a post-secondary institution, there was a greater sense of independence so that,
while I might be called Ms.Grant out of habit, there was a sense that we could move
beyond the old dynamics and relational paradigms. Still, there remain ways in which my
relationships with the subjects continue to be quite different than that of a typical
researcher-subject relationship.
Due to the ongoing relationships, ending data collection was not clearly
designated and my writing has been influenced by my further understanding of these
young people. Not every conversation has been documented. The most recent
conversations with some took place as the young person read a draft of the text which
pertained to them. The response generally suggested that the student was intrigued by the
'translation' of their work and lived realities into sociocultural frames. One participant
thought that I privileged his voice in the text which suggested a modesty about the value
 68

and insight of his views, I believe. In general, revisions were not requested which, Ardra
Cole suggested, is more typical than those that request alterations in research on life
history narratives (Cole, 2001).

On Ethical Engagement

This research has been undertaken with a sense of the ethics of responsibility in
terms of research. In recent years, there has been debate in relationships involving those
who seek to engage with others respectfully, about how it is that one can 'be with' or
attend to the other. The practice of listening, as Roger Simon has said20, cannot be taken
for granted in terms of ethics or empiricism. In philosophical, educational and aesthetic
discourse, there has been a renewed interest in the writings of Levinas and Buber whose
book / and Thou stands as one of the most - forgive the pun - phenomenal works of the
phenomenology of "being with" in an achingly engaged way.
Over in the postcolonial sphere, Gayatri Spivak (1993) has written on the 'Politics
of Translation' where "it is not possible for us as ethical agents to imagine otherness or
alterity maximally. We have to turn the other into something like the self in order to be
ethical. To surrender in translation is more erotic than ethical" (p. 183). Spivak speaks
later of the lessons of translation, which extend beyond translation into engagement as
understanding. What relationship does the translator/researcher have to the other?
On the matter of interpretation of text, the understanding of my relationships with
the text emerges out of a distinct set of cultural theorists. On all levels, when involved
with the interpretation of 'speech genres', to adopt the phrase originated by Bakhtin,
there is a dialogic process of the listener or reader with the text. This is what Dorothy
Smith (1999) has contemplated in her collection of essays, summarized in the following
aphorism: "Our reading operates the text; in our reading, it becomes active" (p. 226).
Once this is understood, it becomes impossible not to understand that the process of
interpretation involves both the generator and the recipient. Taken to this degree, the act
of reading itself becomes an act of participatory research but this would broaden the
definition so as to encompass every aspect of our communicative lives.

This takes up investigations of 'empathy' both within research and in other aspects of human engagement. Professor Roger
Simon conducts courses wherein the ethical dimensions of that relationship are problematized. As a student, I believe that my
sensitivities within such research methodologies were heightened.
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Furthermore, these readings, my readings, are taking place in real contexts that
raise issues of cultural domination. Isabelle Gunning proposes a respectful First World-
Third World dialogue that would have the researcher "see [her] self as the "other" might
see you; and see the other within her own "cultural context". Postcolonial literature has
suggested this is both unattainable and presumptuous. My efforts as a white teacher and
researcher to speak of the "cultural context" of the participants are limited by such
dynamics within our relationships. The criticism is duly noted.
My role as translator is undertaken with awareness. Tejaswini Niranjana's notion
of the practice of translation describes my act of interpretation with these stories of life
narratives and cultural work. In many cases, I benefited from longstanding acquaintance
and frequent exchanges with the participants, nevertheless I would suggest that my
analytic undertaking remains "speculative, provisional and interventionist" (Niranjana,
1992, p. 173). The language of analysis, of discursive academic frameworks, translates
both the artistic production and the life history narratives into zones of contestation that I
hope accurately reflect aspects of the experience of the young person. Still, the nature of
art to transform experience also allows for some leeway in ascribing meanings. These
works are not merely reflections of the individual, I believe, but rather they are
representations. Thus, the work of interpretation not merely resembles translation, it is
translation.
Sherene Razack (1998) discusses some of the issues of ethics involved in the
politics of inclusion as she advocates for a "politics of accountability". There, not only is
there an increased burden or responsibility on the researcher to 'locate' her/himself, but
there also must be a responsibility to disturb "relations of domination". The researcher
ought to be asking some tough questions: "Where am I in this picture? Am I positioning
myself as the saviour of less fortunate peoples? As the progressive one? As more
subordinated? As innocent?" (p. 170). Such crucial questions raise the issue of motive
of the researcher to be there with the community. With respect to motive, again the
legalistic notion of intent occurs. As an on-the-ground classroom teacher, perhaps the
issue of researcher location becomes both moot and further muddied. A teacher has a job
obligation to be 'present'; the researcher-teacher must, however, satisfy the requirements
 70

of both the positions. In moving beyond that of teacher to researcher with the intent to
analyze and publish, the bonds of trust alter their dimensions. Power is an issue.
The inherent inequality in the negotiation of power relations with students cannot
be underestimated. Institutional power paradigms prevent progressive teachers from
attempts to equalize power. This is complex. In order to minimize the problematics of
this seeping into the research dynamics, no research relationship was established with any
participants until such time as the student-teacher relationship no longer was in place or
possible in any way.
Yet, in terms of the case studies with whom I had shared the teacher-student
relationship, I had the benefit of observation of the participant over months or years and
brought to the critical ethnography process deep understanding of the institutional site at
which the creative process occurred. My presence there, and my multiple relationships
with the participants, enhanced my understanding of the lifeworld of the young person,
resulting in case studies which resonate with the worlds of those at the centre of them.
Researcher - identify yourself

bell hooks asks that those of us who conduct educational research with, or cultural
criticism of, people of colour speak to our positioning, our perspective and experiences
that influence our engagement with both the artist and the art. How does it change our
attitudes and ideas surrounding the "complexity of difference" (hooks, 1995, p. 131)? I
lived during a period of "positioning and location" as part of highly divisive "culture
wars" of identity politics and therefore have lived with this imperative. Indeed, the
demand to locate oneself over and over may feel like some sort of confession, undertaken
like the central character in Camus' The Fall. Again, the story is told...
My researcher location places me in the dominant-white female group, with a
middle-class and now middle-aged profile. Yet, my background as an activist, feminist,
and anti-racist educator during the 1980s and 1990s placed me in the thick of the
contested years of identity politics. Most importantly, this era forced those of us from the
dominant group to interrogate our privilege, to examine - in the brilliant metaphor
proposed by Peggy Macintosh - our knapsack of privilege. No longer complacent in our
liberal discourse, there were serious issues on the table and, in my case, at the kitchen
 71

table among women of colour (the preferred term of that period) whose keen sense of
analysis allowed/forced many of us to discover that, with privilege, came the race tapes.
This, too, has been termed an 'era of suspicion' wherein the debates on the
politics of identity, race and location drew many into highly contentious grounds. In
Canada, this publicly played out in grassroots internecine conflicts with several painful
and divisive struggles within institutions ranging from the Womens Press, whose 'back of
the bus coalition' purged certain founders, to various progressive organizations, including
91

Nellie's Shelter and the Writers Union. Accusations of exclusionary/racist practices

were endemic to the politicized circles.
In this context, I had a long career as a professional theatre artist through my
practice of feminist cultural production within the movement of theatre for social change.
Through politically conscious theatre, our theatre group educated within a particular
social and political time. The process called upon us, as creators and educators, to
interrogate the basis of value formation and to create the possibility of conscientizao. We
sought to engage the audience in dialogic conditions in order to reflect on current social
conditions. Invited by community groups such as the Cross Cultural Communications
Centre, we would research issues which then culminated in educational projects, artistic
(performative) presentations that demonstrated the power of theatrical presentations as a
practice of critical pedagogy. Our theatre group engaged in, and promoted, dialogue
around issues of gender, race and class designing a specific style of theatrical and
educational practice to work within unions, community centers, womens' groups and
even the echelons of government during the period of progressive governments. By the
end, the integrative presentations explored all aspects of discrimination including ableism
and linguistic discrimination.
The unusual path into traditional teacher identity informed my practice
profoundly. Over time, praxis was key to my work as an educator and artist. Within this
atmosphere, my practice was enhanced by my studies wherein I processed my identities

21
The fractious debates on the Nellie's Board of Directors gained particular notoriety as June Callwood was
denounced as carrying racist views.
22
For a fuller discussion of the practice of theatre as social change, see my article entitled Still Activist after all these
Years in Canadian Theatre Review.
 72

as artist, politician and teacher in the Freirean naming mentioned earlier. Now, years
later, I embrace my artist, researcher and teacher involvement in A/r/tography.
Lastly, as researcher identity comes into play, I would be remiss if I did not
include my role as mother. With respect to knowledge of children, this position provides
a level of experience for researchers engaged with investigations of c hildren and
adolescents. But, as with my own location, my children too carry with them the
dominant positioning within this culture as they are white and Canadian-born. They,
therefore, may "choose at will to assert or deny their ethnicity" (Easthope p. 3) and are
seldom asked "Where are you from?" as it is assumed that they are from and belong here
as Canadians. During my teaching and research life, I have come to understand that the
children of 'others' indeed experience a life in the in-between as they work through
identifications and that such struggles are unknown to my own children.
In terms of the creative work, then, I found myself awed by the understanding of
zones of contestation among those young people who would become the subjects in this
thesis. The aesthetic complexity and extraordinary courage of expression, rich in its
signifying, makes me realize that my own children, due to their privileged positioning,
know little of these zones. My children and I have much to learn in the global village.

Analysis and Meaning-Making

The meaning-making of the creative works of the youth is discussed through

several lenses. At times, my analysis as it draws on cultural identity theory and theories
of postmodern aesthetics may surpass what the young person can name. The intermixing
of the interpretations and meaning-making follows a phenomenological interpretation.
Van Manen speaks of the multiple interpretations in this way: "no single interpretation of
human experience will ever exhaust the possibility of yet another complementary, or
even potentially richer or deeper description" (p. 31). Thus, in seeking that ever richer
and deeper description, I have found that applying logos, which VanManen defines as
"language and thoughtfulness" (p. 33), to the lived experiences of myparticipants
expands from their particular 'location in culture' to the broader implications with respect
to cultural identity and the hybrid worlds they navigate. Van Manen draws on Habermas'
conception of lifeworlds which guides this investigation:
 73

All phenomenological human science research efforts are really

explorations into the structure of the human lifeworld, the lived world as
experienced in everyday situations and relations. Our lived experiences
and structures of meanings (themes) in terms of which those lived
experiences can be described and interpreted constitute the immense
complexity of the lifeworld... multiple and different lifeworlds. (p. 101)

With the attention of the research interpretation focused on the lifeworld, the
relationship between the individual and the social and moral world becomes evident.
At times, I have elected to examine specific texts through textual analysis in
order, I hope, to unpack the rich layers of meaning contained within them. Engagement
with critical theories ranging from the postmodern cultural theorists to writings in the
disciplines of sociology and anthropology provide a critical framework for the discussion
of both the creative works and the lived realities of the young people involved. Discourse
analysis and cultural analysis inevitably was applied to the ethnographic data. In later
considerations of the case studies, genre criticism has proven valuable to compare the
emerging artistic works with some of the seminal works of related literature often
introducing diasporic voices both familiar and those recently published. Finally, semiotic
analysis became a means of unpacking meaning in the tradition of Roland Barthes. At
times, there may be a tendency within these pages to apply "high theory" to the study of
"low culture". This, too, continues with the cultural studies framework.
At times, the personal narratives and the art work of certain participants speak so
compellingly that it would be intrusive to embellish those words with long commentary
as if somehow my version would be better due to some more discursive writing, and so I
leave the speaking to them.
As such, I like to think that the thesis itself becomes a hybrid, daring to mix
together forms of analysis in response to the unique voices of these case studies. To
create the new, to rupture the expectations for academic discourse, to find meaning
through daring to mix-it-up seems quite appropriate to a study whose subjects are
themselves 'riffing' by their very existences. For them, or at least in response to them, it

For further discussion of this, see Ackbar Abbas' essay Cultural Studies in a Postculture. I am aware that this
tradition may be somewhat offputting to readers unfamiliar with the language of this theory, something which has
led to allegations of elitism and stimulated rancourous debate among those in the cultural studies community.
 74

seemed impossible not to engage in a dance together, to honour each by allowing for a
flexibility in the set of tools, the analytic frames, to adapt to new rhythms.

Social Analysis and Psychological Dimensions/Aspects of Identity

As I bring a feminist background to the project of research and analysis, the

relation between the personal and the political continues to preoccupy my work. A
mantra of consciousness-raising - the personal is political - the notion has been
theorized, not only by feminists but by social theorists who increasingly respect the ways
in which examinations of personal experience and expression may be understood to
produce knowledge about the larger social and political framework. In a sense,
qualitative methods believe in similar relations, though less politicized in orientation.
Beginning with the local and immediate, and examining the organization of social
relations, and considering social relations across a historical trajectory the work fulfils the
three necessary components for 'relational/reflexive method' of social analysis as Himani
Bannerji (1995) describes them. Further, Bannerji advocates 'mediation' of a particular
style which acknowledges the relationship of experience, subjectivity and agency:
In the context of this relational reflexive social analysis, how must we
understand the experience and subjectivity of the knower who is also a
political actor? This can only happen if we cut through the false polarity
posited between the personal/the private/the individual and the mental, and
the social/collective/the public and the political, and find a formative
mediation between the two. (p. 85)

In this analysis of the social, Bannerji understands that experience is "more than
the raw data of physical reflexes and feelings. It is the originating point of knowledge, an
interpretation, a relational sense-making, which incorporates social meaning." (p. 86)
Blending social theory with educational research practices, my analysis at times
engages in a social and political reading of the creative work. This follows Smith in "an
exploration of the relationship between the personal and the social and therefore
political" (1987, p. 55) and in an unapologetic reading of people's creative expressions as
embodied experiences of oppression and "relations of ruling" (Smith, 1987) that are
reproduced over time. This especially becomes apparent in Chapter 5 as the embodied
performance of race stimulates an understanding of discrimination and oppression such
that the personal and social/political realities of race bring me/us to Fanon and bell hooks.
 75

The experience of those on the margins produces standpoints that are located in
intersecting collectivities that are bounded by differentiations of gender, race and class
(ibid, 119). These standpoints, I would argue, are being processed as the young person
produces creative work surrounding identity struggles. Smith's (1987) notion of a line of
fault between the embodied experiences and the consciousness of those experiences
serves both as a guiding principle in the analysis and as evidence emerging from the
research. In that line of fault, I believe, the creative process attempts the 'suture' or a
reconciliation of tensions.
The creative expressions develop not only self-knowledge but a knowledge of the
individual within the world, thus a social knowledge or consciousness (Smith, 1999, p.
117). This resonates with Freirean (1987) concepts of literacy surrounding "reading the
word and the world".
Interestingly, discussions of social identity construction emerge from the
psychoanalytic field. Laclau argued powerfully that "the constitution of a social identity
is an act of power" since,
If.. .an objectivity manages to partially affirm itself it is only by
repressing that which threatens it. Derrida has shown how an identity's
constitution is always based on excluding something and establishing a
violent hierarchy between the two resultant poles - man/woman, etc.
What is peculiar to the second term is thus reduced to the function of an
accident as opposed to the essentiality of the first. It is the same with the
black-white relationship, in which white, of course, is equivalent to
'human being'. 'Woman' and 'black' are thus 'marks' (i.e. marked terms)
in contrast to the unmarked terms of 'man' and 'white' (Laclau 1990, cited
in Hall, 1996, p. 5)

There are psychological dimensions to the struggle to constitute identity when

'marks' of race and gender stress the young person. This has not been sufficiently
understood. The anxiety and stress experienced frequently among youth are so complex
and socially manufactured as to leave the young person with little to defend him/herself
from exclusions. Although some of this may have been alleviated by virtue of the vast
numbers of youth participating in similar experiences of acculturation, there remains a
need to express some of that anxiety as part of the process of identity construction.
In some areas of research, the work of Fanon (1968, 1991) infused the social and
political theory with a sense of the ravages of the legacy of colonialism. Those questions
 76

of damage and the psychological piece needed to be posed in the diaspora but as Avtar
Brah (1992) notes:
Fanon notwithstanding, much work is yet to be undertaken on the subject
of how the racialized 'other' is constituted in the psychic domain. How is
post-colonial gendered and racialized subjectivity to be analyzed? Does
the privileging of 'sexual difference' and early childhood in
psychoanalysis limit its explanatory value in helping us to understand the
psychic dimensions of social phenomena such as racism? How do the
'symbolic order' and the social order articulate in the formation of the
subject? In other words, how is the link between social and psychic reality
to be theorized? (p. 142)

Since the time of Brah's questions with respect to the psychic domain of the
experience of difference, there has been increased appreciation that children go through
stress associated with their racial positioning. The experience of difference raises anxiety
which can be alleviated when those who have been generally excluded or ignored,
especially in school settings, gain voice to express that which confounds them in their
processual journey of identity construction. In their lived experiences, different stories
are taken up and heard. This happens while "constructing new pedagogical borders
where difference becomes the intersection of new forms of culture and identity" (Giroux,
1992, p. 174). These borderland sites promote creativity as a means of gaining agency
and as a means of securing self-awareness while articulating the lifeworld experiences.

Aesthetic Analysis of the Cultural Significance: On the Art of It All

What is quite astonishing to me in terms of the young people whose vivid artistic
work as well as their lives drew my interest is their attuned sense of the complex world
around them and their changing identities in that world. In terms of the artistic and
cultural expression of the young adults whose work and lives constitute my study, a
consideration of the aesthetics become part of the interpretation, though aesthetics is not
my primary interest within the study. At times, there may be interpretation that may well
be subjective as engagement with any work of art.
With a liberated sense of interpretory parameters, I enter this world of
interpretation as a creative person who sees meanings through multiple lenses. In this
way, there are times when the voices are 're-translated' in the sense of taken somewhere
 77

else as described by Ernesto Laclau. To tease out the meaning of a work of art is more
than artful inquiry.
Meaning-making and interpretation of art increasingly challenges with the
postmodern aesthetic of pastiche.
Performance of the postmodern... the omnipresence of pastiche in which
the past becomes a vast collection of images open to the play of random
allusion; the transgression of boundaries between what is inside and what
is outside of a cultural 'text', between high culture and popular culture,
between reality and representation; the denial of the possibility of master
narratives; the presence of hyper-reflexivity and artifice; the production of
irony and skepticism are all present. (Kearney, 1994, p. 37)

This complication of conflation has accelerated with the increased technological

communications of the young through Facebook or in communities of Video Games
which draw on a mix of mythological archetypes and S IMS-type cyber-reality. The
world of the postmodern aesthetic, of anonymous consumerist technology, may well
exacerbate and accelerate the sense of fragmentation in youth.
Kearney, in his discussion of the characteristics of the postmodern, citing Fredric
Jameson, describes the four losses: "the suspension of subjective inwardness, referential
depth, historical time and coherent human expression." (ibid., p.5) The creative figure
emerging out of this condition is the bricoleur, the inventor who plays around with
fragments of meaning which he himself has not created, the artist who is a 'player' in a
game of signs, (ibid., p. 13) As the young within this study emerge in a postmodern
landscape, the bricoleur emerges to relate the confounded experience, one of negotiation.
Even more influential in the postmodern aesthetic debates, Homi Bhabha (1989)
understands that through the erosion of the dominance of the grand narratives, there is a
space that opens up for 'other voices', voices such as the ones in this thesis:
If the interest in postmodernism is limited to a celebration of the
fragmentation of the 'grand narratives' of post-Enlightenment rationalism,
then, for all its intellectual excitement, it remains a profoundly parochial
enterprise. The wider significance of postmodern condition lies in the
awareness that the epistemological "limits" of those ethnocentric ideas are
also the enunciative boundaries of a range of other dissonant, even
dissident histories and voices (Bhabha, p. 66)

The arrival of the dissonant and the dissident, taken up here, presents fully in the
creative expression of second generation immigrant youth.
 78

The researcher role, when liberated by the cultural studies mandate, operates
outside the constraints of disciplinarity ordinarily in operation. Stuart Hall (1992)
describes the 'privileged capacity' of cultural studies and the social responsibility of the
researcher. Of cultural studies:
It has to analyze certain things about the constitutive and political nature
of representation itself, about its complexities, about the effects of
languages, about textuality as a site of life and death. Those are things
that cultural studies can address, (p. 285)

The aesthetic analysis undertaken in the following chapters interests itself in

issues of representation surrounding race and gender and matters of cultural identity. As
such, within the 'reading possibilities' afforded by the text, there is the active
participation of a reader/researcher with an acknowledgement of "privileging certain
features and meanings in the text" (Easthope, 1991, p. 33). My interests seek to
"interpret the signified and so ask 'what can it mean?'(ibid., p. 36) through a literary
hermeneutic reading of the text.
Discourses come into play as concepts of intertextuality offer powerful models for
reading texts. "In its most basic sense, intertextuality describes, not just the direct textual
sources exercising an influence upon a subsequent text, but the transposition of sign
systems." (Brodkey, 1996, p. 22) Here, the texts generated by the participant/informants
(with the exception of Chapter 4 where the text is written by a professional Canadian
playwright) are read alongside the texts of the diasporic and postcolonial intellectuals.
Several approaches/readings are adopted within the case studies taking as a guide
those described in the introduction to At Home in Diaspora:
These approaches can be subsumed under three rubrics: those mostly
interested in the issue of 'representation', images and cross-gazes that
various cultures manufacture of one another across space and time,
whether synchronically or diachronically; those that deal with 'contact',
the twilight zone where dialogues and exchanges take place, and the
ensuing multiple ways of accepting, misunderstanding and rejecting the
Other. Lastly, those that address the issue of colonization of imagination,
body and mind, as well as of colonial cultures - material and non-material
- in relation to the social fabric. (Assayag & Binio, 2003, p. 3)

Issues of representation inform the analysis of the creative works with the twilight
zone of the 'in-between' occupying the content of certain works (Chapter 3 in particular)
 79

and issues of colonization inevitably informing the understanding of cross-gazes (Chapter

5). In each case study, the focus shifts as the positioning of the subject/artist and the
creative work itself dictate. A further level of interpretation involves some explication of
the "local discourses and institutions in the present within which the text is constructed in
a present reading." (Easthope, 1991, p. 44) That is, locating the works within the cultural
forces and discourses at play allows for a meaning-making on another level; this
approach to interpretation may be traced to Althusser who wrote that, as with philosophy
and scientific formations, "aesthetic productions have their own time and history".
The peculiar time and history within the production of the cultural piece speaks to
the status of the community at the same time as it is itself a product of a particular
community in a peculiar time and history. What now might be termed contextualized
framings, were described by Derrida as the "histories different in their type, rhythm,
mode of inscription - intervallic, differentiated histories" (cited in Easthope, p. 118).
On the grounds that this study intends to be of value to practicing educators, this
inclusion of the anthropological positioning of the particular community to which the
participant/informant belongs should serve to complement the analysis of the particulars
of the case study and expand the spectrum of meaning as the study gestures toward social
forces and the changing location factors. These portraits of diasporic communities and
their movement to 'belong' within mainstream discourses have gained increased media
attention with evidence in institutions and newspapers. This is undertaken in most, not
all, of the case studies as elaboration in every case was not possible within the constraints
of this study.
The research methods unpack cultural meaning and complicate the narratives at
one and the same time. Similar to other cultural studies investigations, then, the analysis
welcomes the "lovely, smelly mess of life, its actuality and factuality, together with an
encompassing form and an explanatory narrative" (Inglis, 1993). Through engagement
with both the persons and the work in the narratives and the interwoven textures of
talented young people, the thesis begins to answer the famous question of "how newness
enters the world."
Within these voices that negotiate the in-between world, there are revelations of
the cognitive dissonances produced by diasporic experiences with a particular focus on
 80

the second generation, revealing the emotional world of those living the global flux-ation
at the very time of adolescence when stability would be desired. The thrill of finding
creative expression intrigues as meaning is teased out of the art as traces and signifiers
expose themselves in the pursuit of exploring the 'newness' of the lifeworlds of the
young.
The Cultural Studies framework charts the "intersection of a great many
competing discourses and political interests" (Nelson and Gaonkar, 1996, p. 7).
Inevitably, this methodology expands out into the contested world of the 'contact zones'
and, though speculative, seeks meaning in the creative expression of the young who
gesture in their work to new knowledges. Of such encounters, Homi Bhabha (1994)
writes:
The borderline work of culture demands an encounter with 'newness' that
is not part of the continuum of past and present. It creates a sense of the
new as an insurgent act of cultural translation. Such art.. .renews the past,
refiguring it as a contingent 'in-between' space, that innovates and
interrupts the performance of the present. The 'past-present' becomes part
of the necessity, not the nostalgia, of living, (p. 7)

The complicated discourse of the in-between suggests the re-conceptualized

spaces within which our young people, in and through a state of consciousness, gain
agency.
Among the objectives of the thesis would be to explore the possibilities for, and
the moments of, 'suture', those moments when the subject makes, or rather is joined to,
meanings of experience. In his essay on 'sutures', Stephen Heath (1981) elaborates on
the idea of 'chaining' of the subject into the flow of the discourse. "A theory of ideology
must begin not from the subject but as an account of suturing effects, the effecting of the
join of the subject in structures of meaning" (cited in Du Gay and Hall, 1996, p. 6). That
the term sutures also conjures up the image of skin tears and scarring itself becomes a
graphic representation of the struggles of identity and the harm done.
The supposition that within and through artistic practices, young people
experience the possibility to voice their ruptures informs the methodology as it takes up
the exploration of the Bakhtinian hybrid:
 81

The hybrid is not only double-voiced and double-accented....but is also

double-languaged; for in it there are not only (and not even so much) two
individual consciousnesses, two voices, two accents, as there are
[doublings of] socio-linguistic, consciousnesses, two epochs...that come
together and consciously fight it out on the territory of the utterance.... It is
the collision between differing points of view on the world that are
embedded in these forms.. .such unconscious hybrids have been at the
same time profoundly productive historically: they are pregnant with
potential for new world views with new internal forms for perceiving the
world in words. (Bakhtin, 1981, p. 360)

These young artists and their vision of the world realize the potential suggested
some time ago by Bakhtin insofar as they, indeed, are "pregnant with potential for new
world views with new internal forms for perceiving the world in words." The thesis
begins to suggest how students work through the complex challenges of cultural identity.
Perhaps, there are glimmers of the pathways wherein teachers may create pedagogical
possibilities in the form of cultural practices that offer students a sense of identity and
hope. The anxieties may be sutured; the agency secured
The particular creative expressions have as their interest and signification an
attempt to produce, or at the very least work through, knowledge about the social and
political reality of their worlds. That is, what is attempted by the young creators involves
locating themselves within family and community to comment on the order of the world
including the injustices, the inconsistencies, and the contesting value systems. This
generates lively discussion within the chapters as my analysis seeks a level of
understanding through the lens of some, at times, rather highly sophisticated thinkers.
As acknowledged earlier, the thesis embraces a cultural studies interdisciplinarity
both with respect to the lens and the methodology. There is a distinctly postcolonial
sensibility to some of the artistic work which lends itself to a somewhat postmodern
analysis, engaged in the hermeneutic process of Shleiermacher's Hermeneutic Circle24.

24
This reference recovers somewhat playfully, my past fascination with Schleiermacher's circle. In this
hermeneutic process, there are two types of interaction or distinct interpretive processes: one is of a
more objective nature, the other becomes more subjective. They are named by Schleiermacher,
"grammatical" interpretation and "technical" (or "psychological") interpretation. From this emerged
the notion of Bakhtin's dialogic process.
 82

With both the artist and the researcher cast as bricoleur, let the game of signs begin with a
nod and a wink to Kearney's Wake of Imagination et al...
 CHAPTER FOUR
Staging Family and the Cultural:
Young People Investigate Worlds with Marty Chan

"Theatre is like golf.. .it's the realm of stuffy old white people.. .and I have
yet.. .to see a Tiger Woods." ~ Kevin, director

This chapter focuses on a performance project of enormous scope that was unique
to the programming of not only the particular school but most Ontario schools insofar as
the content of the project surrounded the lives and culture clash 'within' a Chinese
immigrant family and 'without' toward the world of white culture. In this chapter, the
stories of three students, for whom this project was transformative, emerge through their
reflections in the years following as the teacher-researcher reconvenes with the key
group members of the theatrical project. The Canadian play, entitled Mom, Dad, Vm
Living with a White Girl, was written by Marty Chan, a professional playwright who
grew up near Calgary.
Staged in a particular educational context, the project demonstrates the power of
gaining voice and exploring issues of concern - in this case the struggle of Asian-
Canadian youth around home and school identities and intergenerational conflict
resulting from acculturation. Aspects of cultural identity acquisition are considered by
the young people and the literature, in particular that of recent cultural anthropology
and sociology surrounding Chinese families. Some tentative considerations are offered
at the end of the chapter from a transnational perspective.

The Context for Voice-ing

The particular project was launched within an arts-specialty secondary School

where the researcher was a member of the teaching staff of the theatre subject area. The
curriculum of this traditional theatre program held to a canonical orientation with
Shakespeare and modern classics such as Ibsen, Tennessee Williams, and Arthur Miller

83
 84

Ginsberg poem, Howl, and then were asked to write a poem inspired by Ginsberg, in their
own voice. Thus, the text of Indo-Canadian Reality may be read as a sustained howl, not
that of a white middle-aged radical Beat poet, but rather that of a young woman who
must reconcile identity narratives and cultural values, which contradict at every turn.
The entire poem describes and, in its intensity of dense imagery, becomes a
dervish-like expression of a 'mediation of cultural conflicts'. The enunciation of the
multiple worlds, the surfaces of signification that whirl through the poem, build to an
articulation of what it is to be Indo-Canadian for the poet right at the moment.

Indo-Canadian Reality

I grew up with, played with, studied with, partied with, rebelled with,
snuck out with, lied with, sympathized with, adolescented with,
will go to university with, gain my reputation with, acquire professional power
with, get married with, have children with, gossip with, then as now, with,
the confused minds of my Indo-Canadian generation,
who, dressed in bright orange, pink, yellow, green, full length Indian suits,
played cabbage patch doll at family parties, in front of uncles and aunties, serving
spicy tea and playing coy during the day,
who, dressed in the latest backless, braless, bright, Parasuco tops and curvy
leather mini skirts, unleashed their wild inner Barbie girls at night, swaying,
displaying,
who, at 18, has known since days spent playing with little pink dolls, that she
must be at once an intelligent, ambitious engineering student at MIT and a head
bowing, tea serving, dinner making, husband pleasing, child rearing, incarnation
of Aishwariya Rai herself, that goddess of Bollywood movies and fantasies of
sexually charged adolescent males and their lost-in-the-clouds mothers,
who spend countless hours raging, pleading, fighting, and engaging in futile
efforts to convince parents, descendents of an ancient civilization which bore
dance masters, painting gurus, philosophic geniuses, famous poets, which
invented the arts, to let them pursue dreams to paint, to act, to write
who must resign themselves to ties, stethoscopes, briefcases, careers, doctors,
lawyers, engineers, which strangle, choke, suffocate them,
who are told to be MEN, not to cry, but never to argue, never to stand up to their
fathers, never to disobey their mothers,
who go to McDonald's with friends, but can eat nothing, no meat, no hamburgers,
no fries fried in the oil which fries the meat,
who leave the house to party with friends at 8 p.m. but must be home for curfew
at 9:30 p.m.,
who, shopping at Square One with their mothers, forbidden from tight fitting
clothes, doomed to outfits two sizes too big, smuggle in tank tops low waist jeans
 85

strapless bras stuffed inside textbooks hidden at the bottom of bags disguised as
gifts for friends
who live out their romances at Central, Streetsville, Meadowvale libraries, cell
phones in hand, meeting the boys in BMWs, decked out in Ecko, Phatfarm, Nike,
making excuses to their scolding mothers, sighing at the relief when the phone
finally clicks, another two hours before the next phone call, the next lie,
who, Khandas hanging from their necks, claiming Sikh pride, their bulging
mothers dragging them to the temple by the ear, whip out their cell phones in the
lobby, smoke their cigarettes in the back, holler at the good Sikh girls they'll be
meeting later at 108, or Calypso or Berlin in Brampton,
who sit at family parties bearing the scrutiny of potential mothers in law who
pinch arms to check for fat while shoving snack after snack, meal after meal in
their faces, mistaking girls with short haircuts for boys,
who chase after Indian girls, looking up skirts, slapping tight asses, pimping,
smacking, harassing, but refusing to respect, refusing to take home, refusing to
marry,

who, brimming with anger beat the white kids, the white cops, the way
their drunken fathers beat them,
who are given scotch on their fifth birthdays, pass out drunkenly on the porch at
family gatherings, crash brand new Mercedes Benz' every three months,
who, after countless stabbings backups shootings run ins with cracked beer
bottles take pride in the scars running down their backs along their arms across
their cheeks, continuing the violence, the same scars stripped across their fathers'
bodies as if they were born branded, Sikh, Punjabi, fists for life this life that life
the one before it the one after it,
who are ill fated to marry only Indians, only Punjabis, only Sikhs,
who must give up their Chinese girlfriends Black boyfriends for husbands
scanned versions of their fathers for wives printed versions of their mothers after
one date one meeting one engagement ceremony,
who are linked, fianceed, married off, by caveparents who sit night after night at
the computer, on the web, searching through arranged marriage personals
advertising daughters as slim almond eyed quiet obedient excellent cooks,
who hate on each other, he said she said they did oh my god did you see that
gossip insecurity oho aha Monika Deol Much VJ slut drag her down back down
all the way down,
who, turbaned marked with Sikh pride know nothing of gurus eternal truths
religious principles misunderstand cut their hair throw away turbans pick up
diamond studded playboy bunnies,
who live Bollywooded lives only two characters: Singhs, translation: lions,
constantly growling fighting proving staking out territory Brampton crew Malton
boys Rexdale thugs ignored by rejected by eventually married off to Kaurs
meaning: princess,
who don't do much on the picture perspective look at the Muslims with their
welfare fraud stealing and terrorism or Italians and the mafias with their illegal
racing and gambling or Russians too or rising Tamils or fucken the all mighty the
Nigger,
 86

who wish all people Blacks Whites Chinese were Indians just like them Arabs
Persians Pakistanis all the same as us all Brown
who, singin bling blingin drive Lexuses, BMWs, Mercedes Benzs, operate out of
100 000 square foot homes, life is money money is life spirituality what deeper
meanings what callings what love what cash yes checks yes diamonds YES!
who, failures the legacy of the American dream parents who slaved day and
night, counted every penny sacrificed fun life spending for children a better life
better education high class jobs, 21 years old still in high school no pencils no
books no grades failures
who never reach adulthood in their parents' eyes, remain children incapable of
picking their own clothes, their own husbands, their own homes, even at 37 years
of age incapable of making their own decisions,

who, I'm sorry to say I'll grow old with, have children with, continue the
cycle with, sorry for you, sorry for me, sorry for them, confusion, confusion,
confusion.
Sikh Punjabi

(Prithi, 3/2003)

Inspired Pedagogy and Inspiring Personal Narratives

The road to producing the poem, a remarkable tour de force of voice, has
everything to do with a teacher opening up space for such expression. Marmorek's
exercise tapped into the liberation in style Ginsberg's poem Howl offered. This derives
from its long lines, inspired by Walt Whitman's poem "Song of Myself, and its
enormous descriptive energy. The stream of consciousness flow and rawness of the
language of Howl opens up a sense of possibility for young writers. Add to this the rage
component which has enormous appeal in a contemporary era of rants and rap.
Ginsberg's poem, as it offers a cataloguing of experiences, provided a model for students
as they were asked to write about what they know within such a structure.
Just as Ginsberg created a critique of his society, Prithi would use a similar
technique - actually a structure more or less identical to Ginsberg's - to create a critique
of her society, her Indo-Canadian reality. Constructed as a litany of "who" clauses, each
of which gets a long Whitmanian-Ginsbergian line to itself, the poem builds like an
incantation so that, in the sweep of the enormous sentences, the reader is not encouraged
to stop and savour details but rather surrender to the insistent rhythm. Breath-taking in its
 87

scope, the visionary poetic mantle of Ginsberg clearly passed onto her some late night as
Prithi poured forth about her reality, her community with its cultural codings and
customs.
It may be possible to read this cascade of observation as an auto-ethnography of
sorts insofar as Prithi names the contradictions that she faces at that time of her youth.
Indeed, the raw energy of the poem suggests heightened awareness to the point of
abandon of unified expression in favour of the pastiche. Vivian Gornick (2001) speaks of
the effort of the writer in the throes of experience constituting truth rather than any
simple rendering of experience: "What happened to the writer is not what matters; what
matters is the large sense that the writer is able to make of what happened" (p. 91). Prithi
took her lived experiences and her observations and connected those to propositions of
life, a life of paradox, the contradictory nature of the in-between.
Within the poem, the very first burst prepares the reader to understand that this
poem speaks of the 'confused minds of [the] Indo-Canadian generation' with whom the
writer, the T of the piece, grew up. Establishing the rhythmic language play of the
poem off the top, each phrase places the poet inside the community - whether that be
growing up or rebelling, or gaining a reputation or marrying and having children - as
each phrase ends with the inclusive preposition 'with'. This T which is firmly
ensconced in the community proceeds to write a diatribe of sorts about that very
community, exposing the flaws, the secrets, the hypocrisies. To this extent, the poem
was made possible by the transgressive poem of the beat generation's infamous Alan
Ginsberg.
Lived Experiences

There are many realities contesting for words in the voice of this young woman
and, when we converse about her poem, Prithi absolutely embraces this idea of the
multiple realities. In our first interview, about two years after she had written the poem,
she speaks of how she responded to the simple-but-complex task - to write her reality.
Write about your reality.. .Okay, what's my reality? One reality is that I'm
Canadian, one reality is that I'm 18years old, one reality's this and
that.. .I'm Indian.. .Indo-Canadian. (Prithi Interview, July 2004)
 88

Here, Prithi speaks about the multitude of disparate personas which lead to a
schism in the way she self-identifies. This schism underlies her interaction with the
dominant culture, and, during her interview, she frequently fleshes out the complexities
of belonging. Returning to the poem, the reader confronts the maelstrom of possibilities,
this collision of codifiers, codifiers unravelled with the entire fabric made threadbare and
visible. Connections and causalities are pressed up against one another in a dizzying and
powerful incantation about life in the first, second and third generation of Indo-Canadian
life.
At this point, it is fascinating to consider the life of the poet. Her parents' home in
Mississauga where I interviewed her in the summer of 2004, was a middle-class enclave
in the suburbs. Prithi's parents arrived in Canada from India, speak Punjabi and English
as well as Hindi, and apparently do not construct their world as insular or see the
retention of culture as foremost in their approach to parenting. Both parents have
continued with further post-secondary education while here, including graduate degrees
for her father, and definitely pass along a great regard for education.
In making an educational choice for their daughter, they chose to send her to a
French immersion program. Indeed, this decision was a clear indicator of her parents'
overwhelming desire for her career success and was made with the belief that
bilingualism in the two official Canadian languages would ensure every opportunity for
their daughter in the future. This somewhat unusual choice would result in Prithi
attending classes where she would be the only brown-skinned25 child. This is not typical
of Indo-Canadian communities nor was her family's decision not to associate with the
Indian community via their choice of neighborhood and social activities. First in Calgary
and then in Mississauga, Prithi's father was clear about his decision to separate the family
from the neighborhoods where Indo-Canadians are the dominant group, and constitute a
majority. "My parents insulated me from the brown community. In Calgary we were
away from it. Then when we came here, we didn't live in Brampton where all the brown
people were. We lived in Mississauga in a white neighborhood." (Prithi Interview, July
2004)

The term brown-skinned or brown is increasingly used by many as a reclaiming similar to the way 'black' was
mobilized as a positive reclamation during the black power movement.
 89

Prithi indicated during the interviews that she is fully aware of her unusual
circumstances of schooling and community. The actions of her parents conform with
those of white middle-class Canadians in many obvious ways with respect to their values
and the movement of their children. They travelled to Europe instead of India on family
trips so "Dad could expose us to the world.. .aligns with the notion of education, not
creating an insular experience for us" (Prithi comment, August 2008). Furthermore, since
French immersion programs had "few indians at that time", she was "raised with non-
Indians" (Prithi interview, July 2004). Thus, she was obliged to find and create her own
peer group in the demographically mixed environment of Mississauga with the result that
her "friends are Persian and Somali's etc." This outsider's perspective to the Indo-
Canadian community is, in all likelihood, what allows her to make the comments she
does in the poem, comments which at times are highly critical of the value systems
playing out in her community. Clearly, as evidenced by such choices, she comes from an
advantaged background with parents whose notions of success would indicate that they
want their two daughters to fully embrace much of the Canadian experience or what it
takes to succeed in Canadian culture.
Her parents' strongly influenced her sense of values as well as encouraged her to
realize herself through education. As a result, there was a deep sense of acculturation in
her earliest childhood experiences in the elementary school. Her earliest friendships were
remembered as those with a white girl named Elaine and "my very first best friendship
with a white boy named Tyler - we were 5 years old, very close, and I have strong
memories of our friendship." (Prithi comment, August, 2008)

Cultural Transmission

The sense of cultural transmission through language in Prithi's experience, was

perhaps complicated by the favouring of Canadian bilingualism. However, as Prithi
herself notes, the matter of language acquisition is in itself complicated:

Here's the thing though: A close friend of mine who was also in french
immersion does not believe that this education interrupts her knowing
Punjabi. She speaks all three languages fluently and taught herself at a
later age to read the Guru Granth Sahib. On the other hand, my cousin was
pressured by teachers to drop out of French immersion because they felt
that his English was not strong enough for him to learn French. This is an
 90

old and common (as I hear it over and over) story : How much is racism
and how much is truth? Now I'm hearing from the education system that
knowing more than one language makes learning French easier, and that
this is ultimately an advantage. Before they used to say that you have to
switch off your inherited language to learn. So there was this idea of a
necessary trade-off which they are re-thinking now. Of course, I was
privileged in that my parents, my mother especially, insisted on spending
hours reading English books to us as babies and then children. We had
tons of books before we could read. Saturdays we used to go to the Coles
bookstore as family outings. Reading English books was one of the cruxes
of my growing up, something not true for my cousin. (Prithi comment,
August, 2008)

Prithi continues to process the implications of the schooling choices which set her
apart from most children of South Asian immigrant parents. As she noted in our first
conversation:
They wanted us to learn French and English so they spoke English at
home so we would know it and French at school. So my parents didn't
speak Punjabi at home.... I think I'm in tune with racial issues yet I've
been insulated.... I'm not a typical Indian girl.... I'm in this weird place.

She speaks little Punjabi and is not really comfortable doing so. If language
defines self-determination and interaction with the world, then it is significant that she is
uncomfortable speaking the language that might define her, or align her more closely
with being "Indian". Indeed, many anthropologists, sociologists, and linguists state that
language is a key indicator of ethnic identity. This language 'loss', not uncommon among
second and third generation immigrants, becomes a part of the process of acculturation.
Within our Toronto schools, there has been a long tradition of heritage language
programs although funding and subsequent amalgamation has threatened them. Yet,
these programs are extracurricular and, in themselves, do not ensure language
competence. As a result, many young people find themselves distanced from their
cultural community due to language loss.
In terms of language, Prithi has long understood that her lack of fluency in her
first language sets her up to be deemed less Punjabi26 in the eyes of some. However, her
initial encounter with this view was harsh, and occured in her early days at high school.

Another anecdotal version of the impact of language loss appears in Elaine Chan's (2004) dissertation as she
describes her pain in being dubbed less than 100% Chinese.
 91

Ironically, this event would mark the first time that she attended a school where she was
no longer one of two brown-skinned children as she had been in elementary school. At
the very moment where she could conceivably have gained a sense of belonging, she
instead found herself challenged by those from the in-group of her 'ethnic location'.
Prithi remembered the scenario vividly. It's instructive in terms of how students,
when threatened by difference in behaviours among their own, will construct this
difference as a rejection of community identity. Her recollection highlights certain
phrases hurled as insults:
Then I went to Grade 9. There's a Sikh guy in a turban. There's brown
guys in Grade 11 at one table. And brown girls at another. I was
surrounded by a multicultural group for the first time.... Vishal and Ravi
said, "Oh great. Punjabi Girl." But then Ravi said, "You're a British girl.
You play tennis on the weekends." I was mad. Just cause I played tennis
and I could swim and do extracurriculars....Does this make me British? So
Ravi started speaking Punjabi. I could understand some of it but I
couldn't speak it. They said, "What kind of Punjabi girl are you?"
(Prithi interview, July, 2004)

This taunt would haunt Prithi. Clearly, there are class and gender issues seething
under the surface of this exchange as the adolescent males tried to figure out what to
make of a rather unusual girl whom they knew to be Sikh but whose experiences of
schooling and friendships had molded her into a type they could not easily recognize.
Did they feel threatened?
The accusation of being British seems to invoke the master narrative of the legacy
of colonialism from back home. The British colonizers played tennis and swam. Here, it
seems that the gender aspect to this has provoked the 'colonial barb' for many South
Asian men took up the sports of the British. What is different here is that a girl has taken
up the sport. Thus, a feminine transgression in the eyes of the males is associated with
the behaviour of British females who engage in masculine practices/sports and do not
know their place. This complication of gender within the experiences of Prithi arises out
of both personal circumstances and the community attitudes surrounding females,
attitudes that seem to result in over-protective behaviours on the part of males in the lives
of girls.
 92

Gendered Experiences

Within the community, it is not only parents who monitor and protect the females;
this may also include brothers, cousins or even male friends in a group. Although this
control issue dominates the lives of girls from many communities, within the South Asian
community due to very close affiliations of extended family and gender role expectations,
this control has become part of cultural practice. In her study of second generation South
Asian Americans, Bandana Purkayastha (2005) offered evidence of the pervasiveness of
these behaviours throughout the South Asian community. One subject, Meena, describes
how, 'The guys are more protective... .The guys want to show it. They want everyone to
know they are taking care of the girls."
The focus on maintaining and regulating females in the household places the
emphasis on keeping the girl pure for marriage. However, there may be, among well-
educated families especially, encouragement for the females to become well-educated as
an enhanced feature of their desirability in terms of marriage. These females may feel
pressure to achieve in school but this may be accompanied by strict monitoring of their
behaviours, especially surrounding dating. Therefore, their entire upbringing enforces a
value-system that emphasizes that they become "high-achieving but chaste"
(Purkayastha, 2005, p. 107). This gendered experience of South Asian young females was
described over and over as problematic in several major studies (Gibson, 1988; Dasgupta
& Das Dasgupta 1997; Maira, 1999; Handa, 2003).
One of the beautiful qualities of poetry involves how the poet captures so much in
an image and the genius of this poem is demonstrated in Prithi's section on the
compulsory expectations of females. She has succinctly conjured the professional (MIT
engineer no less), obedient wife (serving tea, pleasing her husband and raising children)
and added on the Bollywood piece of the fantasy female of popular culture which is
mass-consumed:
who, at 18, has known since days spent playing with little pink dolls, that
she must be at once an intelligent, ambitious engineering student at MIT
and a head bowing, tea serving, dinner making, husband pleasing, child
rearing, incarnation of Aishwariya Rai herself, that goddess of Bollywood
movies and fantasies of sexually charged adolescent males and their lost-
in-the-clouds mothers,
 93

As with much of the poem, the passage contains the multi-faceted sociological
complexity of life as a South Asian Canadian female. At once expected to excel
academically, she is also expected to be the ideal wife. There is enormous pressure on the
girls and women to live up to these ideals and to conform to gender expectations as part
of preserving the community. In their exploration of gender relations in the Asian Indian
community in the United States, S. Dasgupta and S. Das Dasgupta (1997) found that
"The proper behaviour of both first- and second-generation Indian women in America has
become a litmus test of community solidarity. In turn, women deviating from this idea of
traditional Indian womanhood are considered traitors to the community." (p. 384). In
that sense, any young woman who asserts her independence or asserts her sexuality may
be seen as being disloyal to family. In this context, that would be condemned as the girl
being contaminated by Western values. Compared to males, the females are held to a
double standard (see Maira, 1999, pp. 46-49 and Nayar pp. 100-103)).
What is clever in the poem is that it is the Bollywood movie that is seen as stirring
the young men and even setting abuzz the mother. The sexualized females emerge from
Indian popular culture; the West is not the source of sexualization. The pressure to live
up to this unrealistic ideal of woman as academic, yet obedient, and still scopicly read
as the Bollywood goddess delights in the poem.
The next stanzas rail against the resistance of parents to allow children to pursue
the arts as the pleading young try to convince them to allow painting or writing with the
knowledge that their culture actually bore great artists. Instead, the poem conjures the
image of young people choking on stethoscopes and other instruments of the proper
professions. This pressure on the young to enter professions is, of course, not exclusive
to the Indo-Canadian community. Familial pressures are very strong in other high-
achieving communities of immigrants, notably the 'model minority' Asian communities
discussed in Chapter 4. In earlier generations, Jewish parents were stereotyped as
insistent on their sons being professionals. New immigrant groupings in certain
communities have identified education as key to upward mobility. Again, the poet has

This alludes to the work of Laura Mulvey whose theory of scopophilia, the camera gaze directed onto women,
informs cinema studies.
 94

conjured up the emotive baggage, the suffocating pressure through the vivid image of the
choking stethoscope.

Racism within the Community

Prithi criticizes her community members for their overt racism:

who don't do much on the picture perspective look at the Muslims with
their welfare fraud stealing and terrorism or Italians and the mafias with
their illegal racing and gambling or Russians too or rising Tamils or
fucken the all mighty the Nigger, who wish all people Blacks Whites
Chinese were Indians just like them Arabs Persians Pakistanis all the same
as us all Brown (poem excerpt)

Indeed, she went as far as including the "n-word" in her poem submitted to the
Toronto Star competition and, notably, when the poem was published the two most
potentially offensive lines which contained the 'n-word' were cut. A lesson in the
portrayal of racism, this minor censorship was done in the name of not causing offense to
those who would read it in the newspaper with the largest circulation in Canada.
Both in conversation and in her art, Prithi echoes the attitudes of many of her
generation who find the racism repugnant. In Negotiating Ethnicity: Second-generation
South Asian Americans Traverse a Transnational World, one of the second generation
females in the study said: "What I hate most about Indian people is they call blacks by
this name and Chinese people by this name and they talk down. I hate it. I don't care if
people call me Indian. But the racial undertones [of the first generation] I hate that"
(Purkayastha, 2005). The rejection of the racist attitudes within the group often is
consistent with the person's own broader and more liberal view of the world.
Young people in transition in the mainstream of educational settings, whether in
secondary school or university, are exposed to a diversity and, hopefully, are encouraged
to adopt less racist views in and, perhaps, build a more diverse networks of friends.
These individuals would tend to be not as constrained by the norms of the family.
Arguing for equality, the females may reject notions of subordination and traditional
roles as well.
Prithi, within her immediate family of her parents and sister, has had few clashes
around racism. However, she noted that among her relatives these types of overtly racist
 95

attitudes abound particularly among her male relatives. Their narrow-minded

xenophobic views infused with stereotypical notions, were among the catalytic dialogues
preceding her writing of the poem. To be precise, there was an exchange about 'others'
replete with foul epithets which fuelled her writing. For her, too, the fact that the
perpetrator, or racist, was another second generation Punjabi person made it all the more
infuriating and she wanted to distance herself from and indict him/her within the poem.

The Creation of the Poem

After the initial jab to her self-esteem and identity in the 'What kind of Punjabi
girl are you?' incident, Prithi would go on to excel at high school and remain secure in
her path while she observed the various moves, misplays and experiments of the
adolescents from her community. To this extent, Prithi perhaps was not unlike many, but
she has become known internationally because she managed to find a way, an artistic
way, to allow these experiences to explode onto the page.
One afternoon, after reading a section of this chapter, Prithi recalled one of the
encounters with a particular character that had contributed to the context for the burst of
creativity which produced the poem. Returning to the memory of one of the males at her
school, she spoke of his 'switching' from traditional to edgy modern:
In Grade 9 he had a turban, he was my first Sikh friend this guy. . Then
one day he came with a shaved head and a Playboy bunny - that's in the
poem. Then I saw him with a brown girl in leathers. He asked me for a
blow job on MSN!! He went to the other extreme. All this was happening
... .Now, I didn't know who I am.

Then, Mr. Marmorek says, "Write a Howl poem. Write about what you
know."

I'm on MSN with Punjabi friends.... Anyways, this girl's saying that
brown girls are mean. That they're the ones who are mean to her. So all
this was going on. Ravi's conflicting message. All this was going on. So
I just started writing these contradictions (my italics) . (Prithi Interview,
July 2004)

I have opted to use "n-word" due to the etymology and its historical usage as a racist insult.
29
Prithi notes in a comment on this section that "he is the same guy that asked me what kind of punjabi girl I am
though, which is why I was confused later when he cut his hair". (Prithi comment, August 2008)
 96

Prithi comments about the creation of her poem, about how she echoed her own
experience in Ginsberg's structure. They are very inter-related as form met content or as
she said, "I took his poem and put my own story in there." Indeed, the poem matches the
punchy delivery of Ginsberg.. .just without the raunch and depravity.
For teenagers of all cultures, adolescence is a time to try on identities whether it
be through hairstyles or music or smoke billowing around one's head in the parking lot.
In the poem, her record at times reads as an indictment of the hypocrisy she reads in the
behaviours of her peers and her community. There are several aspects of youth culture
within the South Asian community that are critiqued in the poem including boys, cars and
gangs. In fact, the poem contains many derisive references to youth gone amuck, gone
too far in their rebellion from the values of their parents. In conversation, Prithi
acknowledges this: "This poem is about kids who've gone too far in rebelling.. .too far
away from the values...but it's also the parents." (Prithi Interview, July 2004)
The Poem as Sociological Text
In her book, Of Silk Saris and Mini-Skirts, Amita Handa (2005) explores second
generation South Asian females in the Greater Toronto Area. Central to her investigation
was the question: "What does it mean to constantly live in a generational space in which
there is constant switching, lying and hiding of truths, experience of shame, and the
weight of upholding the image of family and community in a hostile environment?"
Prithi takes up similar questions via her poem as she articulates the tension
between old-world values and the desire of the children to belong to a very different
culture. On the one hand, Prithi portrays the rigidity of the parents, and on the other, she
portrays the waywardness of the children. Of course, teaching specific values doesn't
mean they will be internalized and adhered to as the dominant culture may have a far
greater sway than one's peer group. Within the poem, these contesting influences from
parents, peers, and popular culture collide with the inclinations of the young to party, to
succeed, to obey and to rebel. Prithi dazzles as she piles on the contradictions within her
poem.
What constitutes the text for both Handa as an academic and Prithi as a poet
involves cultural values and identity and the predicament of life in the diaspora. There,
the struggle between following the values prescribed by the parents and the community
 97

as opposed to the values you want to follow creates unresolvable tensions. Returning to
the notion of contradiction as driving the creative outburst, coincides with the idea that
many second generation immigrant youth - South Asian or otherwise - are engaged in
working out how they are Indians, or Chinese, or Chilean, or Punjabi. This process
becomes a central dilemma for each individual, though many unconsciously experience
it. There may be a process of sifting through what is familiar to her/him through the
family and what aspects of their regional cultural repertoires are meaningful. Language
usually plays a key role as part of cultural transmission and as signifying cultural
identification. Without language, there are other possible experiences of heritage through
religious or cultural practices.
However, as Das Gupta (1997) concluded from her study of second generation
Indian Americans, constructing hyphenated identities involves a process far more
complex than simply balancing two parts - one "ethnic" and one "mainstream
American". South Asian Canadians, like their American counterparts, must juggle and
balance different sets of conflicts and complex layers of local, regional and national
cultures that may not fit easily in creating the ethnic part of their hyphenated identities.
For females, cultural practices around weddings and marriage may be the most
significant aspect of their sense of cultural identity and difference. If, as Prithi suggests,
the girls are living with the expectation of arranged marriages, she understands the
contradictions for South Asian females. Their choices in life and love play out all over
the poem. Similar topics arise in conversation with Prithi who continues to consider the
various possibilities ahead. Like many young women and men whom I interviewed both
during research on the Rainbow project and outside and inside my own classes, this
generation of South Asian offspring finds itself in transition with respect to its
perspectives. Many propose a meshing of 'love marriage' and 'arranged marriage' in that
they imagine themselves receptive to family suggestion while reserving the right to
choose. New terms emerge to describe this modified form of arranged marriage: "semi-
arranged marriage" (Nayar, p. 72) or 'cooperative marriage' may describe such
approaches.
In my initial interview with her, Prithi describes arranged marriage from a
romantic perspective (she calls it 'romantic"), but as she discusses it further, she reveals
 98

an awareness of the vulnerability of females. Prithi acknowledges that the negative

aspects of arranged marriages exist. She speaks of friends who have experienced verbal
or physical abuse in scenarios ranging from "put-downs.. .nearly raped.. .or, not allowed
to work." In those relationships, she says that these were men whom the parents liked.
Now, the new standard of idealized womanhood is the Indian version of the
trophy-wife. The idea of women as carriers of culture in maintaining traditional values
operates in combination with new pressures involving an expectation of higher education
in a professional field. In conversation, Prithi describes the "new twist on arranged
marriages" where the expectations for the girls have escalated:
it's like they want the girl to go to dental school, they want her to have
dreams, they want her to have ambitions, but at the same time they're
trying to force her into this thing, into the arranged marriage, well, either
you let her be independent, you let her get a job, you let her have her own
ambitions, and you let her choose her own guy and you let her do it at her
own pace or don't' send her to school, don't give her the illusion that she
can choose her own life.. .you can't have it both ways...(Prithi interview,
July 2004)

Prithi seems to have a startling ability to see the process of negotiation and
construction of ethno-cultural identity, when the exigencies and expectations of
hyphenated existences produce dissonances. For an acute observor like Prithi names the
hypocrisy.
In naming, there is release so that the poem ultimately constitutes a form of
liberation for the poet as it chronicles the many cultural practices and indicts a way of life
that contains contradictions, reaching a climax at the end of the extended materialistic
build-up of "Lexuses, BMWs and Mercedes Benzs". Purkayastha (2005) noted in her
study that some South Asian youth may express their "resistance to the pressures of
consumerism which drives so many American lives" (p. 68). Prithi critiques a social
world where she witnesses gross consumption, particularly on the part of the "Lexus
driving" Sikh males. She offers this as part of the contradictions of values within the
poem and within her community.
During our several conversations, Prithi has railed against the obsession with
luxury vehicles and bling bling. She bemoans the fact that not only does the push for
material wealth in the form of cars and homes seem to have dominated the lives of
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segments of her community but that this extends into her family as Prithi's father is
encouraged, almost admonished to buy a larger home or buy a luxury car. The particular
evolution of materialism seems to involve the convergence of traditions of economic
values within the Sikh community and Western materialism. "An aspect of Sikh cultural
tradition has formed strong notions of the importance of financial success as a measure of
the man (sic). Sikhism is also a medium through which communities like the jats
asserted their economic prosperity" (in DasGupta, p. 12). Community support for each
other in financial advancement was seen as part of Sikh pride or izzat (honour).
However, this has translated into something quite different in the gross consumption
patterns of the West and Prithi is intent on exposing the empty values of the consumption
of signs of wealth in her community. Nayar, in her study of the Sikh Diaspora in
Vancouver, states that material comforts are offered "children in order to preserve the
traditional values of izzat and family collectivity orientation" (Nayar, 2004, p. 75). As
well, though, parents do this for boys to "keep sons in the household." (p. 95)
In the end, the poet is reconciled to the life that she will lead as she "grows old
with", and "continues the cycle with", the youth as described in the poem. Yet, this is no
happy ending, or even an acceptance or resignation for there is an expression of pity in
the form of "sorry for you, sorry for me, sorry for them". Finally, there is the thrice-
repeated mantra of "confusion, confusion, confusion." The signature ending resonates
with the hybrid howl after the somewhat chaotic experience that preceded it.

The Cathartic Release as Aesthetic Experience: The Power of Poetry

The poem aims at force, not subtlety, through its construction of a steady
accumulation of parallel subordinate clauses. As with its Beat poem predecessor, this
builds a crescendo of passionate speech about the personal. The view of reality involves
the multiple parts of the writer's world which simply exist, next to each other, without
obvious conflict, but suggesting the possibilities, and without a hierarchy of greater and
lesser customs/codes/values. These realities are. They are unified not by complex
relations among the parts, but by an all-embracing relation which creates the picture of a
community in its complexities. In fact, there are internal contradictions which definitely
suggests that the piece is not autobiographical but rather a composite.
 100

Indeed, the poem fulfills the tenets proposed by Vygotsky (1971) in its
"transcendence of individual feelings and their generalization to the social plane". Along
the way, there is a sense of metamorphosis, due to the elevation of feeling, that occurs as
the content which constitutes the work of art forms an "internal movement crystallized,
embodied in the structure" providing the meaning. This metamorphosis, for Vygotsky,
forms a new meaning for catharsis. "The resolution of a certain, merely personal
conflict, the revelation of a higher, more general, human truth in the phenomena of life"
(p. 73). From the deeply personal then, the work of art moves us into the realm of human
truth.
Certainly, the poem contains a cathartic sensibility associated as well with that of
purging. Riffing, Prithi manages what Freud described in his Psychological Essays:
In the technique of overcoming what repels us... we find true poetica.. .1
am of the opinion that any aesthetic enjoyment given us by a writer has the
character of this 'threshold of pleasure', and that the true pleasure issuing
from a work of poetry can be explained as the release of psychic forces
from stress. (cited in Vygotsky, 1971, p. 77)

This idea of release through the creative act involves the health of the adolescents.
Through this, the arts serve a vital role in the education of second generation immigrant
children whose identifications confound them. The spectrum of possibilities may be
unleashed, as within this poem.
Otto Rank, one of the great psychoanalysts who specialized in work with artists
described the release potential of poetry:
Poetry releases.. .various caresses, exchanges of motives, transformation
of opposites, the breaking up of one image into several, the doubling of
processes, the poeticizing of material especially symbols. (Otto Rank and
H. Sachs, Significance of Psychoanalysis to the Mental Sciences. Cited in
Vygotsky, 1971, p. 79).

The psychological dimension of poetry resonates with the passionate assertions

of the Romantic poets as to the aesthetic power of poetry. Wordsworth declared that
"poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the impassioned expression
which is in the countenance of all science." Shelley said: "Poetry .. .is at once the centre
and circumference of all knowledge" and, "awakens and enlarges the mind by rendering
it the receptacle of a thousand unapprehended combinations of thought" (cited in Dewey,
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p. 301). That poetry is uniquely suited to transmitting the conflicting thoughts and
emotions of the poet has been understood for centuries. That this is knowledge
production - aesthetically refined and intensified - continues to be true today.
The possibility for poetry to communicate via images and symbols which break
up seems to offer for those in struggle the potential media for release without the need to
reconcile elements but rather to allow the doubling. The lyrical potential has not been
lost on a generation that now turns to some form of rap or spoken word to riff on their
experiences.
Voice-ing identity, gaining independence
Prithi's non-judgemental riffing struck a chord with the young South Asian
community; this poem generated huge cyber-discussions. Indeed, the poem gained a life
of its own as young South Asians of the diapora copied and forwarded it to others as a
means of discussion. The meaning-making in the form of arguments and critiques in
cyber exchanges suggested that Prithi had been 'read' as a theorizer of life as a young
Indo-Canadian. In fact, the power of Prithi's verse, its searching, probing focus, with its
long lines packed with rich details of cultural practices, as well as its youthful
exuberance, gained their own place in the cyber-canon of diasporic voices.
The instantaneous prominence of her voice was both disquieting and exhilarating
for her. With some awareness of the potential for criticism within a community that
would harbour some traditionalists, the matter of her family's response to her new-found
notoriety came up in our conversation. Her parents were quite open-minded about the
value of her poetry; her father said that she was at least bringing up relevant issues and
"starting a discussion." At the same time, her parents cautioned her about being critical
but, Prithi believes, always would support her.
The secure place from which the poet wrote her now famous lines was at a point
where she knew that she must leave. In the first interview we had, Prithi spoke of her
need to be independent. "I can't be what I want to be and still live in my parent's home."
Prithi felt that her options for true self-expression would be limited if she stayed in the
secure environment of home. On the cusp of young adulthood, this poem coincided with
that period when life decisions are made surrounding higher education. I asked Prithi
about her choice of University, without disguising my surprise.
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Interviewer: Queens U. is such a white school. How did you end up there?

Prithi: Well, I was thinking about going to McGill but my father wanted
me to go to Queens. He'd read about it and knew that it was the best for
Arts, that all the politicians and business people go there.
(Prithi Interview, August 2004)

This was not the first time that her parents, in particular her father, would choose
a rather unusual path designed towards integration. Prithi, aware of the many
neighborhoods where South Asians were clustered, said that the pattern was already in
motion; Prithi would pursue a degree at a prestigious university known for its old boys
network, a university that would - during Prithi's years there - be subject to headlines in
national newspapers about its 'white' student bodies. Again, Prithi would pursue her
journey as a bit of an 'outsider' yet one whose dynamic and engaging spirit infused any
setting with a delightful energy.
How then is it that this young woman expresses identity so powerfully? Why has
this poem and poet captured the diasporic condition so well? While a teenager of Sikh
descent she may feel little connection to, nor even have knowledge of the colonialism
associated with the land of her parents' birth, she is nevertheless the product of this era of
post-colonialism wherein "the diasporic motions of peoples across national and regional
boundaries" have set up the conditions for "fragmentation of the global into the local"
(Dirlik, 1992, p. 347). Like many second generation children, her struggle around
personal identity and her vision of community identity has been stimulated by living in
the 'in-between' world of post-colonial thinking which has "emerged into the foreground
of historical and political consciousness" (ibid., p. 347). She captures the reality: "We
are a mixed breed of two cultures." Her world is one of hybridity.
Part of Prithi's bridge into adult-hood is defined in her poem. All the
contradictions that peppered her childhood years, take on a more level balanced critique
of herself and her peers, in juxtaposition to, not necessarily with a pointed finger, her
parent's generation.
One of Prithi's major tensions with acculturation to Canadian life is due, not to
Canadian culture and/or the absorption of that culture, but to her perception of the culture
of her homeland as intractable. An immigrant's imported values and culture either
undergo a dramatic re-shaping when in the "contact-zone", Pratt's (1982) term rather
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loosely used here, of the new place, or, an idealized form of culture and values become
strictly adhered to.
South Asians are currently one of Canada's most rapidly growing ethno-cultural
populations. Chandrashekhar Bhat and Ajaya Sahoo from the Centre for the study of
Indian Diaspora, state that "Indians who emigrate to Canada still zeal[ously] preserve and
maintain their cultural identity and promotion of common interest in an alien society.
They also exhibit a strong desire to pass on these values and culture to the next
generation" (Online Resource). However, culture is not static in location or in thought as
Bhabha so clearly stated:
The very act of speaking and thinking and creating art, writing, meeting in
communities, not to mention the effect of technology, produces variations
and changes over time neither to reflect a positive change or a negative
one merely that certain behaviours meet in tensions with certain times and
accepted beliefs. There is an assumption in regard to culture that somehow
a static culture is a superior one and by virtue of its longevity, a correct
one, but despite one's insistence on sameness and continuity, humanity is
subject to and has subjected itself to evolution. (Bhabha, 1994)

Ethnographic Inquiry: Comparative Studies

During the research for the Rainbow Project in Peel Board of Education, an area
which has become home to many from the rapidly growing South Asian community,
significant focus and attention was given to the experiences of young South Asian
students who were in a period of cultural transition. Dealing with the tensions inherent in
the competing value systems of strong - usually traditional - home cultures and school
and peer cultures which incorporated the values of the dominant white culture and the
popular culture of North America, there were lively exchanges surrounding life, careers,
family and marriage during the course of interviews.
Within a typological framework of immigrant groupings (see Ogbu and Gibson,
1991), the South Asian population in Canada, which has immigrated in large numbers in
the past two decades, would be defined, largely, as a group of voluntary, economic
immigrants who follow a pattern of accommodation and acculturation without
assimilation (Gibson, 1988). There are exceptions to this positioning, with for example,
the Tamil population from Sri Lanka being admitted to Canada under the quota allocated
for political refugees. Indeed, within the large categorization, known as East Indian or
 104

Indo-Pakistani, there are many sub-groupings, with particularly significant populations of

Muslims from Pakistan and India, Punjabi Sikhs, and Hindus from many states in India
including Gujarat. In fact, the tendency to homogenize this diverse population under the
category of South Asian or Indo-Pakistani raises serious issues surrounding ethnocultural
categorization.
In certain school settings where the South Asian population holds a significant
percentage of the demographic, there is a separateness with respect to the dominant
culture which may persist. This is not unique to that community as issues surrounding
demographics within schools inform all factors that determine the school culture, the
entry and progress of immigrant groups.
The Rainbow team project spent time in a school setting in the northeastern sector
of the Peel District School Board where the South Asian community has undergone a
sustained period of immigration such that the school corridors were often filled with the
languages of India and Pakistan. Significantly, the local government representatives for
the region at both the federal and provincial level lately have been the winners in
elections where each party was running a candidate of South Asian heritage. In fact,
Member of Parliament Ruby Dhalla, from Brampton, has become a high profile federal
politician, the new face of 'representation'.
The youth of this diaspora community of immigrants are encouraged to pursue
good jobs and succeed. The academic achievement and success of children of South
Asian descent has been documented for some time. Margaret Gibson and Parminder
Bhachu's (1991) comparative study of Sikhs in Britain and the United States noted,
regarding the British data, that: "Indian students have demonstrated a high degree of
success in surmounting both the influence of prejudice and discrimination in British
society and that of low socioeconomic stats." Both Gibson, in California and Bhachu in
Britain, published research demonstrating that "Sikh students perform better than can be
predicted based on such factors as parents' education, income, occupation and Enlish-
language proficiency (Bhachu, 1985a; Gibson, 1987a, 1988a; Gibson and Bhachu,
1986)." Investigating beliefs and cultural traditions, their work discusses the "dynamic
nature of Sikh success theories and educational strategies" (p. 71)
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The sense of purpose and faith in abilities, for instance in the common dictum,
'wherever we go we are successful', suggests the positive disposition of the community.
Gibson refers to the Sikh strategy of accommodation and acculturation without
assimilation. Noting that Sikh parents take responsibility for arranged marriages
seriously, Gibson's research in California connected the traditional reluctance of parents
to allow girls to become educated as 'too much' education will make a girl too
independent in her views and behaviour, "tarnishing her reputation and quite possibly
jeopardizing arrangements for her marriage." (p. 73)
Prithi's poem demonstrates clearly that the Sikh community standards have
shifted considerably in a generation. Previously, girls were expected to stay away from
boys, come home directly after school, and not worry about a career as marriage was the
main role for women. Among second generation girls now, careers are important due to
the dramatic increase in women in the labour market as two incomes are essential to
maintain the household. This has affected the marketability of South Asian females in
that educational credentials are now an important criterion in the arrangement of a
marriage.
Notions of honour for the family that were previously very strong, such as
children were to obey their parents, have changed as well. The Sikh community of
Brampton, for example, has been here a significant period of time and is heterogeneous
with some residents having lived here several decades and others more recently arrived.
As well, there are Jats (farmers) and Khatris (merchants) and Ramgarias (artisans). Thus,
the community standards are no longer homogenous either. Accounting for the spectrum
of views in Prithi's poem, the sense that the boys are running wild and drinking may in
fact not be a common characteristic throughout the Sikh communities. There are
communities within the Sikh community.

The Political Times and Sikh Identity in Canada

Interestingly, the poet Prithi was born in 1984, the year of traumatic events in
Sikh history that took place in Amritsar and Delhi. The invasion of the Zharmandir Sahib
(the Golden Temple) was experienced as a collective trauma for Sikhs world-wide. This
had followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi in which trusted Sikh bodyguards were
found responsible. This was all linked to the independence movement in the Punjab for
 106

an independent Sikh homeland, Khalistan. World-wide attention had been focused on the
storming of the temple and the subsequent slaying.
In Canada, what stands as the worst act of terrorism in our history involved the
tragic bombing of an Air India flight enroute from Vancouver to India. As the debris of
the airline landed off the coast of Ireland, Canadians were suddenly made very aware that
political conflicts from abroad could play out in our peaceful, multicultural land.
However, this incident was much more contentious in the Sikh communities across
Canada who had to cope with polarized views within gurdwaras and a new suspicion of
their culture from mainstream Canada.
Maclean's magazine featured the Sikh-Canadian community on its front cover
with the provocative title, Sikh Power, in 2000. At that time, there were 400.000 Sikhs in
Canada, mostly in Ontario and British Columbia, where the Sikh population goes back to
the early 1900s. (Several hundred Sikhs settled prior to the 1908 prohibition against
Asian immigrants). Large-scale immigration from the Punjab resumed in the late 1960s
and has continued to swell the numbers. Now well-represented in the political arena,
there have been two high profile Sikh federal Ministers, Herb Dhaliwal and Ujjal
Dosanjh: the latter also holds the distinction of being the first person of colour to be
elected a Premier. As well, there are various media personalities of note and even a
national competitor in figure skating, Emanuel Sandhu.
The acknowledgement of prominent Sikh leaders is only part of the reason why
the Macleans article was entitled "Sikh Power". That had to do with the volatile politics
within the community - principally in British Columbia - as temples and individuals
played out the divisive and aggressive politics surrounding the separatist Khalistan
movement. In Canada, there have been splits in the Sikh community as with certain other
ethnic groups as they work through their relationship to the political situation of their
"home culture". However, in the Sikh community the catastrophic impact of the Air
India bombing had a catalytic effect.
The Sikh communities of British Columbia were far more distressed and divided
by the events with clear evidence of radical extremists within their midst who had been
willing to sacrifice innocent lives in order to draw attention to the movement for an
independent Khalistan state. On the other hand, many descendants of the earliest Sikh
 107

immigrants would understand themselves as fully assimilated - and rather distanced from
the Punjab - after 80 years in Canada. In the Toronto area, those separatist politics have
not played out with the violence of the west, most particularly in the Burnaby
community, and therefore have played a far less significant role in the representations of
the Sikh community in Ontario.
Thus, as the poem is investigated, few of those radical Sikh community dynamics
hold any influence in the writing by our young Indo-Canadian female of Sikh heritage
from Mississauga. One comparison of content that is fascinating involves the figure of
Monika Deol who was at that time the most high profile Sikh woman in the country
known for her appearances on City TV. The controversial figure of Monika Deol appears
in the poem immediately after the image of the 'cave parents' who spend their time on
the web "searching through arranged marriage personals advertising daughter as slim
almond eyed quiet obedient excellent cooks". So it is that these same types, the
gossiping types, drag down the television personality - who for years was the highest
profile female V J of any race - suggesting that in her sexy Westernized clothes she is a
'Much VJ slut'. This startling insult confirms the mendacity of the older generation who
would condemn the independent female described in Macleans as a "glamourous,
assimilated Sikh woman."
Thus, clearly, there are many Sikh communities. Prithi described some of the
particulars and generalities of the Punjabi community. The title Indo-Canadian Reality
speaks to the tensions of identifications between country of origin and religious
distinctions. In this case, the complications of a presence of a radical independence
movement within the sub-grouping creates circumstances not unlike the situation in the
Balkans wherein those who wished to maintain a pan-Yugoslavian identity, pan-ethnic by
nature, were forced to identify differently as the country sub-divided in war. Those who
did not were assigned their identities anyways.
Handa's (2003) study of second generation South Asians confirmed their
"struggle to fashion an identity that speaks to their experience of being South Asian in
Canada. In so doing, they often unsettle and resist certain mainstream definitions of
South Asian and Canadian." This phenomena plays out in the United States and Britain
though always the manifestation of the struggle will be informed by the particulars. As
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das Gupta (1997) argues, the new "Indian" ethnic identity for second generation females
in the United States has to be understood, not simply with reference to their positions as
non-white females within the United States, but by the pressures to be "Indian" and
"American" in specific ways. These women have to contend with the overarching
demands for conformity that are placed on non-white immigrants to prove they are
"American" as well as dealing with the demands made by the hegemonic ethnic group to
uphold an upper-caste, supper-class orthodox form of Hindu Indianness.
Perhaps in Canada there is less pressure to prove they are "Canadian" particularly
in an environment where the South Asian percentage of population makes them the
largest ethnic group in the greater Toronto area.

Bhangra, Clubbing, and the Visual Delight of the SINGH SISTERS

A measure of its popularity, it's tempting to compare Prithi's voice to that of

Apache Indian in Britain, a Punjabi man raised in Birmingham England, whose songs
topped both the reggae and bhangra charts in 1990s. Playing to packed stadiums in India,
he is both famous and controversial in the international South Asian diaspora. The son of
immigrants from Jalandhar district of Punjab, Apache is Steven Kapur. Anthropologist
Les Back writes about Apache Indian's music:
Apache's music is a cultural crossroads, a meeting place where the
languages and rhythms of four continents intermingle producing a culture
that cannot be reduced to its component parts. Rather, it needs to be
understood in the context of the global passage of linguistic and cultural
forms and localities where they converge; the culture is simultaneously
both local and global.... The new form was dubbed bhangramuffin.
(Back, 1995, pp. 139-140)

In Toronto, too, there has been fusion in the music scene. One such group,
Punjabi by Nature, hit Queen Street West with its bhangra rhythms back in the 1980s.
This would be part of the mainstreaming of bhangra which increasingly became one of
the most recognized of the ethnic fusion music genres.
Similar to the subculture of Indian clubs and remix music, the poem helps to
resolve ideologically the paradoxes of living the dual existence. An increasingly popular
social outlet for young people, though not always with the knowledge or blessing of
parents, involves the club scene. As with many youth spaces of subculture, the club scene
 109

may be analyzed from a variety of perspectives. On the one hand, it may be viewed as
overt rebellion as the children of extremely protective parents seek an environment of
extreme freedom by going to clubs and indulging in drinking and sexual behaviour. Or,
clubbing may be understood as an expression of cool within the community.
In an analysis of the role of clubs which cater to Indian American second
generation in New York city, a more positive interpretation emerges, partly as the clubs
cater to an educated class of Westernized youth who find a means of embracing who they
are:
Musical remix as an attempt to mediate between the expectations of
immigrant parents and those of mainstream American peer culture by
trying to integrate signs of belonging to both worlds. .. .immigrant
generations' desire to preserve an authentic ethnic identity lingers in the
second generation, for whom being essentially Indian becomes a marker
of cultural and even moral superiority.... A uniquely Indian American
subculture thus allows second-generation youth to socialize with ethnic
peers while reinterpreting Indian musical and dance traditions using the
rituals of American popular culture. (Maira, 1999, p. 37)

This sense of finding a belonging in a musical and social space was echoed in our
interview after Prithi had been living independent of her parents:
"And we can dance and I can feel Indian.. .my sense of being Indian, my strongest
sense of being Indian, comes from the fact that I can dance to Bhangra."
Bhangra very specifically emerges out of a Punjabi cultural tradition. As Prithi
says, "It's really the dance of farmers, because really, we [Punjabi people and Sikhs] are
farmers.. .and warriors.. .it's the dance of the field." However, the dancing 'space' might
be what becomes contentious within the family. While preservation of cultural dance in a
folkloric sense may be sanctioned, the remix of the club scene conjures, for some parents,
decadence.
For traditional parents, the idea of clubbing is anathema with their stated belief
that the boys and girls are not expected to mix. When Prithi discussed the negative
attitude of Indian parents to clubs, she noted that the parents feel it encourages not only
uncontained sexuality but such "vices" as homosexuality. However, Prithi was quick to
note that "New Delhi is the center of homosexual clubs". In a contemporary setting, in
India, society within a certain class has become increasingly permissive while in Canada
there is a romanticization of old values by parents, who long to raise their children in the
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"old country values". As Prithi noted, "I don't know where that is anymore [where
people are sticking to the old traditional values] because it's not India either.. .It's some
random paradise in their heads."
Prithi has strong insights into some of the dilemmas facing parents and values
including the fact that there is a contradiction of maintaining back-home values when the
back-home urban Indian city has changed. Secular Asian youth culture of bhangra music
and dance has had a huge influence on the identity of this generation and has no doubt
eroded traditional values and culture.
Another phenomena in the British art world involves the twin sisters whose
hybrid visual signs within their paintings are highly original. Their international
reputations brought them an exhibition at McMaster University. The Silhouette, in text
derived largely from the press about the women and their art described the exhibition in
these terms:
Twin sisters Amrit and Rabindra K.D. Kaur Singh work closely together,
composing skillfully painted images that merge Eastern traditions with
ideas derived from Western popular culture. The sisters describe their
work as 'Past Modern' (as opposed to post modern). Their goal is to
challenge existing stereotypes and redefine widely accepted, superficial
perceptions of heritage and identity, while exploring social, political and
cultural issues with a global audience. (Silhouette, 2004, p. 6)

Art historian Geoff Quilley (2003) explains that the twins' work is "located in the
interstices between satire and religious icon, and between East and West, and ironically
criticizes all the processes of cultural stereotyping through the reduction of complex
identities to emblems." The Singh sisters have exhibited their artwork around the world
and their playful bricolage speaks of postmodern consciousness of Princess Diana
colliding with the Moghuls. Elle magazine (2004) in its review describes their work as "a
powerful tool of global commentary" and this too may be said of the disaporic poem
Indio-Canadian Reality which, similarly mixes up the influences.
In conversation with Prithi, it becomes clear that her questions around how to
negotiate a hybrid identity within the complex landscape fuels her and the question -
What kind of Punjabi Girl are you? - continues to preoccupy her. Since she does not
conform to expectations, and confounds some around her, she finds herself wrestling with
the implications of her choices on an ongoing basis. Although Prithi in our first interview
 Ill

tended to be in-line with her parents' expectations, albeit rather relaxed for their own
cultural context, she has subsequently attended Queens University, had a boyfriend, and
full exposure to life as an independent Canadian university student. She struggles with
the conflicts between the traditional and her own desires whether those desires involve
cutting her hair as an act of liberation or debating afresh her resolve to hold off on sex
until marriage. During university, she published two articles that question these conflicts
in terms of codes of behaviour and customs.
The first of her essays, published in October 2005, is entitled "By the Seat of My
Ironpants". In this daring piece, given the constraints of community and the demand for
girls to be chaste, she questions matters of sexuality, in particular the tensions between
her own desires and her parent's expectations. In quite graphic terms, she describes her
desire: "My attention was caught by that year's Head Gael [Frosh week leader] Sunny, a
muscled fourth year Sikh who cut an imposing figure on stage. I only saw Sue's condom
and Sunny's resemblance to the masculine warriors of Sikh legend. Appreciation for the
random, university fuck seized me". In a second essay, Prithi ruminates on the decision
to cut her hair and the problematics of femininity that such an act causes. Again, these
works caused controversy as Prithi surfaced the tensions around such decisions, both
cultural tensions and intergenerational conflict.
Cultural products and identity
Prithi bemoans the material world of her contemporaries and her community; this
is not exclusive to the South Asian community, of course. However, within the South
Asian community, there may be a particular way in which material cultural items and
their shared consumption does construct identity which seems somewhat unique. The
"hybrid" desi culture that is based on the steady consumption of Indian films and music -
the popular culture of 'over there' - has had such a resurgence that the mainstream press
has taken note. While the business of cinemas in Canada generally is tapering off, within
the South Asian community business is booming.
Scholars of globalization have noted the phenomenal business growth of
producing, marketing and selling cultural products (Appadurai, 1996). With those
cultural products, including fashion as well as popular culture items, the ethnic
communities may display and construct their ethnicity. The social acceptance of
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multiculturalism combined with the import accessibility has increased consumption

patterns enormously in the past couple of decades. With shalwar kameez being
acknowledged as a great fashion choice and henna being moved into the mainstream by
Madonna and other celebrities, there are no stigmas or embarrassments to wearing the
signifiers of ethnicity. We have now entered a period of "commodified ethno-chic"
where mehndi kits - "Indian body art" are sold in mainstream stores. Cultural remix has
been embraced with celebrities wearing the bindhi and mehndi as new ways to express
beauty. (Maira, 1999, p. 32)
Indeed, the global industry of selling cultures is contingent on their remaining
'ethnic' so practices of consumption intersect with identity construction.. ..and business is
pleased to target through segmented marketing initiatives (Purkayastha, 2005, p. 118)
Bollywood, which became the cute title for the Bombay- (now known as Mumbai)
markets its movies globally, creating a genre of movies that claim that "the hearts of
'Indians' anywhere in the world remain Indian forever." (ibid., p. 120 footnote 2)
The "consumer citizen" (Garcia Canclini, 2001) defines his/her social identity
through the movies, films, and clothing. To that extent, there is a cultural sharing across
nations as Canadian teens are raised on the same Hindi movies as those in India. The
bonding with others through shared consumption occurs with all people. However, the
availability of global market goods has increased exponentially since the days when
Marshall McLuhan (1964) coined the idea of a global village based on these notions of
choice and shared patterns of consumption.

Cutting Edges of Post-colonial Ethnographic Surges

Besides the music of bhangra, the Punjabi voice and identity has been gaining •
exposure through media, literature and academic examination. In West London, in
Britain, the Southall area has been the home of several versions of new British identities,
one of which is working-class diasporic Punjabiness. In 1997, in Southall inter-group
violence resulted in widespread coverage of a conflict where Sikh youths attacked a
Muslim area in response to earlier attacks on Sikh homes. The term 'Asian Gang was
used to describe the male youths in action. In her article "(Dis) entangling the 'Asian'
Gang', Claire Alexander (2000) analyzes how, in these instances, it is about "young men,
 113

who are at once positioned as both the representatives of a collective ethnicity and as its
periphery, both part of and apart from 'the community'" (p. 124). Associations of an
'underclass' deprivation in combination with racial identity and masculinity feed into
notions of cultural and religious primitivism with racial alienation.
This "kaleidoscope" (Brah, 1996) of images of gangsters and troubled youth
crystallizes in the symbol of the "ghetto" where:
people are political actors who produce, mediate, contest, and experience
the outcomes of racial and ethnic distinctions. If we are going to have any
hope of demystifying concepts as complex as race, ethnicity, and identity,
then we need both to diversify and to resolutely populate the scenarios we
examine. (Brah, 1996, p. 14)

Prithi mixes her images populating her poem with a more middle-class version.
She speaks as insider but also from an outsider status.
Those creative young artists who are moved to communicate beyond their
particular community often seem to be struggling with their location in terms of 'ethnic
culture' or 'mainstream culture', 'home culture' and 'peer culture'. Their identities are
not so clearly attached to family nor are they so clearly demarcated and their integration
in schools has probably been greater as part of the processual nature of the identity
construction.

Racialized gangs

More than one of the marginalized/racialized groups discussed in this thesis has
suffered from the 'gang' labeling of society largely perpetuated through the media. As
Alexander (2000) succinctly states, "The image of an ethnically or racially defined 'gang'
additionally evokes images of tribalism, social breakdown and, above all, of a crisis in
masculinity, manifested in acts of collective violence: in 'gang warfare'" (p. 124). That
these youth are the products of social marginalization, cultural and generational conflict
may be the media image in in-depth articles but that does little to offset the daily build-up
of fear among the mainstream population.
Drawing on tropes of racial alienation and social breakdown, there is a moral
panic set off in the public discourse. The conflation of the terms race, violence, poverty
and criminality are captured in the spectre of 'youth gangs', drawing on the imagery
 114

produced around black males in crisis. As far back as 1994 in the London Sunday Times,
there were articles about the new Asian gang subculture modeled on African-American
examples:
The gangs, predominantly youngsters from Bangladeshi families, take
their inspiration from Afro-American culture. Mimicking gangs in L.A.,
they wear hooded jackets and baggy jeans and listen to rap and raga
music. An increase in drug taking and dealing among young Asians has
happened in tandem, (cited in Alexander, p. 127)

Gautam Malkani, in his book Londonstani captured the in-between world of his
characters, fictional characters based on his ethnographic work for his Masters. With
credit to sociologist Tariq Modood, Malkani explained to a Toronto Star reporter that
minority communities struggling to integrate often "go through a prolonged phase of
voluntary segregation and anti-assimilation, and sometimes that can be quite aggressive".
His explosive opening to Londonstani, set in Hounslow, a neighborhood near
Heathrow airport where he grew up, introduces gangsta characters, young South Asian
men who have adopted identities similar to those portrayed in Prithi's poem. The
adoption of the tough identity involves self-assertion, which, Malkani describes as
mutable. What, then of the Sikh imago5^ as seen in London, England when Londonstani
presents a vivid character of rage?
Malkani, the ethnographer explains: "They go through that phase in order to build
up their self-esteem and identity to reintegrate into society later on. And when they do
reintegrate, they do so from a position of greater strength and on their own terms.
They're not integrating by trying to be British. They're saying this is a new definition of
Britishness." (Yelaja, 2006)
Featuring a stencilled tiger on the front cover - which seemed a brilliant
primordial symbol of violence - this book has gained huge international exposure. With
the focus on the Asian youth subcultures in London, there's a hyper-masculinity to the
central four characters.

The use of the term imago refers to "primordial or ascriptive identities in times of strife". For further
elaboration, see Gupta's The Context of Ethnicity, p. 94.
 115

Whether this publication ought to be heralded as groundbreaking raises ethical

issues around publishing. Whose stories, indeed, are told and with what motivation does
this image of Asian youth permeate the culture and perpetuate negative stereotypes and
fear around those neighborhoods near Heathrow airport, especially Southall.
Race is encoded by such terms as 'gang members', 'inner city males'. The
construction of racialized masculinities mobilizes fears associating it with criminality.
For an extended period of time, this has played out in England, the United States and
Canada with variations on the tune and the focus but in the major cities there has emerged
the spectre of racialized gangs, "the growth of a pathologized male youth subculture
premised on social and economic deprivation and personal crisis leading to tribalism and
violence." (Alexander, 2000, p. 133)
In Canada, the Sikh community of young men has gained the attention of the
media, notably Macleans for their gang activity and street deaths. In 2003, Macleans ran
an article entitled "The Roots of Gang Warfare: B.C. Sikhs must look hard at themselves"
sparked by the street violence involving the killing of over 50 young men over drugs,
money and women. The bravado of the acts drew comments from both the Sikh
journalist, Renu Bakshi and the B.C. Supreme court Justice Wally Oppal, himself a Sikh.
Similar to the indictment of Prithi's poem, Bakshi decries the blindness of parents to their
sons' behaviour: "You tell me why a parent with an unemployed 23 year-old son driving
a BMW doesn't think there's something wrong with that picture." Bakshi believes the
privileging of males in the families is appalling. "From the moment a Punjabi boy opens
his eyes, his parents hand him the keys to the Porsche of life."
A top police inspector expresses his embarrassment about the stigma facing his
community; Karsh Heed comments on the problems of indulgent parents:
That's my boy, that's my boy' has gone out of control. You have fathers
and mothers praising their sons when these boys are involved in illegal
activity - drug trafficking and murders. But these parents are still going
'that's my boy' based on that old family principle. (Bakshi, 2003, p. 31)

So, the spoiled males have found the lure of drugs and money and violence in the
bravado culture; by comparison the females are held to different and higher standards, the
"good Sikh girls" who appear in the poem.
 116

The violent section of the poem sets up crashed Mercedes-Bens, "countless

stabbings, backups shootings run-ins with cracked beer bottles" and the scars down their
backs. Like the characters of the recently released Londonstani by Malkani, their lives
"consist mostly of driving around in shiny new cars, skipping school... and looking for
trouble".

Canadian Sikhs, "high " culture and ethnic enclaves

With respect to integration and cross-cultural exchange of the Sikh community

within Metropolitan Toronto, the most high profile and certainly grandest manifestation
of Sikh culture occurred during the exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum's exhibition,
The Arts of the Sikh Kingdoms' in the year 2000. A display of magnificent beautiful
objects, there were exquisite pieces which suggested the cultural richness of Sikh life and
arts. An example would be the intricately detailed gold model rendering of the Golden
Temple, which was created as a tribute and display of loyalty either to Queen Victoria or
Edward. Christopher Hume, in his review of the exhibition notes with some irony that
the R.O.M. had been hiding, or rather storing the piece for some time: "Strangely as it
may be, that gorgeous piece had been stored in the R.O.M. storage vaults since being sent
by the British royal family to Canada for safekeeping during the Second World War.
Hidden in the mainstream museum, it is only now that those objects receive the light of
day."
The exhibition was illuminating, not only for its gold pieces but also in that the
history of Sikhism had been documented in some of the tapestries and paintings. The
ROM, as well, offered instruction on the culture:
The height of the Sikh empire was reached in April 1801, when Ranjit
Singh (1780 1839) was proclaimed the first Sikh Maharaja of the Punjab
(the land of the five rivers) at Lahore in present day Pakistan. His
cosmopolitan court consolidated a powerful Sikh state, and was a scene of
glittering brilliance which dazzled European visitors, some of whom came
to live at Lahore and influenced its artistic and military life. (ROM press
release, on-line)

The objects on display offered evidence that leads to irresistible conjectures or

metaphors about the legacy of colonialism. In the exhibition, there was information
about key intereractions between Europeans and Sikhs historically. As the British
 117

invaded the Punjab, Sikh leaders were thrown out of power. One leader, Maharaja Dalip
Singh, was adopted by Queen Victoria and her family who seemed to regard him as an
exotic house guest. In Britain, his time was commemorated through portraits which
speak to a Hollywood type of fairy-tale princely existence. However, he eventually
decided to return to India with the intention of regaining his throne, only to be prevented
by the British. His story chronologically follows the finest era of Sikhism under Maharaja
Ranjit Singh whose reign between 1801 tol839 marked a flowering of arts and crafts, a
time period which provided most of the art works for the exhibition (Hume, 2000, C3).
The R.O.M. produced this exhibition, not out of any innate respect for the culture
or the work, but rather due to the fundraising of Toronto businessman Gary Singh and his
friends who raised more than $1 million dollars to assist in the costs to the museum.
Writing in the Toronto Star, Christopher Hume noted that such exhibitions are the
exception rather than the rule in an institution that is still remembered for its controversial
and 'allegedly' racist exhibition Into the Heart of Africa. In his final words, Hume ends
his review with some criticism of the limitations:
Unfortunately, the exhibition fails to make explicit the connections
between the modern Canadian Sikh community and its origins...Context is
everything, we are told, but the show doesn't provide as much as it should.
Beautiful as the contents may be, what you see isn't always what you get.
(Hume, 2000, C3)

Interestingly, Hume criticized the exhibit for its failure to connect the Sikh culture
of Canada with its origins. He has raised a topic similar to one Prithi seems to explore.
The Sikh community in the Greater Toronto Area was featured in an article as
part of a series in the Toronto Star during 2005 entitled Ethnic Enclaves (Yelaja &
Keung). With a headline, A Little Piece of the Punjab, the article began with the human
interest hook surrounding the community choice of Jarnail Singh Dhillon. Arriving in
Canada in 1972 which was a particularly nasty year for racist backlash, he found that his
life improved when in the year 2000, he moved to an area of north Brampton where
"neighbours mostly look like him and speak his native Punjabi." Of this choice, he
speaks to his new-found comfort in a more homogenous community experience: "Now I
feel I'm living back home in Punjab. I feel more safe and secure here. There's no fear of
anyone making fun of me. It's all my people. We respect each other." Later in the
 118

article, Dhillon speaks of the stress he earlier felt of living in Windsor in a 'WASP'
neighborhood where "They were always complaining abut the smell of our food, the way
we dressed, and they were jealous of our brand new car." The move to be with his 'own
people' brings belonging.
Indeed, nicknames for neighborhoods have arisen which attest to their
homogenous composition. Residents refer to areas of Brampton as "Browntown" or
"Singhdale", nicknames for the South Asian neighborhoods of Springdale and
Castlemore. Nayar discusses the Sikh community of Vancouver in terms of ethnic
insularity as third generation Sikhs there refer to the 'Punjabi Bubble' (Nayar, 2004, p.
179).
The examination of the ethnic enclave trend undertaken by Ryerson professor
Mohammad Qadeer with his colleague Sandeep Kumar (in Yelaja & Keung) makes an
important contribution to understanding what the future of Canada's multiculturalism
may look like. Unlike the era when people chose to live in a homogenous neighborhood
because of necessity - without English skills or housing was cheaper - the new residents
are choosing a community out of a sense that preservation of identity will be more likely
when surrounded by members of the same ethnic grouping. Indeed, some of these areas
carry high prices on homes, most especially in the areas of Brampton where housing - at
$500,000 in Castlemore - runs higher than other areas of the G.T.A. Thus, there emerges
an enclave mentality.
Kumar and Qadeer speak of the feared danger of the trend toward ethnic enclaves
since "There is always the fear that these enclaves will lead to segregation; there will be
no social cohesion and immigrants' integration into the Canadian population will be
impeded."
There may be a natural tendency to gather, to live in a community space where
you hear your home language, where you may practice customs and dress in traditional
clothing without feeling out of place. Furthermore, shops and restaurants in such
neighborhoods cater to the population selling specific foods and fashion. This extends
even to the mainstream stores who adopt marketing in the language of the population.
For instance, Starbucks has menus in multiple languages.
 119

Remarkably, we now live in a period where, the Toronto star of October 27, 2006
proclaims (in the subsection to 'South Asian Youth Rebrand for New Era') that Tt's hip
to be brown now". This affirmation of what Prithi and others term ubrown identity" in
such a mainstream publication indeed marks a new era, an era marked soon after this with
the Toronto Star launch of a new magazine called Desi Life. Almost immediately the
magazine was hip with the young M.P. Ruby Dhalla gracing the front page.
Internationally acclaimed, the magazine has gone on to win major awards after only two
issues (Toronto Star, 2007).
What emerges is Desi culture - bold, out there/here, and very cool.

Concluding Thoughts
Prithi's passion emanated from the desire to understand the constraints on her
self-creating process of identity, those limitations that have been formed around the many
and complicated sets of possibilities, or constellation of possibilities, available to her
generated from a heterogeneous collective set of identifications. She is part of the
generation of women who transform traditional cultural forms to manufacture newer and
newer cultural forms that derive from their ethnic traditions and which are continuously
formulated in the context of their class and local cultures.
Her own quest to grow-up operates within certain cultural practices which have
been mediated by historical forces - economics, migration, religion - which have arisen
and are produced in the coming together of patterned social processes. These burst forth
into the poem which speaks of constraints imposed upon her and exposes the struggles of
the double-life.
The poem expresses a post-colonial struggle around issues of identity.
Characterized by cultural fragmentation, the post-colonial identity must struggle with
varied forces not the least of which is the flow of culture which is homogenizing. Within
the poem, there is a sense of this cultural invasion through references to MacDonalds, the
Lexus, the bling... .What the poem conveys is a preoccupation with a local which
contains the global through its constant reference, the sense of the back-homeness of the
parent generation. The riffing between and among the various cultural traditions and
rituals and consumer patterns creates this blur where "perhaps the local and global are the
 120

same moment" and "in a way all of us speak only from the perspective of the local, even
though we are all positioned in the spaces of the global" (Bhachu, 2004, p. 268).

While it is speculative to imagine what the judges who awarded this poem first
prize in the contest thought, I believe that there was no denying the sheer genius of the
'bricoleur', the postmodern artist as described as a sign-player. Modelled on one of the
seminal poems of postmodernism, the poetic form served well for the attempts of a young
woman to bring together the dispersed narrative fragments of her cultural influences. In
The Wake of Imagination, Richard Kearney (1994) described the artist as bricoleur:
the bricoleur: someone who plays around with fragments of meaning
which he himself has not created... .The artist becomes a 'player' in a
game of signs.. .He (sic) experiences himself afloat in an anonymous
interplay of images which he can, at best, parody, simulate or reproduce.
Like a character in a Pynchon novel or Wenders film, the postmodern
artist wanders about in a labyrinth of commodified light and noise,
endeavouring to piece together bit of dispersed narrative, (p. 13)

What makes Prithi's poem unique, however, is that the signs are so loaded with
the contradictions of culture and identity and translated with the energy of youth. In this
way, the work may conform to the symptoms and losses of the postmodern artist as
outlined by Jameson (1998) - the suspensions of subjective inwardness, referential depth,
historical time and coherent human expression - and yet retain a sense of absolute
groundedness in contemporary experience.
Salman Rushdie wrote of his book, The Satanic Verse, in terms of its celebration
of hybridity. For many, the poem by Prithi, managed the same through its own melange
of imagery, its mix-up of cultural codings, its collision of values. Liberated by and
inspired by the writing of Alan Ginsberg's "Howl", the poem conjures "a bit of this and a
bit of that" in a cascade redolent of imagery. So it is, that Prithi's voice heralds the
hybrid experience; Prithi's poem shows 'how newness enters the world'.
With respect to the aesthetic experience of the piece, the meaning-making
becomes an intoxification as the signifiers and signs move dervish-like toward a climactic
resolution. Baudrillard (2001) describes the hyperreal, postmodern world of 'pure
floating images' which have little depth, behind which is nothing. In this world, much
has been dislocated including the cultural and the material. Goods have little relation to
 121

material need in that there is little use-value. Similarly, Prithi seems intent on exposing
the empty values of consumption of signs of wealth in her community. Though this
clearly has become a characteristic of the entire era of gross consumption, the young in
the poem are derided for their attachment to Lexus and luxury. Strangely, though, within
the poem the cultural signs of back-home also have become dislocated as Aishwarya Rai
floats around with aunties who speak of old customs and paradigms projecting the
impossibility of consistent identity in such an absurdist landscape.
Heteroglossia: .. .a range of polyphonic meanings, voices, or subject
positions whose sheer multiplicity cannot be reduced to any single
omniscient narrative viewpoint. (Bakhtin, 1981)

Herein lies the postmodern aesthetic. Perhaps the inspiration is due to Ginsberg
but the work is entirely Prithi's, fully populated with a proliferation of signs distinctly
associated with her Indo-Canadian reality.
 CHAPTER FOUR
Staging Family and the Cultural:
Young People Investigate Worlds with Marty Chan

"Theatre is like golf.. .it's the realm of stuffy old white people.. .and I have
yet.. .to see a Tiger Woods." - Kevin, director

This chapter focuses on a performance project of enormous scope that was unique
to the programming of not only the particular school but most Ontario schools insofar as
the content of the project surrounded the lives and culture clash 'within' a Chinese
immigrant family and 'without' toward the world of white culture. In this chapter, the
stories of three students, for whom this project was transformative, emerge through their
reflections in the years following as the teacher-researcher reconvenes with the key
group members of the theatrical project. The Canadian play, entitled Mom, Dad, I'm
Living with a White Girl, was written by Marty Chan, a professional playwright who
grew up near Calgary.
Staged in a particular educational context, the project demonstrates the power of
gaining voice and exploring issues of concern - in this case the struggle of Asian-
Canadian youth around home and school identities and intergenerational conflict
resulting from acculturation. Aspects of cultural identity acquisition are considered by
the young people and the literature, in particular that of recent cultural anthropology
and sociology surrounding Chinese families. Some tentative considerations are offered
at the end of the chapter from a transnational perspective.

The Context for Voice-ing

The particular project was launched within an arts-specialty secondary School

where the researcher was a member of the teaching staff of the theatre subject area. The
curriculum of this traditional theatre program held to a canonical orientation with
Shakespeare and modern classics such as Ibsen, Tennessee Williams, and Arthur Miller

122
 123

constituting what mattered. Ethnocentric to its core37, the program lacked even a
contemporary Canadian focus or one which included the voices of women or world
majority writers. The dominant curriculum carried on a Eurocentric white curriculum
focus with its adoration of the canon.
This reinforced the perpetuation of a values system that tended to dismiss as
inferior any work which was from marginalized voices. This assertion is based on my
several years at the school when young people were encouraged to reproduce comments
such as: "Shakespeare is the only writer worth performing." Added to that were the
practices of teaching white male American writers such as Mamet and Sheppard
(mythologizing of the violence of white American men) and Tenessee Williams
(mythologizing white Southern women). One innovative aspect to the program: there
was a festival of student-written works which favoured such styles as quirky absurdist
comedies or angst-ridden poetic riffs.
Entering the teaching profession after years as an anti-racist educator meant that I
sought space for students to express their cultures. I held to the belief that notions of
equity required educators to help students explore their own cultures, and thereby
contribute to intercultural understanding. Where to begin when there are entrenched
practices and an environment that does not see the limited scope?
The idea that "teachers must be willing to meet students on the students'cultural
turf (Dietrich & Ralph, 1995, p.l) presupposes that students are plugged into the cultural
worlds of their home cultures. However, both as teacher and researcher, I found that
students had so separated their 'worlds' or, in some cases, had become so distanced from
the worlds of their parents, that it required finding the right project, the right moment.
And, the matter of appropriateness arises. Careful navigation of cultural pasts may be
risky. Sometimes resistance is triggered as students no longer identify with the world of
their parents who immigrated. Banks refers to the initial challenge when he advocates for
teachers to first help students examine and identify with their own cultural backgrounds
(Banks, 1994).

31
In fairness, there was evidence in files of past practice of a teacher who had developed a unit on World theatre.
The unit had disappeared as staff had changed. Thus, as with many programs, there remained the texts which were
familiar to those teachers, now middle-aged, who had been taught in an earlier era. The issue of moribund
curriculum is discussed in Chapter 8.
 124

In terms of the school setting for this project, it is interesting to note that, although
there was a significant percentage of Chinese students in the school as a whole - in fact
the demographics of the school indicated that 'Chinese' constituted the largest single
racial group - there were very few Asian students, or for that matter non-white students
in the Drama specialty program. Of those students who were Asian who had entered the
secondary school level of the Arts program, most went into music, dance for females, or
visual arts in that order of preference. Drama was not considered the first choice but
rather a last choice, with both the students and the parents discounting the drama focus as
unsuitable.
Within the co-curricular and extracurricular programming that was student-
driven, there were plenty of projects of 'identity struggle' but those resembled the
'teenaged angst' narratives of white kids. This was further reinforced by the cliquish
nature of the groupings within the school which tended to favour the friends-hiring-
friends networking problems of many white-dominated spaces. Seen in its benign form,
shared bonds led to students casting their friends in roles in their plays, casting which
reproduced 'white-ness'. At the very least, the school would be deemed culturally
exclusionary in its programming, not only in the classroom but also in the extra-curricular
programming. Somewhat unconsciously, the school merely was carrying on the traditions
of the Canadian art scene whose barriers to participation are so well chronicled in the
book, Racism in the Arts in Canada (Tator et al., 1998).
The topic was discussed among teaching colleagues. In monitoring the activities
in the co-curricular programming what was most appalling was that there were featured
festivals in which not only were Chinese students not represented but the entire racial
composition on stage was white in a school with many other groupings. The white
students and the faculty guiding them seemed to perpetuate the cultural practices of
another era. Whether the network involves teens or the arts powerbrokers, the same
results occur in reproducing the male white gaze. How consciously invoked were those
exclusionary practices could never be determined as there were always the excuses of
circumstance. But, I set about to create change.
But how? Certainly, I felt compromised as an anti-racist educator when I
witnessed the cultural production of my department with its privileging not only of the
 125

plays of the West but the casting which all but seemed an apartheid to my social justice
sensibilities. In order to change that, I knew that finding the best student leader for the
project was crucial for this was a project that the Asian students ought to have control
over. Strategy was key.
Kevin, who is the Asian student who ultimately led the project, described my
initial contact with him in this way: "Ms. Grant saw my autobiography in a production
program .. .in which I cracked a couple of jokes about being Asian and an actor. She
thought that I might be interested in directing a show about interracial dating." (Source:
play program) As I recall, I passed along two plays to Kevin, both of which centred on
Asian families. Immediately, he loved Mom, Dad, I'm Living with a White Girl and
declared it his project. From that point, he assumed leadership, I facilitated the
programming, and the school unwittingly committed to a major co-curricular initiative
that would validate the identities of an entire community of students, a community that
remained largely invisible in the regularly programmed co-curricular events of the theatre
program. Along the way, the process of collaborating on such a rich story laden with
issues of, to quote the Globe and Mail, "culture clash and intergenerational conflict"
altered the sense of identity and life paths of several students within a secondary school.
Without exaggeration, this was a radical act within a school whose pride was in
training students to succeed in mainstream cultural production. Not only at the school,
but still within the Canadian theatres such a project was rare. In our discussion years
later, K described it in terms of breaking boundaries of the socially accepted practices at
the school:
It's hard to talk about race when you're kind of told not to your entire
life.. .in a very specific [way, you're told] this is your cultural space to
work with it. These are your parameters. And to do a show like "White
Girl" you need to knock those parameters down, you know. (Kevin
Interview, July 2004)

In knocking down the prescribed cultural space of curriculum and school

orientation, Kevin and those that he brought into the project began a fascinating
exploration of identity for two generations of Chinese: the parents who came from away
and the young raised here. Thus, the play would perfectly engage students in order to
allow them the 'space' and 'voice' as they would perform it publicly, to confront the
 126

conflicts of growing up in-between. A theatre project provided the ideal context wherein
"students can learn to cope with their own confusion with cultural identity by connecting
with characters facing similar identity issues" (Dietrich & Ralph, 1995, p. 2),
This would be the way in which Mom, Dad, resonated with the students

The Project

Marty Chan describes Mom, Dad, I'm Living with a White Girl as his "signature
Asian play" and, for a time, it seemed to be the signature Asian-Canadian play. The play
was first produced professionally at Theatre Passe Muraille in downtown Toronto in a
successful run in 1994. The timing of the production at the arts high school was five
years later. Since then, the play has been produced in at least eight cities in Canada and
there have been several productions in the United States. Eventually, the script won the
Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award for Best New Work, and the Adams Chinese Theatre
Society Award (at Harvard U).
In 2004, when it had its American premiere at the Pan Asian theatre the following
advertisement appeared on the internet:
Catch Pan Asian Repertory Theatre's MOM, DAD, I'M LIVING WITH A
WHITE GIRL, a comedy about dating, disownment, B-movie fantasies
and ninja-throwing stars. Written by Marty Chen (sic), this play has been
performed across Canada, winning awards, and is now making its
American premiere. Previews begin this Saturday, 10/9, and the show
opens Wednesday, 10/13.

This promotion, like all well-crafted promotional blurbs, markets the play as a
very exciting pop culture event. Within the parameters of this dissertation, the play shall
be taken up as it reveals the creative expression of cultural contestations, framing the
work in a text analysis that reveals its cultural anthropological significance. To begin, the
playwright, Marty Chan (2002), describes the questions he asked in developing the play:
How would traditional Chinese parents react to their only son moving in
with his white girlfriend? .. ..what if the son was so afraid of his parents'
reaction that he decided to keep his living arrangements secret? What if
his parents found out and they forbade him from living with his girlfriend?
How would his lover react to this news? What if she told him to disown
his parents? Who would the man ultimately stay with?
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What Chan does not say here as he poses his various "what if..." questions
prescribed by playwriting and screenwriting experts is that he himself lived through such
an experience. That is, Chan, from a small town in Alberta, faced his traditional Chinese
parents, hid his involvement with a white girl, and made a decision in his own life about
how to reconcile the two forces. Thus, this play began from an autobiographical
epiphanic experience, the struggle of a young Chinese-Canadian man to work through the
tricky conflicts that the situation provoked. Again, this fits the Vygotsky notion of
release.
The premise that a Chinese son named Mark Gee must tell his parents that he's
moved in with his white girlfriend named Sally Davis, forms the principle narrative or
storyline of the play. In a counter-narrative, the play both explores and explodes Asian
stereotypes in a B movie called "Wrath of the Yellow Claw." These two layers to the
play weave back and forth with lightning speed, marked by the gong provided by a live
percussionist. With respect to theme, the play is quite straightforward. As the Globe and
Mail wrote, "At its heart, Marty Chan's fast-paced comedy is a blend of a couple of old
stories: culture clash and generational conflict." This captures the main issues of the
domestic comedy of the family as parents and their child, Mark, find themselves in
classic dilemmas of acculturation.
In a hilarious send-up of B-movie styles, Chan plays with images of Asian villains
from American movies in the Wrath of the Yellow Claw, "a satire on the racist movie
series about a Chinese overlord trying to invade the West" according to playwright Marty
Chan. In quick switch moments, the character of The Mother turns into the Yellow Claw,
with Mark's dad taking the role of her henchman. These two characters are pitted against
Mark and Sally, who in this second melodramatic zone appear as secret agents, fantasy
counterparts Agent Banana (the significance of banana to be discussed later) and the
Snow Princess (in honour of her whiteness). Every time characters' emotions run high
and the conflict escalates, all four of the real characters morph into fantasy characters.
When Mark confesses his love for Sally, a clear peak in the action, his mother turns into
the Yellow Claw. She whips out a poisoned chopstick to stab her son, now Agent
Banana, in the heart! Fantasy and reality blur as Mark's worlds collide, until he is forced
at the climax to make a choice between family and lover.
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The play shows the worst nightmares of anyone involved in inter-racial romance,
inevitably causing audience members, at least Asian audience members, to consider:
"How would my parents react?" The scenes from the Yellow Claw, with their satiric
renderings of stereotypical versions of ancient Chinese figures, have the audience in
stitches, as the extreme displayed nature of the stereotype allows for comfortable
laughter. The way Chan incorporated these two stories is clever, and somewhat similar in
style to certain contemporary hits such as Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize winning play,
"Angels In America" in its inclusion of fantasy scenes.
The confrontation between good and evil is fought in both stories. In the 'B'
world, the two men engage in hand-to-hand combat calling for a stylized martial art-style
which lends itself to a delightful send-up of Bruce Lee heroics. In the 'real' world, Mark
confronts his parents with his decision not to live up to their expectations, defying their
expectations. In the production at the school, director Kevin crisply staged the
transformation between the two story lines with an absolute brilliance. The quick
switches particularly delighted the crowd of students. While not totally without
experience as viewers, still they were not prepared to see such ribald humour staged by
their Asian classmates who until this time had had very little opportunity to show their
talents due to the Eurocentric co-curricular programming mentioned earlier. Plus, the
versatility of the actors wowed the audience as they moved between realism and fantasy.
With respect to audience and reception at the school, clearly this play appealed to
the participating students right away. After all, this was employment equity in action!
Until this time, the school had shown performance representations of Chinese culture at
certain multicultural presentations, usually via traditional presentations of the ribbon
dance. Indeed, the student exposure to Chinese culture tended to occur only in defined
'multicultural' spaces. Right within the school, Saturdays were devoted to Heritage
language classes for the community and, due to this, there were occasional community-
hosted presentations outside of the official school culture. The 'preservation approach' to
culture poses problems, or at the very least limitations, not only here but in Hong Kong as
demonstrated by this acerbic comment by a contemporary artist from Hong Kong:
.... That dinosaur dance bores me shitless... Maybe that's how the
Chinese have always squandered their creativity; otherwise we'd surely
have worn out that little bit of civilization our ancestors left us by
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now....Our teachers have been doing the red ribbon dance all their lives.
What have they got to show for it? I'm not saying it's no good, but we're
living off the past. Barme and Jaivin, 1992, p. 13 (quoted in Lilley, p. 105 )

While this may appear harsh, the fact remains that preservation multiculturalism
leaves many dismayed both here and elsewhere.
Instead, the play offers a fantastic range of issues. Mom, Dad, Vm Living with a
White Girl doesn't seek to tritely "bridge the gaps" between a minority culture and a
dominant culture, through the romantic liaison of a white girl and Asian boy (the basic
plot of his play), but rather to examine identity politics through the various
intergenerational misunderstandings and cultural codings. The family constellation and
the traditions and practices as well as the prejudices exhibited by the family clearly are
intended to protect and preserve. They represent the social understandings of the
community while the second generation, as enacted by Mark, rejects those values and
prefers the freedom to adopt the individual values associated with the 'west'.
In Mom, Dad, the marked cultural differences between generations set in motion
the battles of both the family and the characters of the B-plot. In terms of cultural
entanglement, inter-racial dating and mating provides the tightest contact or friction as
one or both families must find a way to resolve difference. In this piece, written with a
focus on the Chinese family, the exposure of conflict of values becomes a documentation
in the process of transculturation as the central character and his parents attempt to
negotiate their way through.

The Chinese Family in the West

Acculturation: occurs when a person is introduced into a new cultural

environment and that person begins to acquire traits from the new
country's culture (Chen, Unger, Cruz, & Johnson, 1999; Pham and Harris,
2001; Schnittker, 2002). So, acculturation for North American Chinese
families begins as immigration happens. Acquiring traits may refer to the
adoption of similar beliefs, values, and lifestyles (Chen et al., 1999).
Common terms used to describe the process of acculturation are
assimilation (Schnittker, 2002), adaptation (Pham & Harris, 2001), and
adoption (Chen et al. 1999). (Crane et al, 2005, p. 401)

The Chinese family is widely considered to be a "model" minority group because

of their low crime rate and their overall academic achievement (Sue and Okazaki, 1990).
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This image has translated into a conception among educators of Chinese students as
clever, dedicated and hard-working. For many teachers, an ideal or model student would
demonstrate obedience to rules. With home values that reinforce this, Chinese-North
American youth are deemed 'model'. Studies indicate that they not only have lower level
of delinquency than European American youth but they also have "fewer substance abuse
problems than other racial groups in North America" (Crane et al, 2005, p. 402).
Within local Toronto schools, there is widespread subscription to the model
minority conception. However, this is not without some potential problems for group
members: "The stereotyping of whole groups under what might be understood as a
positive term, model minority, still may leave the individual with a sense of distress."
(Crane et al, 2005, p. 406) To a degree, the Chan play offers some relief from that
stereotype as Mark, the central character, defies the stereotypes both in terms of his
career choice (mechanic) and his girlfriend choice (white girl of the title). Thus, the play
offers a space to process family functioning and the acculturation differences that impact
family functioning.
Previous research by Fang and Wark (1998) suggest that when their
children acculturate in different ways or at different levels,
intergenerational conflicts are almost inevitable. Tseng and Fuligni (2000)
also found that intergenerational conflicts stemming from acculturation
differences have a significant negative influence on family cohesion.
(Crane etal, 2005, p. 401)

In the literature on family communication and sets of norms, there are two
principle types which emerge: "A conformity orientation implies that parents use their
power to force their children to obey and agree with them. Conversational orientation
means that parents allow and encourage the open exchange of ideas and feelings within
the family unit." (Crane et al, p. 402) The prevalence of conformity orientation among
certain immigrant groupings, including Chinese families, as the article The Influence of
Family Functioning and Parent-Adolescent Acculturation on North American Chinese
Adolescent Outcomes suggests, creates problems as the parents, if the child deviates from
the prescribed path, seem unable to process the conflicts. Shek (2008) describes the need
for parental control as being particularly strong in Chinese families in the west and in
Hong Kong noting the saying "fu yao zi si, zi bun eng bu si" (if a father wants the child
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to die, the child cannot have the option of not dying). Trust and communication were key
to satisfaction in the parent-child relationship.
The fascinating piece in this research with respect to the performance of the play
surrounds the way in which the play may be seen as a mechanism for operationalizing a
'conversational orientation' to understand the dynamics of acculturation as it manifests in
the conformity orientation as reproduced in the figures of Mark's parents. That is, the
playwright stages the 'conformity problems' of parental control allowing the play to
become a conversation, especially relevant to the lived experiences of Chinese-Canadian
youth in the audience.
Social workers and psychologists recommend that, in working with children of
Chinese families in North America, educators as well as clinicians should "put the issue
of acculturation and acculturation differences "on the table."" Further, in order for the
family to come to an understanding about the nature of the familial conflict, it is "helpful
to reframe the conflict as an intercultural problem (ie. North American vs. Chinese)
rather than an intergenerational one" (Crane et al, 2005, p. 409).

Play-ing Family, Playing Cultural Contestations, Ridiculing Stereotypes

Returning to the play, writer Marty Chan has explored the relationships between
family dynamics and the acculturation differences. Placed in literary terms, the
acculturation differences between the generations create tensions as they process the
different approaches to dating, independence and the values of work contrasting the
Chinese values with the North American values. This generates what is deemed essential
to good drama, conflict. Thus, this rich set of social worlds produces the pre-conditions
for dramatic rendering. The struggle for identity against the acculturation of the parents
combines with the fantastical stereotypes of the B Movie genre to create quite a vivid set
of worlds in the conflict. In fact, Marty Chan struck a chord that resonated, cross-
culturally, for children from other cultures butt heads with issues of dating and work, but
most especially among Asian-immigrant families.
The Reflection on the Project
Several years later, I conducted interviews with three (about half) of the core
group who participated in this major project. The group speaks of that period of
collaboration as life-changing. Not only did they come together as a group, find
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expression of their lived cultural reality, but also it altered some of their study and career
paths. The director and two of the four central actors gave interviews after two years of
University study in their respective fields. This passage of time, three years since their
experience of the play, allowed them to reflect on the project retrospectively and to
grapple with the meaning-making of this project in their life world.
Arts Production as Experience
One aspect of the rehearsal process that was both strange and fascinating is that
the group engaged in a variety of discussions of race and, especially culture. Much of the
discussion was framed as either the pursuit of jokes about Asian identity or under the
pretext of sharing cultural insights with the non-Asian members of the group. Years
later, during the interview, I asked director Kevin about his strategy in devoting so much
rehearsal time to his odd sense of 'cultural sensitivity' exercises, for lack of a better term.
His response transmitted the excitement he felt back then:
The exercises about cultural sensitivity? Well it was just cause from when
Lisa [the white girl playing the white girl] was just exposed to so much
Asian stuff (laughs). You know, we took her to Dim Sum, we took her to
karaoke, and like we did things like the Asian chart of racism (laughs)
THAT WAS FUN. Ahm, it was just like if you're Asian, if you're
Chinese, or whatever. Everyone who speaks your own dialect is best.
And it's other Chinese people who speak other dialects, then it's other
Asians, East-Asians mind-you. Then you get a South-East-Asian, THEN
you go to whites, actually maybe whites are above South-East-Asians
because, you know, it's the entire white thing. And then your blacks. So
it was, I think it was funny for Lisa, I was going to say Persian and Lisa,
Sam [the percussionist who was of Persian background] and Lisa, it might
have helped them out... (Kevin Interview, July 2004)

This exploration of Asian food, Asian hierarchies of race was fun for everyone
involved who had a new-found licence to, among other things, order in Chinese food
rather than the de rigeur ordering of pizza, the standardized after-school snack for extra-
curricular activities at the school. Exposing the racist ideas within the community of
their parents' generation also was a relief. Though Kevin casually lists the pecking order
with 'blacks' at the end, he and the rest of the group were at least able to surface these
views.
What prompted this exploration had to do with the content of the play. The play
pushes the borders of acceptability in that it re-produces racist stereotypes. How Chan
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gets away with this is fascinating. He takes advantage of the popular racial stereotyping
of Chinese in the same way that comedians like Russell Peters play with cultural
stereotyping. In the play, the race material/racist material pertaining to Chinese culture is
performed by Asian actors. This makes it seem okay - a reclamation of sorts. Also,
there is the suggestion that the attitudes perpetuating such stereotypes are not 'race'
specific. As the white character Sally Davis puts it, racists come in all colours.
The students certainly understood that would be part of the challenge: "doing a
show about racism and.. .people's ignorance and.. .preconceptions". In the interview,
Kevin recalled that they had, at times, engaged in "racist joke marathons" because "you
kind of fall into this trap of being so desensitized that you crack horrible horrible jokes all
the time" (Kevin Interview, July, 2004).
The students found that the jokes became part of their processing and preparation
for the play:
But in a sense that kind of was our way of dealing with cultural sensitivity
— we balked at it. You know, cause we knew we were going to stir up shit
so we just became so comfortable with the material that if you walked into
some of these rehearsals... we would [have]... racist joke marathons... and
we all knew just how horrible it was but in a sense it was just us getting
comfortable with the material. (Kevin interview, July 2004)

Since Chan surfaced stereotype images, the young people explored these as well.
An interesting device that the playwright utilized involved addressing/refuting the
stereotypes through the white girl, Sally. In the play, Sally's real life job is as a script
reader, reading the screenplay of the second story - the Yellow Claw storyline. This
offers a device to unify the two worlds of reality and fantasy, and it also affords a voice
for commentary, providing criticism on such issues as stereotyping and the popular
argument that such ideas are merely exaggerations of characteristics rooted in reality.
The character's arguments get Chan off-the-hook so he can play with the stock comedy
of cultural generalizations, which often underpin the formation of stereotypes, such as the
driving skills of the Chinese or that the Chinese have an innate aptitude for math.
In the serious story-line, Chan reveals that prejudices run both directions: white-
Chinese; Chinese-white. Sometimes there's a priceless twist that moves the text into a
sophisticated space of race discourse. For instance, the white female character, finding
herself in a situation where she's not wanted by the parents, rather self-centredly remarks
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to her boyfriend, "You just don't know how it feels to be discriminated against because of
the colour of your skin." The fact that Sally fails to make the connection between her
situation in this family setting and the way that racialized groups have been treated in
society speaks to the naivete of white liberals and claims of reverse discrimination.
There's also a little dose of internalized racism surrounding the struggles of Mark
and his rejection of his parents' value system. Ultimately, Chan avoids the accusation of
racism largely because of the humour and his clever writing which manages to expose
some quite revelatory ideas in moments of surprise. Of course, people are reluctant to
allege racism of an artist who is looking at his "own people" anyways. Chan's identity
location has allowed him to write what would be condemned had a white playwright done
the same. In his article in Canadian Theatre Review, Chan (2002) describes the rejection
note that he received when he first submitted the play: "if this is a white writer then
racist, if Chinese then okay." Such is the state of judgement vis-a-vis such things; it is all
about subject position/identity location.
That the play is ultimately very comedic, with stereotypes satirically rendered and
framed in a fantasy, clearly affects reception for the audience whether they are Chinese or
white or a member of any other group. Chan dishes stereotypes both ways: white people
looking for authentic Chinese culture are silly, and Canadian identity jokes are tossed in
with the bad Chinese driver jokes. The stereotypes are pushed out into the open and
revealed for what they really are: ridiculous. Along the way, cultural values are
unpacked, stereotypes are spun out to extremes through the absurdist tone of the Yellow
peril layer. Within the naturalistic world of the traditional family coping with the White
Girl, some of the assumptions underlying racism are uncovered. Still there's humour in
its revelation. For instance, Sally Davis reveals the white blindness to discrimination
when she has this interchange with Mark's father: "Let's not invite discrimination back
into our lives." And he softly replies, "I didn't realize it had left." Depending on the
audience and the delivery, such an exchange brings down the house with recognition.
Furthermore, it manages to reveal the submerged white liberal presumptions that
frequently are unspoken.
In terms of the race politics of the play, the ribald humour that comes from the
Asian B-movie characters proves more troubling, as Chan and the actors conjure up the
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images of the wicked Dragon Lady, Ming the Merciless, and the Yellow Claw. He writes
their lines in bad pidgin English so that we can laugh at their bad accents and the
resulting absurdities of speech in what now is Borat-style humour of bad taste. Replete
with the send-up of the bad English, these demonic figures must be played satirically, but
even so.. ..they play on conceptions held during a particularly anti-Asian period in North
American society.
The playfulness within the rehearsal process opened up channels of
communication in more ways than one. Transgressions of race stereotypes provided
fodder but there were many dynamics inside the play production leading to some
fascinating cultural 'matchings'. As described, the play calls for a relationship between
an Asian male and a White female. These two students during the rehearsals for the play
also became involved in a real-life inter-racial love affair.
While interviewing the director many years later, I observe what I could make no
comment about at the time as the restraints of teacher conversation precluded such
comments: "So they fell in love during the course of playing lovers.. .1 mean it is an odd
ah, by-product.. .and they wouldn't have become involved if they hadn't been in the play
together." This relationship in the play moved from the fiction of the play to the reality
of the two students' lives. Kevin confirmed that "they are still together after all this time
[4 years]. But it wasn't really an issue during production because we were just being
juvenile about it, you know. We would make fun of them and we would put Jeffs arm
around Lisa's." Discovering that these two young people have maintained this
relationship, an inter-racial love developed in the context of the project, while attending
universities in different cities, becomes part of the ripple from that time of collaboration
among students.
Ironically, in the play, the ending suggests no such happily-ever-after result to
inter-racial matchings that must deal with the effects of acculturation differences between
the generations. Instead, the struggle surrounding parental approval, or rather
disapproval, was resolved through the relationship ending, but not particularly as a result
of the parental attitude. With the added dimension of the B movie dynamic, there can be
a political spin on the ending. For Kevin, the ending complicated several issues:
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I really like the ending.. .Because... If he went off with the white girl,
especially near the end.. .Sally's character it just became .. very, very
colonial.. .it was a very sensitive topic to script. If you were to ever write
a paper about the experience about interracial dating, for an individual,
and.. .you know, speculating if you wrote about how you'd preferred
dating someone of your own culture.. .in this type of environment, you
would almost be chastised for that. Because .., excuse me,
multiculturalism is kind of a double edged-sword. You know, where it's
better to favor someone else (laughs). Someone else as opposed to
you.. .Don't marry the Asian girl marry the White girl.
(Kevin interview, July 2004)

This is a fascinating comment on the situation facing certain young people who
do not automatically accept the expectations of their families. Rather, it may be possible
that a child whose orientation is assimilationist may believe that in a "multicultural"
framework the "right" choice is to marry outside your cultural grouping. The actual play
negotiated this question of satisfying one's self or one's parents via ending the
relationship without it being directly attributed to the pressures to conform and yet it did
seem to connect to family.
.. .it was nice that he didn't end up with the white girl and it wasn't a
cultural or social comment. THANK GOD it wasn't because I then would
have had problems, but it was just something very basic, it was just like
he's just making his mother happy.. .1 didn't change it. I took it the way it
was. (Kevin interview, July 2004)

The Pathsy Conversations and Values

For two of the participants, their participation seemed an integral step in their
decisions to seek out spaces where they might specialize in some of the aspects of East
Asian studies with an ongoing interest in "identity matters". In the case of the director,
Kevin, he has inevitably pursued a path to illuminate culture, history, language and
identity. At the time of our formal interviews, he was enrolled at McGill but he continues
to interrogate issues of race at the Masters level. For Jinny, the Asian female actor in the
group, her entire focus of interest shifted and she sought an American university known
as being quite liberal for further studies in theatre. Tom pursued his interests in media,
finding an out-of-city program at a university in a southwestern Ontario community.
Decisions at that point in life are very significant, often involving pressures from the
family.
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Jinny spoke of her altered career path and her sense of breaking with the parental
expectations that she pursue sciences.

Yeah, it really changed us. For me, it totally changed my direction as a

career. It gave me strength. Okay, this is what I want to do instead of my
plan - my ten year plan - 1 had, you know, in science, that my parents
were so excited about. I say that my parents support me [in her choice to
do theatre] but every time that I come home from LA and I express my
frustrations about the program they still, my parents still — I think it's part
of the Chinese culture where they humble me — you know, you aren't that
great, it's just talking down and it's still fighting against culture and
it's still fighting against my family values every day.
(Jinny interview, July 2004)

Jinny implies that a career in sciences is held as a family value in her Chinese
immigrant family, that her university-focus in the arts was a choice that allows them to
talk down to her. Thus, she sees very much that her path is a fight against culture in the
family and that it's a fight against her family values every day. Jinny passionately
articulates the resistance that she mobilizes in this career choice, not one often selected
by those from the model minority.
As it turned out, Kevin with his unparalleled abilities in terms of directing and
producing made a choice ultimately to gain the top-of-the-line degree path via attending
McGill University. His major in Far Eastern Studies was deeply affected by his
experience of directing the play which stimulated his interest in expanding his
knowledge. He had always known that the likelihood of him training in the arts was
slim:
Being someone of color and being artistic we DON'T TAKE the
traditional path because we.. .don't have it presented to you...taking the
artistic path meaning: becoming someone artistically we don't go to
Repertory School normally because it's not something that accepted.
(Kevin Interview, July 2004)

Kevin had enormous talent in high school, which he ascribes in part to his parents
(biology or influence not specified), and he chose to attend McGill because it was both
the best University in Canada and "faraway". That he elected to go to McGill had largely
to do with the prestige of the place though there are benefits to being "far away". With
emotional and intellectual independence from the family, many children find that this
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affords them unmediated time with the dominant culture. There is the space, the
distanciation from the home culture to decide, perhaps, what parts of your home culture
you value and what parts of white culture you value.
During our interview, Kevin speaks passionately about the weight of family
expectations that he faced to attend university:
I wish I didn't have those expectations to live up to.. .Do you know what's
it's like to have two families of NINE, you know. Extended families. My
mother and father both come from extended families of nine children and I
am the OLDEST of the new generation. And I am also the most
PROMISING of the [next] generation. SO I gotta set that standard.
(Kevin interview, July 2004)

The familial pressures in terms of University education and career path are very
strong within this cultural grouping. The playwright, himself, was a victim of wanting to
please his parents, initially entering University of Alberta to study engineering. After all,
engineers were supposed to make good money. Chan writes in his article about how he
knew that engineers drove trains so that was cool. Soon, however, he realized that his
interests were elsewhere so he transferred into the Faculty of Arts studying English and
Theatre.
In the interview with the two participants who were actors in the play, Tom and
Jinny find themselves spending the initial part of the interview each framing his/her
experience and decision-making with respect to where and how their choices had led
them into such radically different contexts as Jinny went south to California with its own
sets of histories surrounding Asian immigrants. Tom elected to attend the University of
Western Ontario where he suddenly found himself removed from familiar and
comfortable heterogeneity in Toronto.
During the course of this conversation, there are many moments when they
struggle to communicate their divergent perspectives to each other. Especially for Tom
who sees Jinny confidently declaring herself a leader of her University community in
California by virtue of being an artist within the Asian community, he wishes to validate
his own choice to live in a manner which, as he sees it, is less defined by his Asian
heritage.
When Tom enrolled in Western, known for its provision of space for the well-off
kids who are the offspring of (white) parents of privilege, he has a horrible entry to this
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world. Tom encountered many of the stereotypes surrounding Chinese Canadian students
and the expectation that he would be very smart and enrolled in Maths and Sciences or
Medicine. Tom is aware that the others, the largely white student body with whom he
shares a residence floor and classrooms, see him as 'different'. Awkwardly, his initial
introduction to campus residence was with the name on his birth certificate, Chung-li,
setting him up as the 'foreigner'. Within the interview, he described the response of the
other (white) students on his floor.
And, I remember when I first walked into my res room this big sign said,
Welcome King Lok cause my school application and my transcripts said
King Lok, instead of [Tom]. So, my roommate was so scared because he
was like "Oh, great, I have to live with this quiet engineer kid, for the rest
of this year." And, like, people walked by and they like, "Oh my God it's
King Lok, well I guess that King lok can be friends with, like, Wayne
Chung over there kind of thing." And that guy was so excited that he has
this friend.

So I had to like really break through - after I had met this whole group of
friends who went, "Oh he does speak English." So I asked them, like
what did you think when you first met me? My roommate said that he
was really scared cause he, like, "I don't' want to live with a nerd." All
these people were like,"yeah, we didn't know and if you didn't come to us
like, we wouldn't have been friends with you kind of thing." It was really
like, it really shocking, really different.

Tom's positioning within the group at the residence causes him great anxiety. His
campus welcome became an 'othering' which Tom felt it necessary to quickly dispel via
his assurance to the white students that he could be just as fun-loving and Canadian as
they are. The presumption that he would not speak English was appalling to him. The
stereotypes that students of Chinese descent experience is North American-wide as
reflected by the comments of young American Julia Lau, "Oh you're Chinese. You're
supposed to be smart.. .And it's really another standard that you have to uphold. And
another expectation you have to live by" (Louie, 2004, p. 87).
Not only did Tom wish to dispel this, but he also wished to assert his social
identity as a funky cool leader and a person whose talents in the arts extended from
comic-strip virtuoso to actor. The fact is that Tom was renowned as a fun person in his
senior high school years, putting himself forward socially, and being elected as school
Vice President.
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His eagerness to welcome everyone and to put them at ease also has, perhaps, to
do with his own dis-ease with the ambiguity of his identity location:
Interviewer: You saw yourself as being.... I remember you as the person
who explained to me the term CBC (Canadian-Born-Chinese).

Tom: I don't know. Now I guess I associate myself as Canadian... Even

before, I never felt anything for Canada. I didn't even feel that I was
Chinese. Cause I don't really speak Chinese. Like, sometimes I do kind
of think, I never really associated myself with anything, (my italics)
(Tom and Jinny Interview, July 2004)

This contrasts to the fierce and growing confidence of Jinny who gained a
fantastic sense of cultural belonging through her move to the United States. And, as she
says, it's not just America, it's California where the race dynamics are playing out big-
time.
J: We were the minorities within our own program where the whole
school, the acronym for UCLA, people joke, is called the University of
Caucasians and Lost Asians. Because there's a huge Asian population in
LA. That shocked me because like, oh, that's amazing.

Now, after living in America, I proudly claim that I'm Canadian.

Because I really don't like the culture [of America]. I talk to my peers
about that and it's like when they claim that they are Canadian, it's almost
that they are not American ... it's like to live under a someone's shadow.
(Tom and Jinny Interview, July 2004)

Oddly, a piece of this may well have to do with defining herself as Canadian in a
sea of Americans. As she says,
J: I gravitated towards this other group of people who claimed that this is
their bicultural identity. This is Chinese American.

And we are not just assimilated; we are not just American. However, I
found doing research that there are many different identities that are
stereotypical to even the Asian American identity.

Interviewer: Was that new language for you? Like, the concept of
biculturalism.

J: Yes, I felt like growing up in Canada, there is this huge part of me that
was always saying, "I'm Chinese, living in Canada." I never claimed that
I was Canadian. (Tom and Jinny Interview, July 2004)
 141

In this distinction that Jinny makes in terms of her sense of identity, she names
what some believe to be problematic about living here. The history of multiculturalism
has bred a sense of identity retention that may not be desirable. That is, immigrant
groupings in Canada seem to hold on to their country of origins longer than in the United
States.

Naming and Constructing Identity

Some of the process of naming one's self may involve the naming of the
experience of one's family members who came from away, whose struggles to assimilate
may well have been difficult. The strain of the relationship between children who may
have spent years hiding the experiences of the parent and the parent who sees the child
move away from the home culture may well be tremendous.
For the artist, the compelling 'coming to grips' with one's family heritage may
propel the creative urge. In a conversation among Asian-Canadian writers on the CBC
program Writers and Company, Denise Chong spoke of her time of reconciliation with,
and recognition of, her background. Once awakened, she described 'yearning for a link
across generations' which led her ultimately into a process wherein she 'delved into
family memory, delved into the living memory of family.' A similar drive fuels the
writing and creative work of young people and this group was no exception once
permitted. Some of Kevin's earliest poems surround powerful expressions of the 'living
memory of family'.
For many years, he had more or less hidden his parents' struggle to come to
Canada: their time in camps and their eventual journey to Canada as Vietnamese 'boat
people'. A poem that he wrote in high school portrayed a voice of an immigrant who
seeks to be understood. Indeed, that sentiment is contained in its very title, Please to
Understand. Assuming the voice of the immigrant himself, the poem addresses the
[white] reader in a pleading manner and cries out to society as it portrays the difficulty of
mis-understanding.
This resonates with pathos for the immigrant, the self-effacing and apologetic
person who finds himself unable to bridge the communication chasm. This poem by a
boy in his teens seems to honour the family experience of acculturation. Further, it
suggests great awareness as it painfully exposes the clash of customs. Reference is made
 142

to 'spitting', something unacceptable in this culture. The poem comments on the

pressure to apologize for one's customs as not fitting the new culture.
Almost an act of re-claiming the poem implores the reader in its very title, 'Please
to Understand', to offer some openness across cultural customs. At the same time, the
title suggests an obsequiousness in its earnest address to those with power, the dominant
culture, to understand the habits of those from elsewhere. This becomes quite intriguing
in a son of immigrants. Kevin adopts the voice of shame of his parents and yet by
imploring for understanding so poetically he elevates their voice into an eloquence.
In the early stages of a child's consciousness, ethnic or cultural awareness focuses
on the group's customs, but during adolescence an aspect of ethnic awareness that begins
to establish itself for youth of any cultural background is the possibility of truly seeing
one's family as outsiders do. This may vary due to factors such as the school setting and
demographic within which the child is growing up. That is, if the child is inside a school
where his/her cultural identity matches with others, then it is likely that he/she will not
see the parents as such outsiders.
There are many choices that the immigrant parent will make in terms of school
setting on behalf of their children or some parents may not be in a position to make such
choices if language and education and economics prevent that. During many interviews
over years of research, I have heard of students' declaration of parental choice in
schooling framed many ways. The matter of school choices figured large in the
discussions with young people indicating a high degree of awareness of the impact.
Jinny, the Asian female participant in the cast, spoke some of this:
J. In elementary school, there were two other Asian kids in my class. By
the time I got to Hillside, it was almost 80% of the whole school [were
Asian]. So, my sister went to key public school where it was about 90%
Asians at the school. It was strange because I know that my Mom pulled
her out of Key and put her at Harrison because there were too many
Asians there and she wanted her to have a more diverse experience with
the younger kids. I thought, "Oh, that's interesting, from my Mom.
(Tom and Jinny Interivew, July 2004)

She believed that her parents wanted their children to be exposed to the dominant
culture for reasons of language acquisition and exposure within Canadian society to peer
groups outside of their Chinese neighbors. Jinny describes the choice that she saw her
 143

parents make in terms of her sister's education: "My Mom didn't want her to go to a
school where everybody was speaking Chinese "

Naming Oneself as an Artist

In the spring of 2002, playwright Marty Chan wrote a feature article for Canada's
leading theatre journal, Canadian Theatre Review, in an issue devoted to Chinese-
Canadian theatre. He elected to entitle his article, the "Ethnic Playwright's Challenge",
which begins to suggest the tensions surrounding his own life as an artist. Early in the
article he poses questions around identity and naming of the artist:
Is there a distinction between a visible minority playwright and a
Caucasian playwright? Will an ethnic writer always be known as that
ethnic-hyphen-Canadian writer?

This naming of self in relation to the hyphenated identity of Canadians is one that
not only artists undergo. Canada, much more than the Americans with their ethos of
melting pot, has been the leading proponent of a dual-identity citizenship.
Not long into the article, Chan declares that "I feel compelled to admit that I will
always be viewed as a minority first, artist second." Well, this is somewhat distressing
not only to the writer, Chan, but also to anyone who would wish that our equality-seeking
society and plurality had moved us beyond such labels. Yet, the labeling is
acknowledged by Chan and others to be an inevitable, if uncomfortable, function of
difference. It would be easy to parallel Chan's discomfort with that of many women
writers who would prefer to shake off the label which identifies them by gender. That
someone as prominent as Margaret Atwood may still be categorized testifies to the
difficulty of the essentialized categories.
By the time that I interviewed the students who had participated in this project,
each of them had been faced with new circumstances in which he or she had to reconcile
their Asian background with their situation. For Jinny who was attending University of
Southern California in Berkeley, she was in a program of Theatre where there was a
sense of tokenism in terms of representation. She had found herself one of two Asians in
a class of 60. The program was quite homogenous. She describes the experience in this
way:
 144

My first year, because I got into theatre at UCLA and it was a class of
60, I was one of two Asians. Everyone was white. There were two other
African-Americans, there were two other Mexicans and one Indian guy.
We were always joking: "we're the quotas, we're the quotas." .... They
were like saying you guys are one of 60 out of 2000 applicants so they put
us on this standard. It was weird, though, because we looked around and
we were the minorities. (Tom and Jinny Interview, July 2004)

The recognition of representation was partly a result of the campus race dynamics
which may explain the flippancy in terms of expression. As she explained, the campus
had two large groupings of students:
We were the minorities within our own program where the whole school,
the acronym for UCLA, people joke, is called the University of
Caucasians and Lost Asians. Because there's a huge Asian population in
LA. It was weird. (Tom and Jinny Interview, July 2004)

Jinnyfound her voice outside of the actual theatre program by joining the
Association of Chinese Americans on UCLA campus where she assumed a leadership
position very rapidly. Jinny spent much of the interview discussing the need for Asian
artists to pursue their art with passion. She'd embraced the opportunity to produce a
massive project on campus:
It was under the Association of Chinese Americans on the UCLA Campus.
And every year they put on a show like this.. .it's like a festival of culture
shows. The Taiwanese club puts on a show. The Vietnamese group puts
on a show. .. .The Filipinos put on a show. It was our time, the Chinese
group. And my first reaction was like, how do I represent (I'm not even
American so how do I put that side in?) and talk about this bicultural,
biculturalities issues. Basically identity formation. (Tom and Jinny
Interview, July 2004)

Jinnyundertook to transform this major showcase for students of Chinese descent

into one of significant exploration of identity, of hybridized existence. As writer and
producer, she pulled together a radical alteration of the expectations for the show by
making it a site for identity work. Throughout the interview, it was clear that her time in
California had politicized her tremendously. Located within the hotbed of film and
television culture, she referred to protests that she had attended and the kind of activist
movement that exists there.
Tom more clearly would wish to shed the moniker of Asian artist. He said that he
doesn't want to be seen as Asian.
 145

While it may have been awkward for Tom to be open about his desired
invisibility, as much in front of Jinny whose proud sense of being Asian-Canadian at
UCLA had somewhat taken him aback, he may have found that my interest, a former
teacher with whom he had shared key teen time, had this as the pressing agenda of the
day. However, as I have become aware, and research broadly has demonstrated, the
desire for invisibility or denial of racial identity as a factor is not uncommon among
Canadian youth. At York University campus, Paul Grayson surveyed Chinese students
and found "that 50% did not consider themselves to be members of a visible minority."
What's also intriguing about this study had to do with the variable factor in terms of the
conception of self and identity:

Whether they did or not depended, not on their visibility, but on whether
their friends were mostly visible minorities or not! Furthermore, when
they were asked to identify which groups were visible minorities, while
they did mention Indians, Koreans, Chinese, Japanese and others, they
also included many populations which might usually be defined as white,
including Greeks, Italians (Synnott & Howes, 1996, p. 147)

The ways in which the young perceive themselves cannot be easily understood,
partly because of the terrific number of variables. Self-categorization involves a complex
set of factors involving situational factors of demographics, school environments and
social worlds of family and friends.
In terms of the the playwright himself, Chan grew up in a small community in
Alberta with few Asians around him. Isolated and without role models, he found that he
did experience some "sense of negative identity, struggling against the ideas of being
Chinese and wanting to define himself as Canadian". These conflicted alliances of
internalized racism are dramatically explored in the play when Mark Gee denies his
biological mother and declares his allegiance to his adopted homeland, Canada (Wong,
on-line review). Chan (2002) feels that a Chinese-Canadian identity is still being
defined. "People don't define themselves as Asian-Canadian but largely react towards
public sentiment, to be defined as an individual, versus stereotypes. At the same time
they're trying to be aware of political correctness."
 146

The Role of Media in Stereotyping and Its Fallout

As young people come to self-acceptance and social awareness, the world around
them sends messages. Many aspects of identity are being processed during the teen
years, not the least of which would involve sexuality and gender. Much of the hierarchy
within schools will take into account notions of beauty and desire without an explicit
acknowledgement. Old paradigms of beauty, including the blonde-haired and blue-eyed
cheerleader are falling away or being perpetuated depending on your perspective.
Stereotyping remains a very significant issue for those young people navigating
their way into adult identity. Several times in our interview with Jinny and Tom, talk
turned to examples of culture and racial representation. At the time, American Idol had
just made William Hung a household name in North America via the playing and re-
playing of footage of him singing very badly and presenting himself rather unattractively,
clearly while seeking notoriety. His image then was seen coast-to-coast on talk shows,
gaining him his Warhol-ian 15 minutes of fame. And yet, due to the dearth of Asians on
the screens at that time (since then, Sandra Oh has broken into night-time television
earning a Golden Globe and filling the shoes once worn by Lucy Lui on Ally McBeal as
the visible Asian female during night-time programming). But William Hung and his
racial representation offend as he had been the subject of ridicule.
Tom and Jinny had not seen each other in some time and they shared their
perspective on the Hung phenomenon and his celebrity status. Both were deeply troubled
by the way in which the media and the vast American audiences had made him famous, a
veritable household name. Jinny had been living in the United States when the
phenomenon had taken hold. Beginning from the point that it was very sad that "he
knows that people are laughing at him or he doesn't know that people are laughing at him
when he's entertaining." Noting that he was "sooooo bad that he was funny", she found
that the Asian community in L.A. shuns it [the phenomenon] whereas the Canadian
community did not.
Tom emphatically stated, "I am against him." (July 2004)
The two went on to discuss how Hung was treated in a derogatory way in the
mainstream media, something most fans surely understood as they laughed in ridicule.
 147

Tom posed a series of rhetorical questions that interrogated the cultural meaning of the
Hung obsession:
Tom: I'm totally against what is going on with William Hung. I just
think: What's so funny about him? Is it because he's Chinese? Is it
because he's a nerd?

Jinny: (interjects) He's at Berkley. My friend went to middle school with

him.

Tom: Is it because he's a brainer, because he's smart? Or is it because he

looks like he's challenged? Like, are you laughing at challenged people?
Minority? Or the fact that he's a nerd? What is the funny part? Or is it
that he's a bad singer? .. .All these things should not be a laughing matter
His CD title is called Inspiration.

With Tom in particular, the Asian male identity and its consumption in the
mainstream media impacts on his own experience while hanging out in the dominant
culture. There are negative conceptions of Asian males and masculinity that circulate
within society. That proved to be the topic as Jinny introduced another hot button
experience, an occasion for protest in California, but one that Tom was unaware of.
There was a marketing image with an Asian male with the caption: 'Asian or Gay'? In a
rather intense exchange on this, it became clear that the ad was playing with popular
ideas of Asian males as the least hegemonically masculine (Phoenix, 2004, p. 145) and a
homophobia in the general public. Masculinity could not be more in question of an entire
race than as posed in this ad. Tom, as an Asian male, was incensed.
Clearly, popular culture presents more mixed images of both masculinity and
femininity through the celebrities. However, without taking this up across
representations, on one matter of masculinity, it remains absolutely clear that the image
of Asian men as 'lovers' remains extremely limited in mainstream North American
culture. Indeed, only very recently was LOST applauded for the inclusion of an Asian
couple and Heroes features two Asian males, though hardly lover material in Season One.
These images feed into societal conceptions. With respect to masculinity in the
everyday culture of schools, boys of Asian descent are considered the least hegmonically
masculine in terms of sexualized identity according to both popular conceptions among
youth and the evidence of studies (Phoenix, 2004, p. 145 and Sewell, 1997).
 148

Chan's writing of the play resists such negative stereotyping. In staging the play,
there was a radical alteration of common perceptions and expectations insofar as, in the
play, the Asian guy has the beautiful white girlfriend. Due to casting of the play, she was
the gorgeous blonde girl. To assert the masculinity and sexualize the Asian male within
that particular school culture was radical and empowering.
This act of valorization was quite fascinating, though by no means did it become a
focus of the response. The lack of consciousness around such things, among youth as
well as adults, remains as systems are reproduced and racialising of gender involves the
lived reality of most students with little consciousness of the social construction.
Shortly after the time that the young people and I were in dialogue about the
media representations of Asians, there was a breakthrough in casting with the premiere of
Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle.
With a duo of young men from different cultural groupings, Harold and Kumar -
one Korean and one Indian - represent a new generation of Americans whose escape
from group expectation or familial pressures happens in search of a fast food place called
'White Castle'. Leaving aside the potential symbolism of the name of the restaurant, this
movie shows two guys out for a good time, a second generation assimilation that
integrates 'racialized guys' into the dominant consumption culture of America.
The New York Times review of this movie in July, 2004 "High Times: A Dumb
Stoner Comedy for a New American Century" applauded the movie as moving beyond
the usual "identity crisis that is a virtual requirement of immigrant literature." In that
genre which includes British comedies like Bend it Like Beckham and East is East and
American dramas like Real Women Have Curves, there is a "conflict between the
traditions of the old country and the alluring freedoms of the new world, between
customs that offer both confinement and continuity and choices that promise both
liberation and loss." Perhaps the New York Times has tired of such storylines but they
remain at the core of immigrant experiences, especially in certain communities such as
the South Asian32 and the Chinese communities.

Since that time, there have been some notable additions to the second generation immigrant identity struggle with
the adaptation of Juhmpa Lahiri's stunning novel, The Namesake. The sequel to "Whitecastle" sees the Asian duo in
Guantanamo.
 149

With the New York Times indicating that it's time for writers from the margins to
tell stories beyond the specificity of their cultural experiences it would be tempting to see
this as advancement. Marty Chan describes the marathon race that faces a writer wherein
he, as a writer, "soon discovered that ethnic differences can and do dictate where runners
finish." Early in his career, Chan wrote plays that had nothing to do with his Asian
background for the Edmonton Fringe Festival, plays that deliberately tackled non-Asian
characters and stories to prove that [he] was a writer first, minority second." With
feedback that suggested to Chan that he ought to write something closer to his Chinese
sensibility, he was infuriated and wrote about a Jewish song and dance man in
Confessions of a Deli Boy.
Perhaps this seems like a damned it you do, damned if you don't situation.
Empowered by their experience, already the young artists who participated in
Chan's play have produced a prodigious amount of art. Tom with his cartooning and film
and graphic design work and Jinny in producing in California are joining a vibrant
community of Asian artists on the go to make their impressions.
Concluding Thoughts
Issues of marginalized identity arose for each of these students at the same time
that they entered what is considered an elite program within an arts specialty program.
That is, the students were located within a diverse student population during their
elementary years. However, the opportunity to gain entry into the program at the
Secondary school level meant leaving a school culture within which s/he did not
understand cultural difference as a significant aspect of their world. This awareness of
difference comes into play around this time in terms of young people's development.
The group of students who performed the play were seen, read and made visible
by virtue of the voice that they found in this performance. The buzz in the school at the
time was also a testament to both the recognition factor among this large grouping of
Asian students unaccustomed to being portrayed and to the depth of resonance of the play
as an excellent piece about how to negotiate familial conflicts and differences. The
experience of the play allowed for these young people to understand themselves as young
Asian artists with something to say. The opportunity to explore their own community,
their own family dynamics during the process of performance afforded them an
 150

incalculable benefit in terms of identity construction, if one may state it so boldly.

Through the play, the students were able to declare their Asian-ness and not be struggling
to hide it while adapting to the presentations of the dominant culture which by and large
constituted the curriculum and extra-curricular activities of the school.
However, this being an arts-specialty school, the response of those arts students
was crucial to the status of the piece as marginal or mainstream in the life of the school.
The astonishment of the white Drama students to the reception of the play including their
own responses - laughing at the rendering of stereotypes and feeling for the struggles
between children and parents - was quite astounding. That the work would speak across
differences had not been a certainty within this landscape. Indeed, the privileging of
Eurocentric curriculum at the school engendered a sense of superiority of stories. As
well, the students' preferred wacky sensibilities evolving out of a constant diet of popular
culture meant that there was danger of the project being seen as less significant. That the
white students grasped the powerful significance of the project was rewarding as it de-
stabilized the borders.
Drama is an inherently social activity drawing together a team of people in a
collaborative environment in order to realize a project. Who participates in projects
within school spaces must be constantly questioned. In several schools, the programming
is such that the extracurricular drama activities remain dominated by white students. Yet,
there are sound arguments that such activities would be ideal in terms of addressing the
very real needs of certain groupings to enhance certain skills. In this case, the project not
only gave voice but also re-integrated a significant grouping into the cultural life of the
school, suggesting both that the programming could be altered and that conceptions
surrounding communication could be altered. In the area of social interaction, the play
provided an increased vocalizing for the non-dominant community. Some studies
suggest the need for this:
Researchers have consistently found that Asian American adolescents are
less socialized in group settings than European American adolescents.
... Akazadi found that in comparison with European American
adolescents, Asian American experience more social anxiety and concern
in interpersonal situations. Lorenzo, Pakiz, Reinherz, and Froist (1995)
also found that Asian American adolescents are more depressed and
 151

socially isolated than their European American counterparts. (Crane et al,

2005, p. 401)

The intense social experience not only for the cast and crew of the production, but
also for the audience was highly transformative in the school environment. Young people
who work together in a collaborative setting producing art of meaning find this a
powerful experience. Lifelong friendships may be formed. While this may take place
with many types of projects - everything from the casts of school musicals to basketball
team players - the unique nature of identity exploration affords young people a space of
dialogic engagement with peers who are at the same point of development and
experiencing the same struggles with family, the same contestations surrounding
reception in the society including prejudices. Jinny describes something of this special
bond:
Jinny: I think why we stayed friends is that we went through such a
powerful experience together.

To grow as people and to grow as artists. After Mom, Dad happened, it

was very hard to explain the experience to my other friends. And I knew
I gravitated toward Tom, Jeff and Lisa... .because we shared this thing.
At that time, we didn't even know how meaningful it was. We just knew
that we had this bond, that something was there, something was
marvelous. (Tom and Jinny Interview, July 2004)

The work involves a high degree of collaboration and community sharing. Peter
Eckersall (2005) speaks of performing arts in an intercultural sphere where new spaces
are opened-up where progressive interactions between cultures may take place.
A compelling reason to promote Voice' must clearly be so that young people may
go on to contribute not only as well-rounded citizens, but also as artists in their own right.
Jinny, who pursued her studies at UCLA accomplished and contributed a great deal to
that cultural milieu... .perhaps because of her empowered sense as a creative person with
something to say. Within two years of being there, she'd created a major cultural event
for the Association of Chinese Americans on the UCLA campus. The content of the
story was both epic and highly personal. Involving dozens of performers in a large-scale
celebration, the play nevertheless told a highly personal story of cultural identity, conflict
and struggle. Our exchange about her creation which drew an audience of thousands
demonstrates an artist confident in her vision for the storyline of her project:
 Jinny: It's a personal story. A very very cathartic experience for me and
it was dealing with a lot of racism that I've been through. Dealing with a
lot of family values that have been conflicting about my career choices.
Basically the story is about a girl who wanted to dance and her Dad, ...
her first generation Dad gave up his opportunities because he had to
support the family and he had to think basically about something practical
and so he was pushing his daughter to study medicine. And we joke about
the big power three career choices as being a doctor, lawyer or engineer
because that's the most practical, or seems to be for our generation.
Talking to a lot of people.. ..I called my parents' generation which is the
first generation, the generation of Y and I would call our generation X
where we're so lost because we don't know really where we are going
because we have opportunity now, so much opportunity.

Interviewer: Which would be true of any ethnicity to some extent... .but

it's more of an issue in a community where the parents have so recently
come, I guess. Because the values would be so much greater, would that
be true?

Jinny: Sometimes it's conflicting values. North American values and

Chinese values specifically in this case. Cling on to being an artist, doing
something you want to do, you want to pursue, you want to do personal
growth wise or continuing playing with honour and tradition and being a
doctor and you can support the family and it's secure. So, I was trying to
deal with a lot of those.

Jinny found her own voice arguably through her earlier participation in Chan's
play. She subsequently had to vision and creativity to stage the contestations of
acculturation within a family for and audience of thousands in California. Her style was
spectacle with music and dance as part of the whole, adopting a style of fusion
performance more to her own taste. Her delight and energy establishes a forum for
dialogue wherein large communities of young people are touched and freed to speak.
The value of Chan's and Jinny's exploration of cultural identity as it plays as
acculturation in families cannot be underestimated.
Florsheim noted that "Chinese North American adolescents who reported having
controlling parents tended to perceive themselves as less socially adept than those with
less controlling parents." (Crane et al, 2005, p. 403) The effects of such sociological
trends must be taken into account; the fact that this affects certain groupings more than
others ought to be understood more widely by those who teach and work with the young
on up into adulthood. There may be distress that needs special attention as "some studies
 153

have found more severe emotional problems such as depression among Asian American
college students as compared to European Americans (Greenberger & Chen, 1996;
Okazaki, 1997)." (Crane et al, 2005, p. 406)
This public presentation of what might be described as internalized racism has
provoked some discussion partly because of the enormous draw that this play has had
across Canada. In the essay, Yellow Fever, Yellow Claw, Yellow Peril: Performing the
Fantasy of the "Asian-Canadian", Joanne Tompkins33 (2003) couples "Mom, Dad..."
with Yellow Fever by Rick Shiomi to discuss the "anxiety associated with the
performance of racialized stereotypes." Her analysis develops ideas of how the
stereotypes are mobilized in this complex work, commenting on the "highly performative
reconstructions and deconstructions of racialized stereotypes in order to explore the
anxieties surrounding their continued manifestations." She draws on Bhabha's work,
concluding that the both plays "disrupt the effects of stereotypes from within the
stereotypes themselves." Thus, the plays successfully reveal "the layers of stereotype as
construction, they productively duplicate the expected location of/for Asian-Canadian
subjects." (p. 299)
Kevin, the director, commented a few years later on the views of the young
people who enacted this:
Ahm, we had problems with the play, in some respects, it wasn't
necessarily the cultural sensitivity. I think it was, what am I trying to say
here, (pause) they WERE single sided characters. They are LIMITED
characters.. .(there's one line where Mark actually says, these aren't
stereotypes Sally, I've, I've, grown up with them my entire
life).. ..especially with the parents, the acupuncturist father, the stay at
home mother who can't speak a word of English, it's not your most
balanced script...[but] it served its purpose. (Kevin Interview, July 2004)

These are important issues that may arise with satirical writing. Yet, the content
of the play raises many significant issues beyond stereotype. With reference to the play,
Asian Media Watch (on-line source) rhetorically asks, "How is self-identity impacted by
the constraints that internalized racism places on the non-white individual, in particular
when dating someone of the dominant culture —what anxieties are revealed?"

Tompkins' essay raises important issues and is recommended for those who wish to explore the Chan play and its
handling of race and stereotype in greater depth.
 154

One of the experiences for young people who are minority group members within
the world of their school and peers involves their growing understanding of their identity
location as understood by others. While anxiety frequently occurs, there comes to be a
therapeutic release in controlling the image-making, in performing the 'roles' which in
the play are both stereotypical and very real in the anxiety expressed by the two young
people whose wish to continue an interracial couple threatens the traditions of the
parents.
This anxiety was playing out and continues to in varying degrees within the
artistic team. In secondary school, it was most evident in the life of director Kevin who
acknowledges that he was always dating white girls in high school, despite his parents'
wishes. He processed much of this while immersed in the world of Chan's creation.
Jinny found that her dating of a non-Chinese man in University set off the sorts of
tensions that she had 'staged' both in the Chan play and her own creation in California.

Hyphenated Identity in the In-Between

Jinny and the other participants have a highly developed sense of identity forged
out of a range of experiences. The reflexive capacity and self and cultural knowledge
generated from the staging of the play set them up for a life of awareness - for better and
worse. Their understanding of their inescapable is highly developed
Jinny: Here, I'm an immigrant. I am living in Canada and then you have
the Canadian Born Chinese and there's always friction there. Because they
always say that if a CBC were to go to Asia just by the way they dress, the way
they walk, the way they talk, they would be treated differently because they
knew... .even though that's their group, that's like the Mainland, they know that
you are a North American.

Then, in North America, you are treated like you're not North American.
So, there's that whole grey area. What am I? Am I Canadian Born Chinese? But
my Chinese community kind of shuns me and my North American side kind of
shuns me so we are just in this margin on our own and we are just this grey area.

Jinny describes the experience of being in between in the sense of between

cultures: the experience of being shunned by both groups - the Chinese community and
what she in this particular speech describes as the 'North American' community. She
elaborates further on the ways that CBCs will attempt to distance themselves from the
 155

first generation immigrants as she engages in animated discussion with Tom who has
declared his reluctance to hang out with immigrant Chinese youth.
Jinny: So it's like,,,, this is a very fine line. Not even. There's this other
grey area between the Canadian Born Chinese and the people who just
immigrated here, like, first generation. And then second, third fourth have
a clash because first generation, I think, because the first generation have
such negative stereotypes to tag onto the identity. The second generation,
the third generation they don't want to associate with them because they
don't want to be seen as immigrants. They don't want those same
stereotypes like "Oh, we're immigrants and we can't speak good English
and whatever even though we are born here." So, there's that within the
same community, which I find interesting, there's a clash. (Ton and
Jinny Interview, July 2004)

The culture clash within communities of 'difference' often remain

unacknowledged in discussion of ethnic identity except among those who are living it
and those who study it. Mere generational conflict does not account for this.
Ien Ang, the noted cultural theorist, describes her struggles with hyphenated
identity despite her own non-identification with Chinese identity as suggested by the
chapter title, On Not Speaking Chinese. The outsider status of Asians falls into what she
and others before her have called the West and the Rest. The "hegemony of the
asymmetrical relationship" reinforces the potency of the category Asian as a category of
difference from the West. The impact on the sense of self is profound and problematic
(Ang, p. 4). In the case of Ang, she had wished to escape such a marker as she presented
as a fully 'assimilated' intellectual from Holland. Nevertheless, she experienced the
imposed 'location' of Chinese inescapably based on phenotype and ancestry. Puzzling
out the identity matters preoccupies many diasporic re-located artists and intellectuals,
especially as their personal contexts shift.
For young people who are aware, the realization may come quite early. By the
age of twenty, Kevin was able to name the dilemma: "I think if anything the entire
feeling that I'm always going to be in this "in-between place" in terms of cultural identity
was hammered down when [I] spent a month in Asia."
Speaking like one of the diasporic intellectuals, but based on personal experience,
he realized that wherever he is, he will be interstitially placed. Stepping into Asia, Kevin
found that he only partially belonged, yet appeared to in his appearance. Yet, upon his
 156

return to Canada, he also realizes that he is not fully accepted in certain spaces due to his
appearance. His return to Canada brought a Chinatown experience that solidified this
realization:
K: Ironically enough, the first place I went to, when I came back to
Toronto...was Chinatown.. .Bizarrely comforting but, but, disconcerting at
the same time.. .you really are made aware of your difference by virtue of
the way that you dress, the way that you speak, your views on life (laughs)
and interactions from other people.. .its' really weird to have everyone
assume that you can't speak Chinese when you speak with a North-
American accent and for you to understand everything that they're saying.
Girls would giggle because I spoke the way that I did and some people got
angry. (Kevin Interview, July 2004)

There is no space, it seems, to feel comfortable. Elsewhere in the 'marketplace',

the markings of phenotype prevent assimilation.
Ang asserts that "even the most westernized non-Western subject can never
become truly, authentically Western. The traces of Asianness cannot be erased
completely from the westernized Asian" we will always be "almost the same but not
quite", because we are "not white" (Bhabha 1994: 89) (Ang, p. 9). Linking this to her
own experience, she remains "Inescapably Chinese by descent, I am only sometimes
Chinese by consent. When and how is a matter of politics." (Ang, p. 51) With respect to
identity and identifications, perhaps it becomes clear here that the essentialized reading of
the individual by those outside renders an identity through the eyes of others and yet the
identification may be highly limited and without consent.

The Aesthetics ofHybridity and a Hybrid Aesthetic

The innovative blend of the two levels of the play - the family conflict and the
satirical Yellow Peril results in hybrid aesthetics akin to a form of magic realism relying
on Asian myths and legends. There has become a trope of sorts within the art of
immigrant experience wherein the uprooted protagonist's search for belonging in a new
Western environment, while initially suggesting conflict and alienation, often culminates
in an epiphanic process entailing a hybrid fusion of the characters' dual cultural
allegiances. This emerges out of the unique forces. Lilley describes the "... ways in
which the Chinese are 'trapped in perplexity as a result of the inconsistencies between
 157

our cultural heritage and the advent of modernity'" (Lilley, p. 63). The layering of the
two and exposure of the conflict within the performance process lays bare the
contestation. Of this style, "the representation of a fantasized ancestry can be a form of
recovery, an overcoming, however fleetingly, of spatial and temporal rupture (see
Chakrabarty 1992:18 and Shohat 1994:67)" (Lilley p. 63). From rupture to suture, the
aesthetics of art of hybridized identity and stories of migration may illumine the interplay
of heritage and modernity. The bricolage effect assists in guiding the negotiation of self
in a stressed young person.
In speaking of recovery, it is instructive to again note the powerful authoritarian
traditions in Chinese cultures. As our global attentions increasingly attend to the new
economic powerhouse, there emerges a curiosity about the changes within China which
are nothing short of revolutionary. Whereas the revolution which played out under Mao
was communism, now rapid alterations are in process to establish a capitalistic
framework. There have emerged new turns of phrase to signal change. The 'devouring'
quality of traditions has been captured in a vivid phrase... .Hek yan ge laigau or 'the
customs and traditions that devour people'. (Lilley, p. 25).
Change is indeed coming there, most especially in the rapidly industrialized parts.
Wealthy southern Guangdong area is cited as the most prominent example of economic
and political power in a local authority. Along with that change, the social structures and
the culture of necessity change too. Some commentators refer to Guangzhou as having
an 'alloy culture' (hejin wenhua) mixing East and West, or a 'window culture'
(chuangkou wenhua) of cosmopolitan trading connections (ibid, p. 25).
The zones of hybridity move on out.
 CHAPTER FIVE
Performing Race
performance art: "the praxis of postmodern theory, performance art
espouses the critique of cultural codes and the development of political
agency. A pedagogy founded on performance art represents the praxis of
postmodern ideals of progressive education, a process through which
spectators/students learn to challenge the ideologies of institutionalized
learning (schooled culture) in order to facilitate political agency and to
develop critical citizenship" (Garoian, 1999, p. 39)

The saliency and centrality of race in understanding the schooling

experiences, as well as social and political actions and interpretative
practices, of African-Canadian youth cannot be underestimated.

(George Dei, 1997)

Within this section, Andy, a young African-Canadian man, creates a performance

piece which explores how variables in his choice of dress and image, ie. his personal
representation, complicates how the social world sees him. The performance stands as an
act of identity politics, engaging his audience in a gentle confrontation about how he is
positioned. During interviews, he describes his life path which was altered quite
radically by his placement in an arts specialty program which offered great opportunity
yet with the price of a de-stabilized sense of identity. Whereas in Secondary school he
was exposed to the great artistic works of the theatre, he seldom was exposed to theatre
about the cultural world of those who looked like him nor did he have any sense that his
experiences and lived reality had a place in the curriculum of the school. As he looks
back, he recalls this one performance piece as an act which broke through, a (cri de
coeur \ a peculiar personal testament which seemed to say, "Do you see me? Now, you
see my race and clothes. Now I will change what you see... "

158
 Description/Documentation of Performance (recorded by Andy)

The stage in black - then a gangster hip hop song is played - and lights up
on me walking on stage with a du-rag (head wrap) a baggy sweat shirt, baggy
jeans and running shoes.

I then had a seat in front of the audience and began listing off stereotypical
words and phrases associated with my dress, such as:

THUG

TROUBLEMAKER

UNEDUCATED

GANGSTER

NIGGER

ETC.

At that point the music changes to soft rock-rock/alternative - 1 stand up

and begin removing my clothes -starting with the du-rag, next pulling off the
sweatshirt to reveal a button-up shirt, next the jeans revealing the form-fitting
khakis that the button up is tucked into and finally I change the running shoes to
dress shoes.

I then take another seat in front of the audience and begin listing off
stereotypical names and phrases associated with what I'm wearing, such as:

PREP

OREO

ARTICULATED

WHITE WASHED

GOOD STUDENT

APPROACHABLE

ETC.

Then lights fade into black. Scene.

 160

Critical Race Theory Analysis of the Work

In response to the performance created by Andy several years back, there are
several levels or frameworks of analysis that might come into play. The rich and open
structure of the piece teases the viewer to confront his/her own tapes with respect to the
formation of attitudes towards a person - significantly, in this case an African-Canadian
male, more commonly understood culturally as the young black male - based on their
dress and image. So, the piece viscerally engages the viewer in understanding the
construction of the representation in daily life based on highly charged matters of
clothing and appearance.
Carefully created to present two opposing images of the same person, viewers
become aware that the music and clothes guide their understanding and reading of him.
The spoken word play on how he may be classed by viewers riveted the audience.
Singular, loaded words, those that constitute the unspoken race tapes (cf. Razack)
provided a bedtrack. Thus, he who was being watched or consumed spoke to the
stereotypes on which prejudice feeds. 'Gangster' and 'uneducated' link to the n-word
which resonated in a room of viewers who were by and large, white and privileged.
These same viewers could no longer take comfort in the image that resembled 'them' as
that type was deemed false in 'prep' and 'oreo'. Simple, grounded in the quite mundane
everyday fashion choices of the times, the performance confounded viewers even as it
brought into high definition their own preconceptions.
There may be value in an exploration of the piece through the lens of three critical
frameworks. In each case, an analysis not only speaks to us about how we see the work
of art but also suggests a possible intentionality of the creator, Andy.
Race and Representation
Ogbu's (1988) anthropological descriptions of the roles available to African-
American teenage boys include those portrayed by Andy. Presenting initially as
gangster, an image strongly ethnically identified with "street", he transformed himself
into a mainstream image which Ogbu described as "squares" and "ivy Leaguers".
The re-inscribing of racial stereotypes occurs on a daily basis, en-acted upon the
black male body. Through the reduced use of language, this performance art work
sustained time and gaze in order to force the audience to acknowledge their own reliance
 161

on race to form judgements. The first of the representations exposed the fear factor when
it comes to the black male body.
In his chapter on 'Racism and the Aesthetics of Hyper-real violence', Henri
Giroux (1996) discusses the impact of media on shaping the response of the public to
black youth. Coverage of violence outside the cinemas that were showing gangsta films
managed to show both the real and symbolic representations of black-on-black violence.
Media, then, fails to examine the root causes - the social injustices - which cause the
violence but rather:
the representation of black youth was used as a vehicle to thematize the
causal relationship between violence and the discourse of pathology. Such
racially coded discourse serves to mobilize white fears and legitimate
"drastic measures" in social policy in the name of crime reform, (p. 56)

There is increased consciousness of the pitfalls of such stereotypical inscriptions.

While Andy plays with one of its sources by his use of gangster rap, there has been a
frenzy of media manufacturing of such fears and racist conceptions. Michael Moore, first
in his television series TVNation and later in his Oscar-winning movie Bowling for
Columbine, shows a montage of news footage, which over several decades of repeated
invocation of the black man on news broadcasts would stereotype and profile the young
black male as the iconic criminal in robbery, rape and violent crimes. This, despite the
fact that more whites commit crimes yet remain unidentified - by race - when the news
reports bother to broadcast of their exploits at all.
In Canada, a debate ensues each time that crime statistics are considered. To
what purpose or to what end will those statistics be used? Will the interpreters be able to
recognize that, if there is a trend of crime among black youth, this ought to connect to the
underlying contributing factors ranging from poverty to the unfair, arguably racist,
immigration policies whose effects separate young children from their mothers through
the terms of the federal government's Live In Care program? Under that policy, only the
worker may come to Canada, leaving children behind, in order to work in a more or less
indentured situation prior to any family re-unification. The 'barrel children' become de-
stabilized entrants to a country that is alien, with the bond broken between them and their
parent. That this has shaken the foundations of West Indian families for decades is little
understood.
 162

The performance piece by Andy plummets and critiques similar cultural

representations to those of the critical race theorists. When dressed in hiphop gear, Andy
asks what we see? Holly Sklar entitled her article in Z magazine, 'Young and Guilty by
Stereotype'; similarly, Andy might well have named his performance 'young and guilty
by stereotype'.
Andy, through his creative work, asked what do we see when we look at him,
dressed in certain clothes, surrounded by certain music? It was an image of urban black
youth. From the positioning of a white audience member, I believe that most would
understand in that moment that the sight of a young black male dressed in that style of
clothing taps into our fears. Danger and potential violence are read into the image.
Safely sitting in a theatre classroom, the mostly white audience could deconstruct their
notions of the other.
This would not be difficult for many have become aware that "the construction of
African Americans in the media encourages viewers to perceive this group as dangerous
and drug-crazed" (McCarthy, cited in Giroux, 1996, p. 36) The performance piece may
be read as an indictment of the commodification of identity. Clearly, the piece suggested
that images of popular culture construct the views of the young black male.
Yet, Andy chose to present himself in a clearly-defined image of young black
male body. Most especially, Andy set up the initial image of himself in the image of
hiphop, an image for which he was not known among the audience members. So, why
hiphop? On the simplest level, this had become an expected image for young black men.
This readily reproduced image can provide a refuge into a certain youth
subculture. Ibrahim (1998) develops an ethnography of performance in order to trace the
performativity of resistant language use - and particularly black stylized and hiphop
English - and embodied identification through stylized dress and performance among
francophone African immigrant youth marginalized within the franco-Ontarian school
system. (Ibrahim, 1998, Abstract)
Rinaldo Walcott (2003) joins other cultural theorists who look at hiphop culture,
perhaps North America's most significant subculture to emerge and empower as it
infiltrates mainstream pulse. American Tricia Rose views the language, style and attitude
of hip-hop as expressing a critique of the condition of urban youth who face
 163

unemployment, racism, and marginalization in a postindustrial economy. Her analysis

emphasizes a "reading of hip-hop as a gesture of resistance by youth who are
marginalized by existing political and social structure, echoing the interpretations of
earlier cultural studies theorists... [who referred to these].subcultures as sites of
resistance..." (in Maira, 1999, p. 46)
The Semiotics of Identity: "Signs" in Youth Culture

As an act of performance, the piece created by Andy forced audience

members to note his altered clothing and accoutrements as signifiers with which he
would play. Engagement with him would make the viewers aware of their reading of him
as a product of the signs which he would control in each segment and rhetorically force
the viewer to become conscious in their reading of his black male body. What was
remarkable was to see the artist's assertion of his right to signify; on the other hand, what
was disturbing was to be forced to recognize that his identity would be read so differently
by us depending on his choice. Each time, the inscribing of identity was both
empowering and limiting.
This representation enacts the dialectic of cultural difference. Beginning with a
set of signs which place Andy in the zone of acting white, he underlines what was
mimicry in colonialist discourse. Bhabha (1994) identifies the central dynamic of
mimicry as the "strategic failure" that fixes the colonialist subject in the repeated image
of a reformed, recognizable Other... .that is almost the same but not quite" (pp. 86-87).
Notions of the colonial subject engaging in mimicry emerged through the writings of
Fanon. Bhabha suggests a reading of Caillois who argued that "the subject loses itself in
space, confused about identity and the boundaries of the self. Mimicry is a passive/active
form of representation, of simulation...."
In a time of hybrid assimilation, the sting of mimicry perhaps subsides and may
no longer be understood as the asymmetrical relationship of colonizer and colonized
fades. But, here, the notion is useful as Andy gestures toward the "preppy" image as
acquired. Almost as a form of mimicry, the audience sees him take it on. The terms that
he himself repeats suggest the loaded nature of "acting white": prep, oreo, good student.
The signification had to do with his response to stereotyping. Dei et al. report that
"black students repeatedly revealed instances in which they were subject to stereotyping.
 164

Often these stereotypes made a real impact on how they (black students) were perceived
by others and how they began to perceive themselves." (Dei et al., 1997, p. 115) The
relief from the tyranny of such stereotyping may be in developing a consciousness of
them, transforming the power, using the signs to expose the phenomena.
Andy's embrace of a semiotics of self suggested a level of sophistication in
thought about what forces are at play in the lives of black youth. Representation clearly
preoccupies this grouping in multiple ways as notions of beauty produced within
mainstream culture produce images that forcefully and forcibly affect self-image. Hair
straightening and skin lightening now have been joined by hair dying and extensions as
groups like Destiny's Child re-imagine the beauty myths.
For young black males the racial profiling of the media and the police produce a
sense of marginality and fear of being mis-seen and imagined as criminal. Further, the
force of these images leads to internalization of those same conceptions, now normalized
and commodified in the popular culture.
These forces are not new but translations of historical forces. Stuart Hall, in his
essay, Cultural Identity and Diaspora speaks to the traumatic character of the colonial
experience and the ways representation enforced psychic trauma:
The ways in which black people, black experiences, were positioned and
subject-ed in the dominant regimes of representation were the effects of a
critical exercise of cultural power and normalization. Not only, in Said's
"orientalist" sense, were we constructed as different and other within the
categories of knowledge of the West by those regimes. They had the
power to make us see and experience ourselves as "other".. ..It is one thing
to position a subject or set of peoples as the Other of a dominant
discourse. It is quite another thing to subject them to that "knowledge",
not only as a matter of imposed will and domination, but by the power of
inner compulsion and subjective conformation to the norm. (p. 394)

The experience of self as "other" arises for young black males almost inescapably
as the construction of the media reporting galvanizes around the image of the
'dangerous'.
Franz Fanon, in Black Skin, White Masks, reacts in highly evocative terms to the
power of the gaze as both an internal and external force. The impact on the psyche is
cataclysmic:
 .. .the movements, the attitudes, the glances of the Other fixed me there, in
the sense in which a chemical solution is fixed by a dye. I was indignant;
I demanded an explanation. Nothing Happened. I burst apart. Now the
fragments have been put together again by another self. This "look", from
- so to speak - the place of the Other, fixes us, not only in its violence,
hostility and aggression, but in the ambivalence of its desire.
(Quoted in bell hooks, 1992, p. 116)

The violence affects the 'self; this rupture of self into fragments speaks to the
power of the glances, the gaze which would fix the 'other'.
In naming the 'gaze' and re-presenting himself, certainly Andy claims his agency.
The political nature of the "looking" relations are exposed and made explicit... As an act
of resistance and self-affirmation. Andy's performance exposed the source of everyday
racism as pre-conceptions surround black identity. Philomena Essed developed the
notion of everyday racism which Frances Henry (2004) discusses in the introduction to
Challenging Racism in Arts: "the many and sometimes small ways in which racism is
experienced by people of color" (p. 5).
Bell hooks, carrying on from Fanon, speaks of the politics of the gaze and what
she terms the "looking relations":
The "gaze" has been and is a site of resistance for colonized black people
globally. Subordinates in relations of power learn experientially that there
is a critical gaze, one that "looks" to document, one that is oppositional.
In resistance struggle, the power of the dominated to assert agency by
claiming and cultivating "awareness" politicizes "looking" relations - one
learns to look a certain way in order to resist, (p. 116)

As this applies to the performance art work, the simple act of looking back at the
viewers altered the relationship in a time when the racialized body was the performance.
In this act of awareness, the young black male challenged the viewers to assess their own
prejudices and stereotypes.
Phenomenology of Identity
One of the tremendous values of student projects which are based on identity
exploration has to do with the coming to consciousness in terms of their lived
experiences. This may be understood as phenomenological investigation. Turning to the
theoretical writings of Levinas, Husserl, and Merleau-Ponty, the movement toward
consciousness may be seen as vital to the human experience.
 166

This naming of experience, of demonstrating a knowledge about one's place in

the world, falls into the category of knowledge that Levinas describes in his chapter
Ethics as First Philosophy. There, he describes 'thinking through knowing' and finds a
metaphor for such an act.
A certain grasp: as an entity, being becomes the characteristic property of
thought, as it is grasped by it and becomes known. Knowledge as
perception, concept, comprehension, refers back to an act of grasping.
(Levinas, 1989, p. 76)

Levinas goes on to site Husserl and the concept of intentionality. Husserl invites
us to question the intentionality of consciousness; he wants us also to ask "What are you
getting at?" to determine the intention, calling the units of consciousness acts.
In witnessing a child naming his experience of the world in relation to how he is
seen, the viewer may be struck by the assertion of identity through definition of self in
relation to the world. This new-found intentionality, when coupled with a distinctly
racialized force in its representation, speaks to an affirmation of difference. When seen
this way, the piece created by Andy becomes a declaration of self as fluid, codified by the
clothes and the rituals. However, that returns us to the semiotic understanding. Instead,
the viewer may find the work of art utterly compelling as an act of declaration and
affirmation of ego (moi).
The mutability of Andy's identity based on the codifiers of costume and
accoutrement suggests that the piece is fundamentally, and best read, as a semiotic
investigation. However, the subsequent disquietude surrounding identity experienced by
Andy over a three year period and stated by him as the desire 'not to be seen' suggests
that a full analysis of the piece must lead to his sense of dis-embodied identity, of his life
as a set of floating signifiers. So, the difference of interpretation surrounds the movement
to the emotive level of artist seeking self. Does Andy gesture toward a crisis of being
when he exposes himself - with intention - to the gaze of viewers and asks them what
they see? Seen by contemporaries who are themselves in the throes and clutches of youth
culture, the question may remain at the level earlier described under Top Culture'. But
when the viewer understands the loaded identity issues of a marginalized group, then the
piece carries the pained resonance of the entire grouping and the individual struggle. The
 piece then is imbued with the emotion for oneself, for oneself as member of a group seen
and characterized by the world as criminal and to be feared.
This would lead to the expression of self as existing within the 'state in which one
may be found', which is the translation for the Heideggerian term, Befundlichkeit. That
Andy understands himself to be defined by the societal pre-judice, by eyes which have
bought into stereotypes, which is deeply affected by the coding of dress belies the
modern liberal discourse which would deny race.
Reflection on the Project
The analysis of the piece through the lenses of several discourses - both
philosophical and aesthetic, as well as cultural - was undertaken without reference to the
stated intentionality of the artist for a number of reasons. First of all, this project of
unpacking the meaning of race in the life of a young black man might be dismissed as
just an ordinary process in the development of a child - who happens to be of a racial
minority. Secondarily, though, there is an intriguing pre-judging which might occur
should the intent of the creator or even his biography reach the reader first34. My interest
was in focusing meaning on the artistic work itself.
Prior to our taped interview, Andy outlined some of his past experiences at the
school which informed his creation of this piece. His introductory paragraph captures
some of the negotiation of identity which transpires in this particular school space:
I'm going to start with why I wrote this piece to begin with. It wasn't
until grade nine that the issue of race relations became a problem. There
was a whole new set of rules that I was expected to play by - a whole new
protocol for relating to my peers. Up until that point everyone related to
one another on the same level, and decisions of who to hang out with
never rose above who liked playing certain sports, who was up for bike
riding after school, who had the nerve to venture off school property, or
who was taking the school bus home with you. Now I was bombarded
with who's a Claudie and who's not - 1 rephrase, who's artsy enough to be
considered a Claudie - are you a hip hopper, Goth, JAP, Black, White,
Chinese, Canadian born Chinese. Do you play hacky sac at lunch or do
you smoke pot? The categories and definitions are endless - despite the
confusing hypocrisy most people tended to adapt well to their new labels,
and the world of high school continued to turn. I always felt, along I'm

This refers to a potential pitfall in critical engagement with a work of art. Contemporary fascination with the
artist's biography may lead to a possible misinterpretation of the work based on such details.
 168

sure hundred of other students that the general population of the school
had a hard time placing me - they just kept missing the mark.

Andy states an awareness that the context for negotiation around issues of identity
- both in terms of culture and in terms of other pieces, in this case 'arts-specialty'
students - radically alters with the move from elementary school to secondary school.
Consistent with the statements of many students interviewed for the Rainbow Project and
for other studies, the easy heterogeneous grouping of children in friendships across
cultures during elementary school may well be altered with the move to secondary
school.
Andy follows this general first paragraph with his reflections upon the very
specific treatment he received surrounding his racial identity, as he recalls those feelings
two years after graduating from this high school. Interestingly, Andy chose to structure
this as a paragraph about the how the black community read him and a paragraph
following about how the white community saw him. Indeed, he describes an 'outsider'
status in each case:
From the black population of the school came emanating vibes of
somehow not being black enough. For starters there was a certain dress
code that I didn't adhere to - 1 had a way of speaking that was
unacceptable for a black guy - and ... I was probably plagued by a little
bit of classism because I wasn't from the housing project that the majority
of the black population stemmed from.

From the white population of the school their efforts to strip my black
cultural identity - by calling me an Oreo, which was to imply that I was
white washed - but never letting me forget that I was black through racial
jokes, was an equally pathetic attempt to label me as the black community
had done. As for the remaining demographic of the school they seemed
rather indifferent towards this kid who liked button-up shirts, baseball
caps, who listened to hip hop, as well as alternative, reggae, dance, jazz,
and who preferred rugby over basketball. (Andy written statement)

In the paragraph which describes his experience within the racial grouping of the
"black population" of which he was a group member (albeit in essentialist terms), his use
of words to express the negative experience of his outsider status include: "not being
black enough", "didn't adhere to", "unacceptable". The rejection of the peer community
was complicated by Andy's separate education in the arts-specialty stream of the school
which was deemed by many to be an elite of largely privileged students. The rate of
 participation of black students in the program was woefully low, partly because
admission in elementary school depended on early grooming and arts enrichment
provided by parents who sought the program as a sort of private school within the public
school system.
Ascribing Identity: The Burden of "Acting White"
The corollary of not "being black enough" would be 'acting white' which has
been effectively unpacked in the article 'The Burden of "Acting White"'. Success in
academics, as demonstrated by Andy's location in the specialized program would be the
major reason for seeing him as "not black enough".
Learning school curriculum and learning to follow the standard academic
practices of the school are often equated by the minorities with learning to
"act white" or as actually "acting white" while simultaneously giving up
acting like a minority person... .a minority person who learns successfully
in school or who follows the standard practices of the school is perceived
as becoming acculturated into the white American cultural frame of
reference at the expense of the minorities frame of reference and collective
welfare. (Fordham & Ogbu, 1986, pp. 182-183)

Fordham and Ogbu introduced research to suggest that black student

underachievement is connected to a complicated racialized response their oppostion to
"acting white". 'Racelessness' as a strategy for success (see Fordam, 1988) may be an
option or may not if the race signifier holds power.
In a doctoral dissertation about black students in Catholic schools in Toronto,
Bhyat (2003) finds that many academically successful black students suffer being
scrutinized by the peers for "playing white" which was "pretending to be better than they
were, and in the process ignored their black peers" (p. 27).
The "acting white" hypothesis proposes that black youth who demonstrate good
school performance are denigrated and labeled as acting white. This speaks to a
frightening trend when, within a community, the outsider status of the colonial dominator
is assigned to those who achieve academically. Less historically interpreted, this
invocation of the put-down becomes a huge barrier to success among African-Canadian
youth who struggle against this put-down in the wake of achievement in many school
settings. Perhaps this alone ought to be reason to support an Africentric school where
achievement will cease to be associated with white normative positioning. The collective
 170

identity of the group must be re-visioned. After all, "because they also share their
group's sense of collective identity and cultural frame of reference, individuals may not
want to behave in a manner they themselves define as "acting white"" (Ford & Ogbu,
1986).
Coping and fitting in at school for young black males is far more likely when the
basketball court is the space of choice rather than the theatre setting. As Carl James has
described in his book, Race Play, this activity has become associated with black youth to
such a degree that, among educators as well as the young, young black males are
pressured to conform to the expectation. Sports offer a positive experience within
schooling for any youth. However, the pressure on black youth to be defined by their
athleticism rather than their academics becomes part of the racist system.
By contrast, the language used to describe Andy's experience and treatment at the
hands and mouths of the white population describes a game of power: 'to strip' and
'never letting me forget'. Theirs was a naming that both claimed and situated Andy's
identity - when called Oreo - while remaining insensitive to the racist load. Andy felt
that there was an effort "to strip [his] black cultural identity... which was to imply that
[he] was whitewashed". Here, Andy understands that the use of the term Oreo may be
quite complicated when in the mouths of the white dominant peer group. Their clever
mobilization of the term at once brought him further and closer to who they were. On the
one hand, this white population was weakening his claim to black identity while
reminding him that he was not like them on the surface skin reading.
As with Jewish humour, the in-group usage of language or terminology has a
license that those outside the group, in this case white peers, cannot necessarily claim
equally. Yet, they do. What Andy calls "their pathetic attempt to label" captures some of
the distress that Andy, as well as other racialized children, experience as the dominant
group locates and positions the person. However, the particular form of this reflects the
friendly, jocular interaction with a person placed in a position so as to appear token-ized.
That is, the labeling of the group toward Andy involved reminding him that he is not
'them' and yet he bears resemblance to them which would suggest that he lives a
compromised existence. Inauthentic somehow, the label 'Oreo' along with such labels
as 'coconut' or, in the case of Asians, 'banana' project the peculiar location of those who
 171

appear one way but internally are deemed to have bought into white values. Used as a
pejorative by both groups, the group with whom the individual 'appears' to belong by
virtue of skin colour and the dominant group who observe the mismatch, these terms
bespeak the challenge of hybrid existence.
Basically, the dominant group develops negative connotations around the 'other'
and, particularly in the case of African-Canadians, channels fears and hostilities toward
the racialized group resulting in prejudice and discrimination. The inescapability of
categorization involves the powerful sway of stereotypes over the "minds and
imaginations of citizens". Left with little option, "black male identity, be [comes]
defined in relation to the stereotype whether by embodying it or seeking to be other than
it." The struggles of the young black male ought not to be underestimated as negative
stereotypes "continue to overdetermine the identities black males are allowed to fashion
for themselves" (hooks, 2004, p. 22)
What Whites See

I concluded long ago that they found the color of my skin inhibitory. This
colour seems to operate as a most disagreeable mirror, and a great deal of
one's energy is expended in reassuring white Americans that they do not
see what they see....This is utterly futile, of course, since they do see what
they see. And what they see is an appallingly oppressive and bloody
history known all over the world. What they see is a disastrous,
continuing, present condition which menaces them, and for which they
bear an inescapable responsibility. But since in the main they seem to lack
the energy to change this condition they would not be reminding of it.
(James Baldwin, 1985, p. 409)

Whereas James Baldwin lived in the United States and understood his identity
through the legacy of slavery on through the sustained oppression within America, Andy
saw himself understood through the imagery of popular culture and black youth. Yet,
each suggested that the colour of his skin was inhibitory, inhibitory due to readings by
whites and the need to reassure. The second image in Andy's performance of the 'prep'
or 'oreo' reassured viewers but in its conscious display challenged those ascriptions.
One aspect of the performance which must be considered involves the audience of
white students and their relationship to the subject and performer. Andy makes a public
statement from which the audience cannot escape implication for it is their gaze that he
names.
 172

Possibly, this performance piece most clearly demonstrates the profound

experience of 'double-consciousness', wherein there is a "sense of always looking at
one's self through the eyes of others" as described by W.E.B. Du Bois in his most famous
work, The Souls of Black Folk back in 1903. The articulation of the experience of
alienation and separation from self captured the legacy of slavery and made Du Bois one
of the most respected race theorists of his era. Almost a century later, Andy staged a
representation that, in its process of being viewed and categorized, acknowledges the
experience of alienation that occurs in that double-consciousness.
Andy shares this experience in contemporary times with others who find
themselves within settings where their skin colour sets them apart. In a chapter entitled
'Caught Between Two Cultures' in a book about adolescent identity, the narrative of one
of the young black men speaks to the type of consciousness that may claim those living
and surviving when the school's demographic produces the sort of racial mismatch facing
Andy:
Basically, I bought into white stereotypes of black people. I really had no
clue as to who I was and what it meant to be a black American. Since I
spent so much time around white people, I figured that I should
concentrate on being accepted by them upon their terms.
(Garrod, Smulyan, Powers, Kilkenny, 1994, p. 68)

The desire for acceptance frequently drives those who seek to make it in some
way within these communities of schools which reward those who fall within the
dominant codes.
Andy now expresses and recognizes that his subsequent struggles, while away
from home in a University in another province, around his sense of self, in particular
around his racial identity, emanated from a sense of unease about who he was. During
discussions, he spoke of a period of time when he did not wish to be looked at in public
places, despite the fact that he had lived a rather extroverted existence, defining himself
as an actor during his teen years. However, his growing awareness that the world would
or wouldn't see him in certain constructed ways was the source of his most original work
during his time in high school.
At what cost does the performer and the person meet the gaze? Looking White
People in the Eye stands as a brilliantly suggestive, if somewhat inflammatory, title by
 173

Sherene Razack. The assertion of agency in returning the gaze, or better still in this case,
initiating the gaze, contains great power, the power of resistance.
In her book on black men and masculinity, We Real Cool, bell hooks (2004)
speaks of the reality of race and representation noting that "black men have had no real
dramatic say when it comes to the way they are represented.. .they are victimized by
stereotypes." (p. xii) Andy's act of display was a courageous act as he displayed to his
colleagues that he carries with him the recognition that he is seen and defined by those
who view.

Theorizing the Body

Knowledge is gained primarily by and through the body. There is an

"incarnate" character to such knowledge. Although it is gained through
embodiment, it is not quite that mind "embodies" the action. Rather, the
body attends to knowledge through itself.
(Richard Courtney, cited in Booth and Martin-Smith, 1988)

Although this is a re-creation/restoration of the work of art, this documentation

captures both the vital elements of the performance and the way in which the young black
man's body and the essentializing of identity is problematized as presented to the eyes of
the viewer. This is altered by such fluid elements as clothing and music. Returning again
to the aesthetics of the piece, the minimal dialogue forced the attention of the viewer onto
the body of the performer. Some performance art has revolved around the body - fixed
and signifying, dressed and resplendent
Several theorists draw upon notions of performativity with respect to identity,
most notably Judith Butler (1993) whose work focuses mostly on the performativity of
gender. Her theory of the materiality of the body achieved through the performativity of
gender could also be applied to the specificity of race, ethnicity and class. Bodies thus not
only perform gender, they also perform race, ethnicity and class.
There were several aspects of the performance that struck me, astonished me and
moved me. I cannot deny that I was the only viewer with both an extensive set of
experiences watching cultural expressions - theatre, dance, performance art - and the
only viewer whose background and education had involved me in race analysis both in
 174

terms of everyday racism and the discursive and theoretical writings on dimensions of
race and representation.
That a young man, well really a boy, would already know that his body was in
itself a signifier of race and would and could be used for purposes of expressing his
identity location utterly staggered me. Andy stood there with an awareness of his
perpetual discrimination because of how the viewers would "read" him. Somehow Andy
seemed to instinctively know the pain and have the ability to express with so few words a
similar cry to that of Franz Fanon in Black Skins, White Masks:
You come too late, much too late. There will always be a world - a white
world - between you and us.. .it is understandable that I could have made
up my mind to utter my Negro cry.... Little by little, putting out
pseudopodia here and there, I secreted a race. (Fanon, 1991, p. 122)

The body secretes as a means of breathing. Fanon secreted his race, as part of
what he calls his 'Negro cry'.

Children and Black Identity

Concern about negative values and stereotypes associated with black identity has
been the subject of study for some time. Sixty years ago, Proshansky and Newton
published a paper entitled The Nature and Meaning of Negro Self-Identity. They
suggested the impact of labels and stereotypes on children:
.. .the young child acquires value-laden racial labels and fragments of
popular stereotypes to describe his own and other racial an ethnic groups.
Both Negro and white children learn to associate Negro with "dirty", bad,"
and ugly," and white with "clean," "nice," and "good". For the Negro
child, these emotionally charged descriptions and judgments operate to
establish the white group as vastly superior to his own racial group.
(Proshansky and Newton, 1947, cited in Goodman, 1972, p. 125)

The experience of black children and the acquisition of negative self-image

continue to be widespread, taking somewhat different forms depending on the value
systems at play in the local area and with age.
In Britain, Tony Sewell (1998) found that many of the 15 year old black young
people that he studied were positioned by others and positioned by themselves as superior
to both white and Asian students in terms of their sexual attractiveness and their street
fashion culture. However, they "experience a disproportionate amount of punishment in
 175

our schools. Thus, the black boys were deemed "Angels and Devils" in British (and
American) schools. As such they live out the dual positions of being the "darling of
popular youth sub-culture and the sinner in the classroom". With such contrasting
positions, there are struggles. Sewell asks, "How do African-Caribbean boys in
particular respond in a school that sees them as sexy and as sexually threatening?"
In a subsequent study in England with a focus on boys 12-14 years old and
constructions of masculinities, the team of researchers on the Young Masculinities
project conducted interviews with more than seventy boys: white, black and Asian. They
found that "characteristics of hegemonic masculinity ('hardness', sporting prowess -
particularly at football - and resistance to teachers) were qualities that were particularly
attributed to black boys" (Phoenix, 2002, p. 142). This confirmed that the racialisation of
black boys' styles, bodies and cultural practices is part of their common construction as
'cool' and sexy (Majors and Billson, 1992; Sewell, 1997).
During the broad-based study, the pervasive notion that 'real' masculinity
involves toughness, sporting prowess and a casual attitude to schoolwork serve to
produce and reproduce school cultures that constrain what boys can do. These values
have become the norm, no longer associated with race necessarily as earlier research in
the United States by Fordham and Ogbu suggested:
At the social level, peer groups discourage their members.. .from
adopting the attitudes.. .that enhance academic success. They oppose
adopting appropriate academic attitudes and behaviors because they are
considered 'white'. (Fordham and Ogbu 1986:183)

The constructed opposition between doing schoolwork and being properly

masculine may be offset within certain families as part of the cultural expectations for
high achievement are embedded in the values of the home. Indeed, a danger for
Canadian researchers would be in ascribing the results of such studies across the broad
range of 'black identities' in the Canadian population. For instance, while researching in
Peel School Board, one of the schools had a small population of black students who were
highly successful. In the course of the interviews, these young people indicated their
home country as Ghana. Back at the University, my African colleagues declared that
Ghanaians are the intellectuals of Africa.
 176

As part of this discussion, it is important to remember that negative associations

with school success cut across race. Consider the social world of boys and the popular
culture imagery associated with such iconic figures as the Simpson family. Bart is
glorified for his disregard for school and expected social behaviours rather similar to his
father Homer while his sister Lisa's success sets up an opposite force, subject to ridicule.
This, like many other images in films featuring the likes of Adam Sandler and now Seth
Rogen furthers the anti-academic representation of popular masculinity.
Paths, Conversations and Values
By the time that the interview with Andy occurred, he had headed out into the
world of post-secondary education in Halifax. This experience had been profoundly
troubling for Andy on several counts. In response to pressures from his father "to be
successful", he had gone into a business program. He spoke of this experience: "it just
didn't leave me with a good feeling inside." The experience of taking part in a play
reconfirmed that this was what he wanted to do. As well, however, Andy had
experienced a difficult workplace situation while taking a job in maintenance to pay for
his education. There, he was not treated well by older white co-workers. The head of the
organization, a white American who had witnessed the civil rights movement, confirmed
that Andy's experience was one of racism with the attitude of the workers being
comparable to those of whites in America prior to the civil rights movement. This
confirmation of discrimination both assisted Andy and further debilitated him. After all,
when a person in authority, a white man, clearly understands the dynamic as racist,
shouldn't there be recourse?
Within our discussion, these several years after the creative piece in his secondary
school, it was apparent that Andy had become increasingly aware of issues of race and
representation. Whereas in secondary school he had tried to fit in well within the arts-
school setting, in University he had become far more conscious of race dynamics at play
in his everyday lived reality. This was largely due to the way in which his race was taken
up in Halifax as opposed to Toronto where he had felt relatively comfortable in his
neighborhood. In Halifax, Andy had been shown the public housing area that was the
legacy of Africville. In Halifax, he had been harassed enough to cause him to quit his
part-time job as a janitor.
 177

The young man, four years subsequent to the creative performance piece, was
now far more aware of the power dynamics of 'looking white people in the eyes'
(Razack, 1998). Indeed, I happened to notice the book that he was reading, Why Are the
black Kids sitting together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations about Race by
Beverly Daniel Tatum. This book suggests some of the sorts of relational dynamics
playing out in many school spaces. When this was raised in our interview, he noted that
the book was good:
she spoke a lot to my experience in high school and I'm sure a lot of other
black kids experience in high school and she talks about how it's [sitting
together] sort-of a comfort thing and how people need to identify with
something. ... she talks about how it started sort-of at the beginning of
high-school which is when it started for me so, it was really interesting to
hear her talk about those issues.... And she also talks about the education
system as well and how it's sort-of hard for black children to infiltrate but
once they get in there... trying to adjust to things is really hard too
because they might be at a [school] with all white members. (Andy
Interview, July 2004)

He was continuing in his process of figuring out what forces were and continued
to be in play as he figured out who he was. At the heart of this book are key questions of
identity: Who Am I? The answer depends in large part on who the world around me says
I am. Who do my parents and my peers say I am? What message is reflected back to me
in the faces and voices of my teachers, my neighbors, store clerks? What do I learn from
the media about myself? How am I represented in the cultural images around me?
Back in secondary school, Andy had moved forward with some answers to those
questions in a performance which also seemed to invite a dialogue with the audience on
the nature of their construction of him. Those peers of A had constituted the peer world
around him but unlike him, they were not so defined by the colour of their skin.
Around the time of his performance, Andy was coming to the recognition that he
could not expect to be treated like members of his white cohort of theatre students. He
would be seen and consumed by virtue of the colour of his skin. This understanding
would be one that he would grapple with for several years. His social identity would not
be the same as that of his peers. Not only would it be different, but rather it would be
seen as oppositional to the social identity of the dominant group. As a young black male,
he would be seen as potentially dangerous
 178

The idea of being destined to an oppositional identity (Ogbu, 1984) persists in

contemporary Canadian society for young black males as other identity group members
have found greater plurality of possibilities. Even among older black males, the
conceptions contain and constrain the possible constructs. This manifests itself in police
searches because of being in the wrong place and of the wrong race when the crime went
down.35
The reference to Andy's sense of isolation and alienation in high school is one
that I noted but ethical constraints prevented me from pursuing the topic. At the time of
our interview, Andy had decided to return to, and honour, his creative side by enrolling in
the prestigious National Theatre School. He was in a period of repair dealing with some
alienation and distress from his time in Halifax where he had experienced both overt and
everyday racism. Of primary importance was maintaining a strong sense of self.
As a researcher with the added entanglement with the subject, it becomes
complicated to describe how the relationship of trust must be honoured. More
importantly, as a former teacher, I felt an obligation to support Andy in pursuing his
dreams and in finding his way in a somewhat harsh world. Actually, at that time, he had
sought my help in preparing his monologue for the audition for the elite actor training
program, further adding to the many ways in which he and I have continued to expand
the facets of the relationship.
What may be offered in moments of research? How may the researcher offer
back to the participant? What is the nature of the dialogue between the two people who
are teasing out meaning surrounding identity issues? More critically, what may relieve
the distress surrounding matters of race, the lived experiences of discrimination?
Certainly, this was not the time to push and probe. I would listen, validate and find a
means for this young man to develop armour of protection through further political
awareness that would remove the individual sting... .at least to some extent. 'The
personal is political' works not only in feminist consciousness-raising and an ethics of
care must inform attending to the participant.
I offer a concept: Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome.

35
One memorable high profile incident of this many years ago involved Dwight Drummond, a prominent face on
City TV who was taken down, no questions asked when he was pulled over.
 179

In the interview with Andy, I describe the performance of a play in New York
City, inspired by the theory of sociologist Dr. Joy Leary (2005) which proposes that
African Americans today suffer from a particular kind of intergenerational trauma as a
legacy of slavery. The initial trauma was the systematic dehumanization of African slaves
with the legacy being that generations of their descendents have suffered some form of
trauma and discrimination. The play portrayed both white and black Americans from
different eras - the era of slavery in the South and contemporary urban American
scenarios - and how the racism plays out over time. The race "hierarchy" of the
plantations continues to play out in urban centres where light-skin privilege dictates
everything from workplace relationships to sexual tropes.
The play in New York City quite brilliantly contrasted the epochs in American
history to vividly convey the ongoing trauma of slavery and racism. Andy is intrigued by
the concept and quite readily confirms that he understands himself to be part of this
legacy:
Andy: So I think that I was affected by it, I think a lot of my friends ah,
my black friends are affected by it and I think, a lot of people in the
community are affected by it., ah, so I really, really, really want to do a
lot of work with that because I think that there's (laughs) a lot of things
that are, sort-of still at war and at play. (C: yeah) In THE MIND... sub-
consciously that a lot of people aren't understanding where it's coming
from. (C: yeah) So I think that a lot more light needs to be shed on that.
And I think that's a lot to do with my experience as well, how people
within the community have sort-of taken me in and sort-of perceived me
and sort-of how they sort-of treat me, I think a lot has to do with post-
traumatic, the post-traumatic slave? (C: Slave syndrome, yeah) Yah (C:
Yeah, yeah) so I want to do a lot more (C: yeah) work on that.36

Andy's quick recognition that this theory addresses some of his own experiences
and that of his community is evidence of his awareness of the ongoing power of race and
representation.
Three years after our formal interview and seven years after he created the
performance piece, Andy's knowledge of race and representation would empower him to
take on a major cultural institution of this country. Challenging the curricular

The inclusion of my comments within brackets as "C: yeah" seemed to retain some of the dynamics of the
conversation in the interview. Perhaps strange in appearance, it reproduces a sense of how the speech was
delivered. Otherwise it would be a monologue, which would not reflect the thoughtfulness of the conversation.
 180

perpetuation of roles in which blacks play servants, Andy said "no". However, that
would be his story to tell when he is ready.
Concluding Thoughts
Andy constructed a piece whose embodied impact posed a psychological
challenge to his colleagues. As a work of performance, it also served as an arts-based
educational research project inciting audience engagement and response to his own sense
of racialized self. Thus, the performance constituted an act of "identity politics' [as it] is
born from the realisation that certain social and historical circumstances have effectively
marginalized or negated the representation of their identity: the primary struggle is
against self-negation" (Papastergiadis, p. 31). To speak out against what may be termed
self-negation takes enormous courage in a teenager.
Andy's piece protests the understanding of his identity through the social gaze
which ascribes labels to him. These labels are of marginalized positioning as a 'black
youth' and, by asserting and naming them, he signals his struggle against the negation of
self which is both historically and contemporaneously constructed. He succeeded, I
believe, to fullfil "a movement for black liberation" as he was able "to formulate a
counterhegemonic discouse of the body to effectively resist white supremacy." (hooks,
1995, p. 202) As he asserts agency, he clearly controls the re-presentation of himself.
Andy made public among his peer group his own lived reality of living in and
under oppression - the labeling. The performance captured how he is subject to 'gaze'
and positioned in a manner that the white students will not experience. His search for
identity operates within cultural confinements and expectations. The cDo-rag' is one
such signifier. This breaking of silence about how he was seen and constructed by
viewers was an enormously powerful step for a young man to take. Surrounded by
children of privilege, white kids with affluent parents, Andy had not found a means to
challenge their views of him until that particular performance. The rupture of gaze for
his colleagues was significant. However, more significant was the voice-ing, his own
breaking of silence surrounding his racialized identity. In Playing the Dark, Toni
Morrison talks about "strategies for breaking" the silence:
Silence from and about the subject was the order of the day. Some of the
silences were broken, and some were maintained by authors who lived
 181

with and within the policing strategies. What I am interested in are the
strategies for breaking it.

In creating such a uniquely voiced piece, Andy in fact broke the silence. He
created a piece which was both an act of resistance against the way in which society reads
his body and labels him, and against the local school setting in which the dominant
ideology and privileging remained silent. The courage was remarkable for there was risk
involved.
Paul Gilroy, arguably the leading living writer on the politics of black identity,
speaks of the roots of the struggle:
Identity acquired a special significance in modern Black political culture
because of the need to refuse and escape the identities into which we were
both coerced and seduced during a history of terror which language has
inadequate resources to communicate. The tension between chosen
identities and given identities appears in a very stark form in the history of
the Black Atlantic diaspora.... (Gilroy, 1993, p. 15)

Gilroy here alludes to the imposed identities of the slave trade conducted through
centuries as boats carried Africans away from home and renamed those who lost their
freedom and became the property of Europeans or North Americans, what he later calls
"Englightenment Europe and enslaved Africa". Thus, Gilroy asserts that the "obligation
to engage in self-discovery has always involved an act of refusal." (p. 19)
There is little doubt that this is the lineage of Andy's performance. As a son of
Jamaican immigrants to this country, Canada, a country that defines itself as liberal and
multicultural with a history of black settlement that is very different than that of the
States, it is not surprising that Andy understood himself to be the product of another time,
yet still the subject of given identities.
Andy and I discussed Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, the legacy of slavery and
how it continues to play out in contemporary society. As a social phenomenon, this
serves as a means to make sense of the experience of black urban Americans but perhaps
less so here where the history was not one of plantations and gross exploitation and
where the Underground Railroad did much to blunt the effects of earlier affect.
Ultimately, the trauma may arise strictly from the current forces. Pheterson (1993)
remarked that "genocidal persecution is not required to elicit psychic defence; daily
mundane humiliation will do" (p. 110). Racism plays out in our schools in the everyday
 182

experiences of students. This may be understood better by considering what it is that

Andy had to say. Inevitably, he was stating textually via his performance that he
understands himself to be seen and contained within labels riddled with 'signifiers'
surrounding black youth. Further, he signals an understanding of the damage in
'mimicry'. This is the schizophrenia that calls for reconciliation of self and image. That
is the site of suture which may be healed by the creative expression. By virtue of owning
the image creation, he frees himself from the 'gaze', no longer complicit in the
construction of that position.
The performance act was both an act of resistance against the way in which
society reads his body but also one of rich ambiguity. Indeed, his less conscious student
colleagues, whom both he and I know well, probably read little resistance. The work
may be compared to other sophisticated representations which complicate notions of
identity. Critical race theorist Henry Louis Gates commented on the film work of Isaac
Mien in Looking for Langston as an exaltation of identity (Gates, 1992, p. 81) and spoke
of the work as creating: "An aesthetics that can embrace ambiguity"(p. 83).
In a very personal way, the Andy's act of representation was utterly explicit and
yet managed a level of ambiguity. The performance asked the viewer to 'see' him in
different guises, enacting two versions of signifiers, both loaded by history and popular
culture.

Postscript:
Andy chose to use little text in his performance. For a myriad of conceptual
reasons, I have noted the power of this choice. Indeed, the artistry of performance art
plays with the sustained image, often in favour of limited text. Thus, conceptually, I have
always respected this as an artistic choice.
Only now, many years later do I consider the connection of language and usage to
his decision-making. Andy experienced growing up in the Canadian education system as
learning to 'switch' for in his home culture - his parents come from Jamaica - he spoke an
English in the dialect of 'there'. Andy and I have never discussed this in our many years
of conversation. (Although I know some of his family circumstances, we have not
deemed this part of our formal co-investigation as his negotiation of the social world of
race and representation preoccupied us as researchers.) Our silence on this may be
 183

nothing more than the fact that I am part of his life lived in the dominant culture's dialect.
Indeed, as his teacher, I was part of reproducing and offering for mimicry, the dominant
code. In Delpit's terms, I was part of teaching other peoples' children the dominant
curriculum.
 CHAPTER SIX
Testimony of a Life Ruptured

Theatre as witness manifests both personal and collective, therapeutic and

political dimensions. Cohen-Cruz, 1998, p. 65

Within this chapter, the ethnography takes a specific form creatively. The young
person himself reaches an age and position whereby he understands that his journey as a
political refugee needs to be told. Due to a unique friendship between the subject and the
researcher, a collaboration transpires to facilitate his testimony. As a form of
autoethnography, the extended performance of storytelling was devised and placed
within larger performances and within different contexts with very different audience
reception.
Memories for those in exile are carried and must be negotiated becoming part of
the ongoing processual nature of identity. On this matter, Edward Said was interviewed
by cultural theorists Bonnie Marranca and Gautam Dasgupta who have contributed
much to the emergent scholarship on inter culturalism and performance. Said speaks of
the conflict: "Ifyou're an exile ...you always bear within yourself a recollection of what
you 've left behind and what you can remember, and you play it against the current
experience. " The dissonance of memory riffing with the current reality becomes part of
the challenge oftransculturation.

The Testimony documentation follows:

184
 S**ro<

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La ultima puesta del sol sol I

The Last Setting of the Sun

WITH CYNTHIA GRAN"

CTR 117
 186

A bilingual piece that shows how a teenaged (On stage: The lights are dim; in the upstage area is a man
actor involved himself in theatre, an act that ulti- wearing a black cape. Standing on a chair, his face is covered by
mately led to his exile. Beside his comrades, he the hood.
established his career and a small theatre com-
pany in the middle of the civil war in El Salvador. As the lights brighten centre stage, the REFUGEE reveals his
face while the TRANSLATOR/WITNESS enters infront.The
REFUGEE begins the evocation in Spanish, with the TRANS-
LATOR following in English.)
Caution: Copyright Freddy Garcia. This script is protected
under the copyright laws of Canada and all other coun- FREDDY: Una vez, parado frente a la fria y blanca nieve
tries of the Copyright Union. Changes to the script are for- y sobre el hielo que cubria el piso, frente a la escuela de
bidden without the written consent of the author. Rights to Ingles con el rotulo : « George Brown College ».
produce, film or record in any medium, in any language,
by any group, are retained by the author. The moral right TRANSLATOR/WITNESS: Once in front of the cold and
of the author has been asserted. For performance rights, white snow, and standing on the ice that covered the
contact Freddy Garcia c/o Cynthia Grant, 133 Browning ground in front of the English school "George Brown
Ave., Toronto, ON M4K 1W4. College. "
FREDDY: Evoque aquella tarde de verano del sabado
Production History veinte de mayo de mil novecientos ochenta y tres.
First performed as part of the play Postcards for the End of Debio ser la ultima puesta de sol que yo contemplaria.
the Millennium during SUMMERWORKS 1998, with
Freddy Garcia, Cynthia Grant, Sean Hill and Shaista TRANSLATOR/WITNESS: It evoked that afternoon on a
Justin. Saturday the 20th of May of 1983 ... it had to be the last
setting of the sun that I would contemplate (in a day).
Subsequently, performed as part of the play CivihEyes:
Nation at OISE/University of Toronto, as part of the FREDDY: Hoy, con mis pies frios y descubriendo los
International Conference of Transformative Learning in secretos de la nieve, recuerdo esa noche inesparada que
2001. por fortuna no fui presa de la caseria humana desatada
por el ejercito. Unos cuatrocientos soldados uniformados
Both plays were directed by TRANSLATOR/WITNESS, y armados hasta los dientes.
Grant. TRANSLATOR/WITNESS: Today, with my cold feet and
discovering the secrets of snow, I remember that hopeless
Characters night, that luckily I was not hunted in the human hunt,
THE REFUGEE / AN ENGLISH STUDENT Freddy Garcia unleashed by the army of four-hundred uniformed sol-
THE TRANSLATOR/WITNESS Cynthia Grant diers, armed to the teeth.
FREDDY: Tenian ordenes de detener a estudiantes, mili-
tantes de organizaciones populares, y miembros del grupo
de teatro BAMBU, que cinco jovenes y yo habiamos crea-
do. Eso sucedio tres anos despues de haber egresado de
la secundaria y de la existencia del Grupo.
TRANSLATOR/WITNESS: They had orders to detain
students, activists of popular organizations, and members
of the theatre group Bambu that five young people and I
had created three years after high school. This happened
three years later than the formation of the (experimental
theatre) group (BAMBU).
(Descendingfromthe chair and walking to thefrontof the
stage.)
FREDDY: Fuimos inspirados por todos... Por Victor Jara,
por el Che Guevara, por Los Hippies, y Los « The
Doors ».
TRANSLATOR/WITNESS: We were inspired by every-
body ... Victor Jara, Che Guevara, the hippies and The
Doors.
(FREDDY and TRANSLATOR/WITNESS take positions as if
playing Nintendo.)

WINTER 2004
 187

FREDDY: LA VIDA ES COMO UN JUEGO DE FREDDY: Eramos adolescentes de dieciocho y diecinueve

NINTENDO afios.

TRANSLATOR/WITNESS: LIFE IS LIKE A NINTENDO TRANSLATORAYITNESS: We were kids of eighteen

GAME. and nineteen years old.

FREDDY: ESTRATEGIA. FREDDY: Eramos actores entusiastas, con sed de exito y

libertad!!
TRANSLATOR/WITNESS: STRATEGY.
TRANSLATORAYITNESS: We were enthusiastic actors
(They become the game, taking left and right positions.) ... with a thirst for success and freedom!!
We were peasants and we would conquer the capital of
FREDDY: IZQUIERDA. DERECHA.
San Salvador and also the city would conquer us with its
TRANSLATOR/WITNESS: LEFT. RIGHT. stories and heritage of heroes and martyrs.

FREDDY: DERECHA. IZQUIERDA. FREDDY: (in a solemn tone) Y entre heroes y martires,
nacia nuestra inspiration de vivir bien y salir adelante.
TRANSLATOR/WITNESS: RIGHT. LEFT.
TRANSLATORAYITNESS: Between heroes and martyrs,
FREDDY: COMMUNISMO. our inspiration was born to live well and to overcome.

TRANSLATOR/WITNESS: COMMUNISM. FREDDY: Eran los setenta y el principio de los ochenta.

Eramos la nueva generation, los lideres del futuro.
FREDDY: CAPITALISMO.
TRANSLATORAYITNESS: It was the seventies and the
TRANSLATOR/WITNESS: CAPITALISM. beginning of the eighties. We were the new generation,
FREDDY: CAPITALISMO. the leaders of the future.

TRANSLATOR/WITNESS: CAPITALISM. FREDDY: Con el Triunfo de los Sandinistas en 1979, la

Teologia de la Liberation, Monsenor Oscar Romero, y el
FREDDY: COMMUNISMO. derecho a la education del Pueblo.
j Todo seria posible!
TRANSLATOR/WITNESS: COMMUNISM.
TRANSLATORAYITNESS: With the Triumph of the
FREDDY and TRANSLATOR/WITNESS: RUSSIA. Sandinistas in 1979, the theology of liberation, and
Monsignor Oscar Romero and the right to education for
FREDDY and TRANSLATOR/WITNESS: UNITED the people ... Everything seemed possible.
STATES.
FREDDY: Pensabamos...!
(They each hug themselves as if trying to warm up.)
TRANSLATORAYITNESS: We thought -
FREDDY: LA GUERRA FRIA. Then came the destruction of the church in 1980; the
TRANSLATORAYITNESS: COLD WAR. assassination of Monsignor Oscar Romero on 24 of
March; the persecution and the propaganda of the coun-
(They circle one another) terinsurgents, and the nightmare of being killed like a
dog under martial law and the state of seige imposed by
FREDDY: POLARIZACI6NIDEOL6GICA. the government.
Thus was born the Experimental Theatre group BAMBU!
TRANSLATORAYITNESS: IDEOLOGICAL POLARIZA-
Like a promise, with strength, born of tragedy and
TION.
catharsis.
FREDDY: LA GUERRA CIVIL EN EL SALVADOR Y A rebirth of the Ancient Greeks, the Mayans, and the
NICARAGUA. artistic expression of
ROCK N ROLL!!
TRANSLATOR/WITNESS: CIVIL WAR IN EL SAL-
VADOR AND NICARAGUA. (FREDDY sings the Doors' song followed by TRANSLA-
TOR/WITNESS until they crack up laughing.)
(Performers enact a duel drawing guns on each other.)
FREDDY and TRANSLATORAYITNESS: Break on
FREDDY: Eramos jovenes inquietos, curiosos, y con through to the other side, break on through, break on
ansias de conquistar el mundo. through,
Break on through to the other side.
TRANSLATORAYITNESS: We were the young, unset-
tled, curious, with the desire to conquer the world. FREDDY and TRANSLATORAVITNESS: Forward!
Forward! The Struggle is constant!

CTR117
(FREDDY speaks the rest in laboured English, with the So I couldn't go to the right and couldn't go to the left!
TRANSLATOR standing as witness.)
(Opening both arms like a crucifixion.)
FREDDY: Without a doubt, that would be the last setting
of the sun in the summer of 1983, it marked the final visit I couldn't go to the right, I couldn't go the left!
to the house of my father. It was five o'clock on Saturday I felt like going to the infinite ... unknown territory.
afternoon when my older brother and I went to the house I went to a refugee camp in downtown San Salvador. I
in the country. After an hour, my brother asked me if I made some connections and went to Mexico. I had to
would stay or return to the city. It was my father who leave the country, leave the family, my girlfriend and my
told me, job.
Once in Mexico, I visited the Canadian embassy at
Chapultepeque Park.
"Return/' he said with his wise eyes. I told them my story. Three months later, I received a let-
My brother and I returned to the city - ter where they told me that my refugee application was
The sun painted the sky red and yellow. Six hours later accepted. I came to Canada on July 13 of 1983.
the army - some four-hundred uniformed soldiers armed
to the teeth - invaded the house of my father. Destroying (Lighting dims.
the fence and the doors, they entered, ordering my father
The Refugee, wearing the black cape, returns to the upstage
and my small nephew thrown onto the floor.
area and stands still on the chair, wearing the hood leaving his
Between the dream and the boots, my father was able to
face visible).
see a hooded man who, much later, we realized was
Felipe ... who was exchanging his guitar for a gun ... FREDDY: Ser Refugiado es como morir.
Traitor to the theatre group.
« <jNo hay otro hijo de puta por aqui escondido? » TRANSLATORAYITNESS: To be a refugee is like dying.
Isn't there another son-of-a bitch hidden here?
Isn'Where another son-of-a bitch hidden here?! FREDDY: Se siente como que se perdieron las raices.
asked the sergeant who seemed to be in charge. TRANSLATOR/WITNESS: You feel as if you lost your
They were looking for me and thought that this was an roots.
ideal time.
frustrated and disgusted at their failure to find me, they FREDDY: La piel... La Culrura...La Familia...
kicked my eight-year-old nephew and stole the thirty
colones from the jar in the kitchen. TRANSLATORAYITNESS: Lost your skin ... your cul-
That Monday morning, I called my brother's office. Oscar ture ... your family -
answered the phone: "Come over", he said, " We have
something to talk about." FREDDY: Su Pais, su pais, su pais...
When I got there, I was very surprised to see all my elder TRANSLATORAYITNESS: Your Country, your country,
brothers in a meeting waiting for me. your country -
Oscar started the conference, "The reason why the army
went to our father's house, Freddy, is because they were FREDDY: su paaaaaaaiiiiiiiinusssssssszzzzzzzzzz
looking for you."
"It couldn't be," I responded. My brothers were looking TRANSLATORAYITNESS: Your cooouunnnttttttr-
at each other, like they knew the truth. Then my brother rryyyyy!!
Miguel asked me, "Do you remember Felipe, the guitar
(FREDDY pulls the hood down to cover his face, sleeping.
player from BAMBU?"
"Yes" I said. TRANSLATOR/WITNESS exits.
"That guy was the man with the hood who came to our
Father's house with four-hundred soldiers. Now, he is Lights centre stage fade to blackout.)
your enemy. He switched sides and now he is a traitor."
For a moment, I felt my legs shake and cold throughout
my body. My brothers were trying to help me. My life
was in danger!! THE END
My brother, Eduardo, who used to be in the army, pro-
posed that I join the army and be an undercover soldier
for protection.
I thought, "Being undercover and pointing my fingers at
my friends, killing people -
Ho I didn't want to become part of the right wing."
Later, I told my sister the story. She said I could go to
Guazapa and join the guerrillas, that I could go to the
mountains and carry a gun. I didn't want to kill people
...No!!

WINTER 2004
WHAT'S Concord READING ?
As a part of their Grade 11 University level English program students have
chosen from the rich and diverse collection available at our school library. Students
explored themes of belonging, human conflict and adversity as well as cultural identity.
The class felt that this was an amazing opportunity to find out who they are while reading
some of the best in world literature. They encourage YOU to check one of these titles out
for yourself]

The Kite Runner

by Khalid Hossein
While reading, I realized that each chapter was more moving than the other
The book was so detailed that it felt like I was a part of the plot. When the author
described a character, I felt like I was seeing them face-to-face. When they
described a setting, I felt like I was present in the actual place. For the first time a
book made me cry as I was reading it and that is when I realized that this is the
most powerful book that I have ever come across. Jasmon

Tamarind Mem
by Anita Rau Badami
Saroja's ambition to finish a medical degree becomes a
dream as her parents forcefully make her marry Vishwa Her life as
a wife isn't fulfilled as a female would hope. ... Even after
marriage, Saroja lives a life under strict rules by the society and
what her caste expects a female to be. Kajethra Umathevan
... an exceptional book ... Kamini's relationship with her
father reminds me of the sort of bond my Dad and I share. The way
her Mom emphasizes the importance of education makes me
smile.. .I'm not the only one having to hear their parents repeat,
"Your power is your education!" Suba /

The Colour Purple

by Alice Walker
This inspiring novel explores the black culture and demonstrates
in a variety of ways how women were looked down on and continued to
struggle after the abolition of slavery. The Colour Purple is an amazing
novel that depicts the hardship of a black African American girl, who
throughout her life faces extraordinary situations and life changing
experiences. Sabita

When I started reading this book, it almost made me cry because

I sympathized with Celie. ...it's very emotional for me. Though she suffered through
poverty and abuse, she still maintained her self esteem and confidence. I encourage
people to read this book. It will send you a very powerful message. Allison
(FREDDY speaks the rest in laboured English, with the So I couldn't go to the right and couldn't go to the left!
TRANSLATOR standing as witness.)
(Opening both arms like a crucifixion.)
FREDDY: Without a doubt, that would be the last setting
of the sun in the summer of 1983, it marked the final visit I couldn't go to the right, I couldn't go the left!
to the house of my father. It was five o'clock on Saturday I felt like going to the infinite ... unknown territory.
afternoon when my older brother and I went to the house I went to a refugee camp in downtown San Salvador. I
in the country. After an hour, my brother asked me if I made some connections and went to Mexico. I had to
would stay or return to the city. It was my father who leave the country, leave the family, my girlfriend and my
told me, job.
Once in Mexico, I visited the Canadian embassy at
Chapultepeque Park.
"Return," he said with his wise eyes. I told them my story. Three months later, I received a let-
My brother and I returned to the city - ter where they told me that my refugee application was
The sun painted the sky red and yellow. Six hours later accepted. I came to Canada on July 13 of 1983.
the army - some four-hundred uniformed soldiers armed
to the teeth - invaded the house of my father. Destroying (Lighting dims.
the fence and the doors, they entered, ordering my father
The Refugee, wearing the black cape, returns to the upstage
and my small nephew thrown onto the floor.
area and stands still on the chair, wearing the hood leaving his
Between the dream and the boots, my father was able to
face visible).
see a hooded man who, much later, we realized was
Felipe ... who was exchanging his guitar for a gun ... FREDDY: Ser Refugiado es como morir.
Traitor to the theatre group.
« iNo hay otro hijo de puta por aqui escondido? » TRANSLATOR/WITNESS: To be a refugee is like dying.
Isn't there another son-of-a bitch hidden here?
Isn't there another son-of-a bitch hidden here?! FREDDY: Se siente como que se perdieron las raices.
asked the sergeant who seemed to be in charge.
TRANSLATOR/WITNESS: You feel as if you lost your
They were looking for me and thought that this was an
roots.
ideal time.
Frustrated and disgusted at their failure to find me, they FREDDY: La piel... La Cultura...La Familia...
kicked my eight-year-old nephew and stole the thirty
colones from the jar in the kitchen. TRANSLATOR/WITNESS: Lost your skin ... your cul-
That Monday morning, I called my brother's office. Oscar ture ... your family -
answered the phone: "Come over", he said, " We have
something to talk about." FREDDY: Su Pais, su pais, su pais...
When I got there, I was very surprised to see all my elder TRANSLATOR/WITNESS: Your Country, your country,
brothers in a meeting waiting for me. your country -
Oscar started the conference, "The reason why the army
went to our father's house, Freddy, is because they were FREDDY: su paaaaaaauiiuiiiiiisssssssszzzzzzzzzz
looking for you."
"It couldn't be," I responded. My brothers were looking TRANSLATOR/WITNESS: Your cooouunnnttttttr-
at each other, like they knew the truth. Then my brother rryyyyy!!
Miguel asked me, "Do you remember Felipe, the guitar
(FREDDY pulls the hood down to cover his face, sleeping.
player from BAMBU?"
"Yes" I said. TRANSLATOR/WITNESS exits.
"That guy was the man with the hood who came to our
Father's house with four-hundred soldiers. Now, he is Lights centre stage fade to blackout.)
your enemy. He switched sides and now he is a traitor."
For a moment, I felt my legs shake and cold throughout
my body. My brothers were trying to help me. My life
was in danger!! THE END
My brother, Eduardo, who used to be in the army, pro-
posed that I join the army and be an undercover soldier
for protection.

I thought, "Being undercover and pointing my fingers at

my friends, killing people -
No I didn't want to become part of the right wing."
Later, I told my sister the story. She said I could go to
Guazapa and join the guerrillas, that I could go to the
mountains and carry a gun. I didn't want to kill people
...No!!

WINTER 2004
 189

The Context for Voice-ing

Over a sustained period of time, more than a decade, Freddy Garcia had been in
and out of my life in Toronto. One day early in his cultural transition, we had met at a
streetcar stop awaiting transportation on a particularly cold winter day with heavy snows.
I had immediately been able to ascertain that he was likely Spanish-speaking from Latin
America. Soon, his story was shared: a 'political refugee' from El Salvador in his earliest
months in Canada. We met intermittently over the years, sometimes when he was well
but sometimes when he was distressed. The experience of forced exile as a refugee may
produce anxieties and contribute to adjustment problems. In Fredy's case, he had come
to Canada alone, only a young man of 21 years of age.
Fredy needed to tell his story and, eventually, we found the circumstances that
would allow him to do just that. Among a supportive team of collaborators/ performers,
Fredy found encouragement to develop a performance of storytelling. In considering
Fredy's performance, his storytelling, he does more than make narrative meaning from
his experience. His is a testimony. Shoshana Felman (1992) in describing this idea - to
testify - as a "vow to tell, to promise and produce one's own speech as material evidence
for truth - is to accomplish a speech act rather than formulate a statement" (p. 5).
Something that limited Fredy was language as he had remained somewhat
arrested in his language acquisition for a variety of reasons ranging from limited
opportunity to trauma. His expressive capacities in English were a barrier to his
creativity and self-exploration so he was encouraged to by me/us to develop his personal
story in his first language, Spanish. Speak the experience, recover the meaning, and
finally write. Not only would I translate but I would dramaturge, identifying for him
what aspects of his narrative would be powerful as a dramatic presentation on stage, a
skill I developed after two decades of professional theatre working on the development of
original Canadian plays.
This collaboration between Fredy and me facilitated his biography-telling, his
auto-ethnography. The story of how he was 'constructed' politically within a certain
regime as 'dangerous' unpacked why he had been classed as a political refugee. Within
this creative work, there is both a sense of the boy who loved rock and roll and the socio-
 190

political world of El Salvador politics that forced artists into left-right political schisms
that became catch 22s.

Exile and Testimony

With migration, there has been a growing understanding of the inherent risk to the
mental state of the individual since Durkheim discussed acculturation as leading to a
sense of loss, despair, depression. A key factor here, and one at the core of the research
produced by Ogbu and others, involves the voluntary or non-voluntary nature of the
immigration. There may be clear individual choice exercised at one end of the spectrum
among those in developed countries who choose to move elsewhere or, at the furthest end
of the spectrum, there may be horrific circumstances of civil war which necessitate a re-
location. There is a range here that would also reflect both the individual and collective
situation of those moving from certain parts of the globe. The fact is that we have
increasing numbers of people who either wish to, or must, move. A new breed of refugee
are those classed as environmental refugees whose existences in a homeland may be
threatened by degradation and devastation. When the movement has not been voluntary
then there are greater difficulties of adjustment among the group members as the
individuals must reconcile tensions.
Those who are political refugees not only have faced oppression and fear at
home, in their arrival here, they are treated differently in the wait period to 'belong' to the
new country, Canada. This may involve a state sanctioned tribunal before which one
must iterate the past and the fear. Over time, the groupings who arrive in these
circumstances has changed with Latin American countries providing large numbers in the
1970s and 1980s and countries like Sri Lanka, Somalia, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone
headlining later periods.
Performing the Self

As a creative work, the storytelling is, in the end, a highly personal story. Yet, the
work, like that of other artists of the self, reflects specific choices. Janet Gunn (1982)
wrote of autobiography as not conceived as the "private act of a self writing" but as "the
cultural act of a self reading" (p. 8).
 191

The performance describes the evolution of a boy into young adulthood during the
period of polarized politics within El Salvador. Freethinking and a self-declared lover of
Jimmy Morrison, this leads the young man with his friends to embrace a freedom-loving
position. The exact nature of the performances that they present in their youthful
exuberance remains unspecified although all indicators suggest that it would be deemed
quite benign, politically, by most viewers. Indeed, Fredy presents himself as a playful,
imaginative artistic type who views life as a Nintendo game. As a metaphor, this may
emerge out of a sense of the rootlessness that continues to surround him. Family is away,
back there in El Salvador in a changed political landscape, one that he had to escape.
However, given the context of the metaphor in the story, it may well be because of his
sense that the right and left, the polarizing forces that forced his exile, work like some
ping pong mechanism in a strange game of life. Likening himself to a figure within the
game, Fredy had to make choices about how to survive given the troops were looking for
him but he did not wish to go to the left with the communists into the mountain nor did
he wish to align himself with the military, a traitor to those around him.
In fact, Fredy was a rock n roll type, hooked on Led Zeppelin and Bob Marley.
However, under the boots of a dictatorial regime complete with death squads in
the army, the risk of expressing free-love-style messages within a peasant setting
becomes quite radical. In the performance, the image of right and left without a center
marks the dilemma for Fredy. He is positioned within this as radical. In Spanish, the text
works even better: 'ni a la izquierda...ni a la derecha" And, there would be a pause on
stage for the full impact of this.
The inaugural presentation of Fredy's story was in the context of a series of
discrete impressionistic performance units entitled Postcards for the End of the
Millenium, An intentionally eclectic composition, a bricolage for the year 2000, the
performance investigated themes of the postmodern and embraced divergent styles. Two
segments reflect the range of interests and style: a dance with performer/consumers with
shopping carts to techno beats; a mock lecture of the post-feminist rants of Camille
Paglia. Fredy's story starkly represented the global migration which resulted from
political struggles and his story was complemented by images of two other migrant
groups: environmental refugees whose islands were in the process of disappearing due to
 192

rising sea levels and the refugees of wars whose wandering bodies risk a land-mine
infested landscape.
The total performance of this postmodern piece met as it sought to make visible
the implosion of images of devastation as the year 2000 approached met with mixed
reviews. Yet, audiences were touched by the testimony of Fredy. Each viewer seemed to
recognize the 'voice' as real, the one real story in a composition of impressionistic
renderings of global devastation. For those of us who were seasoned artists, this was a
reminder that humans seek knowledge through the lived experience of other humans. In
a world of "daily carnage" as described in Ernest Becker's Denial of Death, humans must
repress as a healthy act to preserve themselves. The awful nature of human life would
make people insane if the person left him/herself open to experiencing the suffering, the
trauma.
The individual story, the authentic voice, may be heard. To bear witness to a
single story is possible whereas the vast devastation or tragedy cannot be borne. So, we
found, the audience could focus on the real and personal singular narrative. Indeed,
testimonies of lives lived with trajectories very unlike those of the middle-class viewers
may evoke compassion and empathy unlike other forms of narrative. When delivered
and received as authentic and raw experience in the actual voice of someone who has
experienced trauma, the impact may be memorable. Many have noted that people need
individual stories for tragedy to have meaning. That is, a statistic of genocide may be
incomprehensible whereas the story of one person's tragic experience delivers the human
dimension. In the infamous aphorism of Joseph Stalin: one death is a tragedy, one
million is a statistic
Actually, it is often highly instructive for stories to be 'delivered' across
differences. The story is able to convey in its particularizing a signification that history
does not. Continuing with Felman (1992), "As a performative speech act, testimony in
effect addresses what in history is action that exceeds any substantialized significance,
and what in happenings is impact that dynamically explodes any conceptual reifications
and any constative delimitations." (p. 5)
On Healing Through Speaking

Freddy and I have had several conversations over the years about his ideas of arts.
In preparation for our interview, I reminded Freddy that he had spoken a couple of years
earlier of art and specifically his 'Last Setting of the Sun' as a healing process.
Freddy: "Maybe we can talk about what is a catharsis.
Remember this flower. You blow it and it disappears with the wind. The
dandelion. My poetry is like a dandelion. You blow it and the pain goes away."

Fredy connects catharsis to creativity without a reading of Vygotsky but a belief

in the power of theatre and, connects this with his recollection of his understanding of the
Greek theatre. This image of the power of the creative act blends with Freddy's own
experiences of stories and of acting, which have continued to remain his passions over
decades when he has not been afforded much opportunity to pursue his art due to the
exigencies of establishing and maintaining life as an exile. Freddy goes on to explain
how they interconnect: "My life has many stories. Some happy. Some sad. Breaking up
with a girlfriend. Leaving home and family. You let time pass. Tenessee Williams used
to say." With time, Fredy believes, comes the possibility that "an actor's life and poetry
comes together. Actor and poetry are together. An actor can see his life as poetry and
perform."
Later, Freddy ties this into a further bond with the actor as entry into the work of
art is explained through identification. "When people go and identify, they see it's life.
So they identify and heal. So the audience heals as well as the artist."
Some of this thinking emanates from Freddy's longstanding interest in Greek
tragedy. These notions, which date back to fifth century B.C., explain for Fredy the role
of stories and theatre: For the Greeks, theatre was a religion because through theatre they
could tell about life.
Here, it is remarkable to recall Freddy in one of his finest moments as a theatre
artist in Canada. He and I had completed a dress rehearsal of his monologue for a senior
class of 18 year olds who were enrolled in a Theatre credit. Afterwards, he was asked
some questions about how he had come to create the piece. He passionately described
the need to create as a means of healing. Those students were awed by his commitment
 194

to his art. Clearly a marginal figure in their privileged world - for many of them lived in
families whose wealth placed them in the upper middle-class - he nevertheless suddenly
debunked the familiar tone of the school of 'art for art's sake'. No, these students sensed
that they were in the presence of a unique voice. Testimony delivered across 'difference'
may have a profound impact on the recipient.

Educators, particularly those working with multilingual and multicultural

students, need to understand how discourses, according to linguist Oliver Reboul, are
very often anchored in "shock words, terms or expressions produced by themselves,
[which] due to their strong connotations, provoke a reaction no matter what sentence
within which they are inserted". One such shock word may be 'political refugee', which,
for middle class kids may trigger an 'othering' and images of revolutionaries, despite the
fact that is the lived reality of many students in certain schools.
With Freddy's story, I hoped to both introduce the theatricality of testimony - of
the power of the authentic voice without apparent dramatic embellishment - and to
challenge the students' received impressions of political refugee; and ultimately, in the
reflective piece of the experience, to ask them to consider their own familial histories in
terms of oppression and forced exile. Their responses varied depending on their family
backgrounds. Some had relatives whose lives were affected by the holocaust and linked
the experiences. Others had felt the experience of their parents or grandparents who had
made a choice to leave repressive regimes in Russia or Eastern Europe. One young
woman linked Fredy's experience to her mother's of leaving a place she loved with
family she loved. Acknowledging the experience was far less traumatic than Fredy's,
still she was moved to reflect with increased sensitivity on her mother's journey and loss.
In a fascinating combination of collaborations in my life, this set of students
would be invited to perform with Fredy and the leader of the Transformative Learning
Centre at OISE on the occasion of the Spirit Matters conference. The young people
created movement pieces which portrayed three contemporary phenomena: the
degradation of climate change as they created the impression of global toxicity; the
global hegemonic influences of advertising slogans which spewed from their mouths
suggesting their programming for the consumer world; and the vibrant potential for
 195

young people to join together in global transformation as witnessed by the tossing of the
global spheres in a playground atmosphere. The young people served as choral players
who enacted the images of 'Global Ed', the professor whose discourse in Transformative
Learning was delivered with a stand-up quality. At the core of the total performance was
the hard-core reality of the refugee story, a displaced global citizen in migration after
fearing his life. The total performance, re-titled Civil:Eyes:Nation, was designed and
composed with the conference audience in mind. The commitment of those present was
to truth-telling about the spirit of the age, the transformative possibilities and the absolute
urgency to take action.
Within this space, the entire presentation was applauded for its representations of
the key issues. Substituting for a final keynote, the style of presentation as it
incorporated the multiple issues was most welcome. The central figure of Global Ed, a
synthesizer of the issues performed with style by hosting professor Edmund O'Sullivan,
contributed a playfully discursive framework around which various strands were enacted
including the youth presenting a Benetton-like homage to consumerism and consumption,
clearly tongue-in-cheek. Again, however, it would be Fredy whose story would be
received and re-called as particularly moving. In an audience aware of the 'disappeared'
of Latin America, the potential threat of death was understood due to the prior knowledge
that the audience brought into the performance enhancing the power of the monologue.
As well, we added the live performance of guitar with a final song by the Chilean-
Canadian musician Marcelo Puente which further evoked the emotions of the audience.
Fredy was embraced as a comrade at this conference. With many academics
present, his knowledge was affirmed as he was respectfully engaged in conversations
about his life and his views. He felt himself respected for his voice-ing rather than
marginalized; marginalization is something he has experienced on and off for more than
twenty years. As a displaced person, Fredy has struggled with trauma.
Fredy has managed several contexts for an artistic expression, including the Third
National Forum of the Citizenship Education Research Network. In these spaces, he
transforms his personal experience into memoir and dramatic performance. He has stood
before audiences of experts and taught them through his storytelling.
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With respect to the relationship between Fredy and his collaborator and translator,
described as witness/translator in the documentation, he legitimately may claim, through
his theatrical work, that he himself controlled the terms of the interpretive ethnography.
What he and I would both agree on is that the live performance was the preferred genre
for this work. The live performance transmitted meaning, evoked emotion and related
the exilic experience far more powerfully than this text ever could.
Trauma and Care within a Family Model
Testimony and the care required surrounding such stories has been taken up in
legal contexts after some of the horrors of civil wars and genocide that have become
more common since the time of the holocaust. Indeed, the evidence from NGOs and the
United Nations corroborate that more peoples across the globe experience displacement
and refugee status than ever before. This raises the reality of refugees among us and the
children and young people whose lives and identities are in the making when they have to
deal with possible trauma, loss of family and friends and familiar landscapes, and re-
adjustment or adaptation to a new country.
At this time, it is both appropriate and absolutely necessary to consider, again,
some of the possible complications surrounding the invitation to storytelling of a personal
nature that moves toward testimony. Experience and sensitivity are not the only
prerequisites for such work but also there must be a understanding of when and if the
person may wish, or be able, to express the story of his/her leaving and coming. A
recognition that such artistic expression becomes therapeutic provides a caveat of
concern for the untrained.
The young person within a refugee family, as distinct from most immigrant
families, may be dealing with a great deal beyond the usual immigrant adjustment
experience, notably the extreme traumas and losses that refugees have endured (Danieli,
1998). In an article about the findings of a National Institute of Mental Health study
presented at the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies in 2003, authors from
the University of Illinois described their research into the mental health interventions and
outreach to refugee families. Working with Bosnian families, the approach had involved
adopting a Family Consequences of Refugee Trauma (FAMCORT) model with
subthemes of"displacedfamilies of war, representing family members' views of the
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adverse changes to the family caused by war and its consequences, and families
rebuilding lives, referring to family members' thoughts about the helpful ways that
families can manage those changes" (Weine, Knafl, Feetham, Kulauzovic, et al., 2005, p.
559) The two sub-themes organize the experiences in terms of what happened over there
and the changes here involved with rebuilding their lives.
The article discusses the key issues for these families including Work: balancing
or overworked; Children's education: Struggling or opportunity; Traumatic memories:
diffuse or compartmentalized; and Adjusting: Social or financial. An understanding of
the various areas of concern assists educators and others working with people whose
adjustment period is exacerbated by the memories of what occurred during the war.
Sensitivity surrounding the experience of trauma is absolutely crucial as some
individuals, some families and even, it may be, some communities fear "that they will
feel worse if they talk about trauma". (Weine et al, p. 566) The coping by
compartmentalizing has caused many who have experienced trauma of war or other
traumas such as rape or incest to choose not to talk about the experiences. Respect for
this is important and crucial to supporting the families. Indeed, as part of their strategy
for engagement in the Coffee and Family Education and Support (CAFES), staff
developed a scripted statement about the issue of memories and trauma.
Most families struggle over how to live with memories. In CAFES groups
we do not expect people to tell their trauma stories. Do not stay away
from the groups because you are afraid of talking about traumas. Come to
the groups because there we help people to think about what are the best
strategies for living with traumatic memories, including not talking about
them. (published quote in Weine et al., p. 567)

Sometimes as teachers and/or artists, the encouragement may be there without the
requirement. The voluntary and conscious choice to express some of the most traumatic
stories must be made by the young person. The environment and the expectations must
not pressure for this as the sine qua non of the project design.
Creative expression, as has been shown throughout the thesis, may well open up
the space for some form of consideration of "stressors" (see Camilleri, 2007) and offer a
positive means to move forward, clear some of the identity questions, and continue to
build the identi-kit.
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Final Thoughts on Fredy's Trauma and Testimony

With the model of care discussed in the last section, the need for systemic
mechanisms in the form of ongoing programs has been presented. Although families
tend to arrive together, there are individuals who face the experiences of isolation as
young adults alone.
Earlier, the powerful testimony of Fredy was considered. Now, there is more to
his story, the legacy of trauma. Fredy has been homeless at times, not only in the poetic
sense but in the actual grim reality - without a home in Toronto. Although he and the
researcher have been acquainted for almost his entire time in Toronto, Fredy appears only
at those times when he is operating within the system with some stability. Thus, the fact
of his marginality did not become visible until one day when he showed me his published
work from the homeless journal, Street News.
I had considered the impact of acculturation and alienation in Fredy's experiences
in Canada as I was familiar with the earliest years when his struggles were the familiar
ones of language acquisition and job training through government supported programs.
What I did not understand was that, without immediate or extended family here in
Canada, he has faced too much alone. With the government reductions in supported
housing, he was on the street until he eventually found a space with a Latin American
family in Newmarket.
This is where he was living when Fredy and I were preparing his testimony for
publication in Canada's foremost journal of theatre, Canadian Theatre Review. His
excitement about publication was evident in the computer lab at the university. The leap
into mainstream journal status is enormous validation for all of us. Most especially, this is
true for Fredy whose ruptured life seems only to have 'sutured' in certain periods of time.
Now captured on paper, the testimony is commemorated in print, yet this will never
match the power of listening to him in person.
One of the prominent figures of political theatre, Judith Malina of the Living
Theatre, speaks of the performative act as encounter and political by nature.
My personal relationship with you, whether you are a stranger I have
never seen before or my close friend, is a political act. Good politics
should be about constantly evaluating our relationship to each other.
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.. .It's always just you and I - this is the basis of Buber's I and Thou. It's
always human to human, one to one. (Rosenthal, 1998, p. 152)

Fredy has maintained that testimony heals. Yet, in his case, his life has been
irrevocably damaged.. .much was stripped away from him at a crucial period of his life.
His loss, which is described toward the end of his Last Setting of the Sun, speaks to that
loss. As a final passage, it serves as a requiem for a life ruptured. Chilling for an
audience, what more would they understand if the second half of his life could be
described as well as his first. That testimony would indict a society that fails in its social
policy to adequately support the re-construction of cultural identity through traumatic
transitions. Fredy is not alone.
 CHAPTER SEVEN
Poetic Testimony

One of the pleasures of undertaking this research involved the possibility of

encountering in my various guises as researcher and teacher, the youth that offer voice to
difference artfully. Again, through Peter Marmorek, the innovative English teacher, an
extraordinary young writer was suggestedfor this study. Her beautiful poem surrounded
her response to 9/11 and stands as testimony of sorts, a testimony surrounding the
universality of experience, specifically in her effort to join together with others in
mourning the loss of lives September 11. As a young teenager, she was keenly aware of
her Muslim identity at that time. She and her family moved to Canada when she was only
a few years old. While in secondary school, she wrote this response in the wake of the
event.

Dark Cloud

Early in the morning, a dark cloud

Lurked in the clear sky, Hidden
Behind the mask of normality

Birds still chirping

Sun still shining
Wind still blowing
Oblivious to the evil that shared their sky

Marsha chatting to Stacey about last night's date

Roberto hastily typing an annual report
Lily answering phone calls
Isaac greeting Jamal
All oblivious to the evil approaching

The dark cloud stabs the heart of New York

Chattering mouths stop
Typing fingers halt
Ringing phones discontinue
Greeting hands part

People pushing and shoving

Lungs choking in debris
Ears bursting from the screams

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Hearts shattered from the news

Searching for some clues
It would never be the same
Now America would play their game

The next day...

Monster trucks clearing the rubble
On the walls of Manhattan: "My name is Katherine.
I am looking for my husband Tim. If you can help, please call me."
Days later, posters are removed
But not forgotten

On the other side of the world

Nadia cuddles with her sister for warmth
Her stomach growls
Her hands tremble
Her tears run down her dirty cheeks

Two enemies quarrelled

Revenge is approaching

Jack is laid off

Katy's Restaurant files for bankruptcy

Three thousand people burnt crushed

Six thousand dead for revenge
More hurt from hate

Pages from the Quran torn

Veils tugged off
Blond hair conquers brown hair
Descendents of Abraham argue again
Handcuffs are on sale while quantities last
Fingers point at the masses

Do they have enough rations for those behind bars?

Do they have enough medicine for those who are injured?
Do they have enough mothers and fathers for the orphans?

Many are obliged to terrorist schools

Their attire is labelled wrong

Beards are shaved off

Scarves and turbans are removed
Masks are in short supply
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They all laugh with tears

They both feel the stab in their backs
As the wounded lion exposes his claws
His roar comes out from his heart

Doors are locked

Against lions outside
Mohammad is fired
Ahmad gets a black eye

Beyond the doors

The marchers rhyme twisted nursery rhythms
Signs and posters wave in the air
Signatures plaster on paper
Fume escapes from their heads

Arms are opened in embrace

Flowers at doorsteps
Cards in mailboxes
Caring words

Tanks moving in
Artillery exploding
As food drops from the sky

Armed soldiers at the border blocking exits

What next...
Identification cards
More technology
Security...

Who is the hero of the tragedy?

The. President, the Mayor or the Terrorist
Too many opinions
Too many disagreements
People torn apart

Children crying for their deceased parents

No amount of deaths will dry these children's tears
The death of Ali's mother won't bring back Alicia's father

Too many wet tears

Too many hurtful words
Too many broken promises to trust again
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Too many wounds to heal

Too many hearts to mend
Too many lost lives
Too much to be learnt

On a rock in Babylon, they wrote:

' Things will never be the same...'
Never.

Poetic Text as Healing

Something very striking in the poem is her message that, in that moment of
tragedy, all of our ordinary lives were playing out, a powerful notion in that all of us do
remember where we were when we heard. Our mundane worlds were shattered. Her
main objective, I believe, based on her written statement to me surrounds her desire to
align herself with the mass of North American citizens, to be seen as one of us all in
mourning the tragedy. She states this quite clearly:
When I wrote my poem about Sept. 11,1 felt that nothing could really
express what was going on in the world. But my poem was an attempt to
convey some of the unfortunate changes. Being a Muslim, my whole life
changed after Sept 11.1 could no longer be viewed merely as a Canadian
Muslim with no strings attached. Now, there were so many images,
stereotypes, assumptions that I could not help but be associated with.
However, since I was living in Canada, I had it a lot better then some
Muslims in the States, thus this poem better reflects the situation in United
States. (Yomna Written Interview Response, July 2004)

Thankful that she is not in the United States at the time of writing the poem,
Yomna has continued to process her positioning as a Muslim woman. Whereas the
majority of students struggled with, and against, their parents over both typical teenage
issues and their rejection of traditions, she decided to stay within the traditions of her
Muslim family.
Interviewer: Are there things you do or new beliefs you have that upset
your parents because they are different from traditional ways? ... Do you
anticipate tensions due to different values?

Yomna: No. The reason is because I think I'm pretty traditional myself.
Although I have adopted many aspects of Canadian culture, most of them
do not contradict the important aspects of my tradition. Since my parents
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raised me in a traditional setting at home and also since i attended an

Islamic school for several years, and because my parents always made
sure that I was involved in the Muslim community in my area, i was able
to preserve and love my tradition. This is not to say that all aspects of my
tradition are great. I had several problems, especially with areas regarding
the treatment of women. I strongly believe that Islam promotes a fair and
equal treatment of women, but that often culture creeps in and takes over.
However, besides this one issue, my parents and I share the same values
and thus have experienced no tensions. (Y. Written Interview, 2004)

This respect for tradition conforms with the literature surrounding family
structures where there is "some evidence of positive influence of the authoritarian
parenting style among Asian and Arab adolescents (Chao, 2001; Dwairy, Achoui,
Abouserie & Tarah, 2006)" (Martinez & Garcia, 2008, p. 14).
While she declares her commitment to tradition, in another piece of her response
she recounts her experience in Syria in 2002 when she spent time with her extended
family. When they would not allow her to go out alone in the daytime, she felt the
constraint of tradition then. She felt this unreasonable as she is quite independent having
been raised in Canada to go to school on her own. Yomna has negotiated her difference
while wearing a visible signifier around which there have been hotly contested debates in
the last few years — that is the veil.
Although I have always been a minority, I rarely felt a sense of isolation
or that I was different from everyone else. However, once i began to wear my
head veil (hijab) at a young age, i began to sense a difference between and the
other kids. It wasn't a very sharp difference, but enough to feel like i wasn't
exactly the same as everyone else. However, this feeling wasn't a bad feeling. In a
way, it made me feel unique. For the most part, I liked being a person who stood
out and was different from every other girl...and i liked to think that it wasn't only
because my physical appearance was different but because my character was
different. Once I began to wear the hijab, i realized that i was now representing
my religion—Islam— and that meant that I had to watch my every move and try to
perfect my character to my uppermost ability. (Y. Written Interview, July 2004)

Although some Westerners have argued and continue to argue vociferously

against the veil, young women like Yomna have chosen without parental insistence to
wear the veil.
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Muslim Identities) in the West

Ashis Nandy, political psychologist and social theorist, has commented
thoughtfully on the ways in which Muslim identity plays out in the Western press. He
cautions against how the West takes up certain hot button issues like the fatwa against
Salman Rushdie in order to discredit the religion. In an interview with cultural theorist
Nikos Papastergiadis he notes that the Rushdie affair is "overemphasized by the global
knowledge system, to establish the a priori retrogressive nature of all cultures or sub-
cultures which do not conform to a given set of categories." (Papastergiadis, p. 103)
Inevitably now, when cultures collide and explode in opposition, the global media frenzy
ensures further distancing of positions with the progressive/liberal spectators dismissing
as barbaric such acts as the burning of buildings in response to the Danish cartoons of
Mohammed. The film footage from Syria played over and over on CNN night and day.
This further inscribes certain 'molar concepts' as noted by Nandy: "That
Muslims are intrinsically violent That Islam doesn't care about freedom of speech."
(Papastergiadis, 2000, p. 105) More recently, the incident over the British teacher in
whose classroom the teddy bear was named Mohammed further convinced vast
populations of Westerners that Islam in general restricts freedoms. Incidents within
fundamentalist Christian sects do not stimulate the same media hysteria.
Islamophobia grows as security threats or 'terrorist plots' that gain media
saturation create tropes for prejudice wherein entire communities become suspect.
With the growing concerns about Muslim youth in metropolitan spaces in the
West, this definitely produces anxieties in both groups. What must be guarded against
would be further damage to the young. The complicated affect of positioning was
described as a paradoxical process in Nandy's The Intimate Enemy (1992). The victim
internalizes the victor's rationality in order to find compensation for his or her threatened
self-image.
That this then fuels feelings of inferiority must be understood as creating
conditions for resistance. Whenever the dignity of a community is threatened as
increasingly occurs here for several racial minority groups, the young of that group may
be susceptible to influence towards crime or radicalism. Angry and resentful, the young,
many of whom were born here, may become zealously anti-Western. "The condemnation
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of Western styles of dress, family patterns, consumption styles and very significantly the
freedom the women enjoy outside the home (see Ammerman 1991: 40) becomes a cry
against westernization, or ' Westoxification', which has become a growing trend since
early manifestations in Iran (Saeledina 1991: 413) and Israel (Aran 1991: 277)."

What About Jihad Versus Mc World?

In Canada, second generation children may become radicalized even as they

attend schools and present as successful members of society to their families. In the
Toronto Star of Saturday, June 10, 2006 in an article entitled 'Caught Between Two
Worlds', the newspaper covered the issue of the 17 youths arrested for conspiring in an
alleged plot to blow up certain targets in downtown Toronto. The question posed in the
article: "How could middle class, ordinary young men - most of them born and raised
here - find themselves accused of such a terrible crime?"
Offered as a possibility by clinical psychologist Marty McKay was the idea that
these young people, most born and raised in Canada, had undergone a transformation
beginning "with an identity crisis that evolved into a deep attraction to and interpretation
of pure Islam, which was then warped by their political views." He spoke to the reporter
about second-generation Muslim Canadian feeling "caught between two worlds".
Several more experts were quoted in the article with the notion of identity repeatedly
mentioned: 'searching for identity', 'gradual movement towards what they see as an
opportunity for identity', 'seeking identity' ...
A subheading to the article - 'Jihadist generation': in search of roots - draws
attention to two aspects of the identity struggles which the paper seeks to unpack. On the
one hand, Jihadist generation suggests a labeling of an entire generation. This would be
the very tendency of totalizing that would have the writer of the poem, Dark Cloud,
despair.
Late into the article the reader meets the source of the "jihadist generation" term
in the form of a security expert who stands to gain by stirring fear of the 'other'.
The second part suggests that it is the desire to find roots which mobilizes the
young Muslims who had been drawn to websites in some kind of impulse for community.
In the final paragraphs of the rather long article, psychologist Fathali Moghaddam
describes the state of the Islamic communities in both Islamic and Western societies.
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Again, he frames it in terms of identity: "the solution is to find a third path to a new
identity for Islamic communities. Terrorism, then, is a reaction to a world-wide identity
crisis".
Clearly such articles do not encourage a positive perspective on the condition of
the youth or the community. In the same edition, several comments by Muslims
expressed concern about the impact of intense media coverage: "Every time there are big
headlines with Muslims in it, then you are guilty by association," said Omniya Hussein.
The tendency to homogenize the community was expressed by another: "You can't just
go after a race..."
The widespread distrust has bred Islamophobia here and in other parts of the
West. It was to combat this tendency that the young poet, Yomna, wrote her beautiful
call for understanding.
Final Thoughts
Even in writing of Islamophobia and the case of the Toronto youth, I run the risk
of furthering its spread. How to counter this? The methods are many.
Aasif Mandvi, the recent addition to Jon Stewart's The Daily Show as the 'Middle
Eastern affairs correspondent', comments in a recent article about the effect of 9/11:
But I think 9/11 changed everything, obviously, and suddenly artists like
myself, who were raised Muslim.. .suddenly you find yourself in this
position where you're defending and speaking up for this thing that is part
of your culture and your heritage. You find yourself in the position where
you're politicized as an artist. (Shephard, 2008, A10)

The presence of journalists within all types of media with clear political analysis
assists in fostering understanding. Responsible journalism should take care about
grabbing the sensational at the cost of breeding misunderstandings. Increased awareness
and sensitivity to the diversity within the Muslim community would assist all of us in
becoming culturally competent global citizens.
Within schools, it may be important to facilitate some discussions as an act of
heightening the awareness. There are many entries. For instance, Canada currently has
troops in Afghanistan yet few of our youth have any sense of the landscape except for
those who are here who left there. The idea of Islamophobia and the surrounding
prejudices may arise in broader discussions of discriminatory views.. .or it may not be
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advisable. Context, again, must determine the choice to unpack or leave alone such
phenomena. Those who populate our classrooms are part of a complex global movement
of peoples and negotiating discussions may prove a challenge.
Discussion may raise discomfort for those students who are living
invisibly/quietly or it may be a relief that someone opens the space for discussion. In the
chapter ahead, this is discussed further.
In closing this disquieting section, let the voice of the young offer reassurance as
Yomna speaks eloquently of her comfort in negotiating identity:
Question: As someone born in another country and culture, and now living
in Canada, you are in a very unique position. You belong, in a sense, to
two cultures. I am interested in what this means to you.

Y.: I personally love that I have two cultures. Both of course have their
pros and cons, so what i like to do is take the good and leave the bad, and
thus enjoying the fruits of both worlds. Contrary to what some people
believe, it's very possible to assume two cultures. I think that I am both
Arab and Canadian. It's hard to say to which culture i lean more towards,
however, i don't think it really matters. I don't really think that having two
cultures makes me all that unique since a great number of Canadians are
migrants and share this same characteristic. And so many of us here in
Canada are lucky enough to know two cultures. (Yomna, written
interview)

Clearly, the young speak to the change, not just of demographics but of the sense
of a world of migration as the norm. The way that newness enters the world is together-
in-differences, understood as constituitive of the altered landscape in Canada and
globally.
 CHAPTER EIGHT
An Educator's Case Study
Within this penultimate chapter, several aspects of the struggle for inclusive, anti-
racist education shall serve to further trace the historical, social and educational context
within which the individual case studies transpired. Opening with some of the key
historical developments, the chapter then relates some illuminating anecdotes in my
teaching experiences within the constraints of school practices... my case study.
The Background to Inclusive Educational Practices
The groundswell for inclusive educational practices has grown over the last
several decades with the impetus of various movements for progressive education. The
educational agenda was affected by the broader social change movements: the womens'
movement and the civil rights movement as well as the strong labour movement within
Canada. Inclusive education gained great currency in Toronto schools in the Eighties and
early Nineties as a culmination of years of criticism about the dominant curriculum both
here and in Britain and the United States. The criticism here was from a variety of
sources including educators who, through their varied political analysis, understood the
curriculum to be the product of a dominant ideology which was sexist, classist, and racist.
However, it is significant that, once started, the call for inclusion also came from people -
humanists, liberals, parents and teachers, and even conservatives - who just believed that
children would build a better sense of self-esteem and worth if their lives and stories were
validated by inclusion.
Back in the sixties beliefs in equality and social justice led to analysis and
arguments that shocked many people including educators who had themselves been
trained into adopting a particular 'gaze' and notion of excellence. 'Gaze' here suggests
the 'male gaze'. Shockingly, most of us, regardless of gender, had been so
trained/socialized through narratives of men, the picaresque tradition of literature, and the
History of great men that we hardly were aware the extent to which the curriculum
perpetuated the centrality of the white male characters, both historical and fictional. One
of the many books that chronicled the extent of the problem was Sexism in Children's
Books (1972) which spoke to the role of representation. This expose of the invisibility of
females, 'underrepresented in the titles, central roles, picture, and stories of every sample

209
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book', and the sex-role stereotyping of girls as mothers only provided momentum in the
commitment to change. Teachers were willing to accept storybooks with women but the
larger issues of women in history, women in art, women in science, remains to this day
an unfulfilled commitment to equal treatment.
After the post-war prosperity of the baby boom, in various western industrialized
countries, there was a boom mentality with a level of tension emerging in the 1960s. The
civil rights movement acknowledged that difference and inequality in the organizing
structures and attitudes of the social sphere were no longer tolerable.
In such a landscape certain political philosophers, notably France's de Certeau
(1997), posed key questions about the limit of difference.
"To what point can the plurality of differences be the organizing principle? How
might mutual respect be ensured? How does society maintain a coherence?"
Such questions have not been as contested here in Canada. In this newer society
and system of government and traditions relative to the French system, there is less
chauvinism, and I consciously invoke the French word, against which, or rather within
which, the differences must be adapted or permitted. Enter Pierre Trudeau, a man of
intellect whose core beliefs in a just society would prompt him to implement
'multiculturalism' within a society with two official languages. This inspired Canadians
to buy into a preservation and respect mode and placed Canada in the forefront of
acceptance and plurality, it seemed, as countries like Australia and Britain would follow
suit. The image of the cultural mosaic would be envisioned as our stand against the
assimilationist model of the melting pot of the United States. Yet, in America, the
divisions among races continued to produce problems: minorities wre segregated in areas
or ghettos, stereotypical images of the various groups circulated in the dominant culture,
and roles and responsibilities within the society divided as class and race intersected
ensuring inequity.
By the 1980s in Toronto, a variety of people had taken up the call to rethink
multiculturalism. Sitting in a coffeehouse in Toronto during that time, I heard Krisantha,
a Canadian poet originally from Sri Lanka, introduce his poem by describing the
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etymology of 'ethnic' as 'outside the gates' in its Greek origins. Excluded. Then came
the poem, a seering indictment of multiculturalism:
Multiculturalism

Multiculturalism

In this zoo

The animals only come together

When the keeper brings them out

In a caravan to dance for the visiting citizenry

To throw exotic food at each other....

(from The Only Minority Is The Bourgeoisie, 1985, cited in Sugunasiri, 1999)

For those of us who lived during the 'Caravan', a time when the pavilions of the
many countries were hosted in the community centers of the metropolis, this period of
state-sponsored celebrations bred a sense of celebration in the spirit of 'saris, samosas
and steel drums' which was the subject of criticism and derision. Barry Troyna, in
England, was one of several anti-racist educators whose work produced an anti-racist
perspective shifting the discourse of difference to one which interrogated power relations.
The British context experienced its own set of post-colonial shifts as a legacy to
its period of Empire. With respect to education, there are some notable highlights. The
Swann Report in England in 1985 stimulated developments in multicultural education
and acknowledged that racism was the significant factor in the unequal achievement of
ethnic minorities in schools. The report called for the provision of equal opportunity in
schooling for all students emerging from its "Inquiry into the Education of Children from
Ethnic Minority Groups". This, along with developments at the greater London Council
under the leadership of Ken Livingstone moved Britain away from multicultural
discourse and into anti-racist action as a means of addressing systemic inequities. There
was acknowledgement that the dominant culture plays a major role in silencing minority
cultures and that education takes place in a specific historical and cultural context.

The etymology of the word within the writings of Ancient Greece are fascinating. With Homer, the word was
used to describe wild animals. However, definitions in circulation do not precisely mention 'outside the gates'.
 212

In Ontario thirty years ago, school 'Boards' experienced a period of greater

autonomy as areas, most often counties, had locally elected officials who administered
their schools based on local values. From conservative rural Ontario, of which this writer
knows much, to the urban downtown core of Toronto, an area of enlightenment in the
view of such urban visionaries as Jane Jacob, this played out quite differently. Indeed,
the Toronto Board of Education demonstrated a commitment to equity with respect to
race, culture and language as they initiated some extraordinary programs including
heritage language programs and gender and race relations departments. Remarkably, the
Race Relations Committee produced a report in 1979 containing 119 recommendations
for a detailed program to eliminate racism in the Toronto school system (Toronto Board
of Education, 1979). In the forefront of reforms and programming, the document was
widely seen as groundbreaking with its progressive policies and recommended practices.
With the objectives set, the Board launched an initiative that made it one of the few
spaces exclusively committed to the advancement of equality objectives where students
would engage in transformative pedagogical possibilities.
By the late 1980s in Ontario, the Ministry of Education with the Ministry of
Citizenship and Culture sponsored a race relations conference with the Provincial
Advisory Committee on Race Relations calling for a provincial policy on race and
ethnocultural equity in 1987. The movement culminated in powerful public policy
documents in Ontario in the early 1990s due to a particular set of social conditions. A
progressive government appointed an Assistant Deputy Minister to oversee an Anti-
racism, Equity and Access Division and released a document with the stated aim of
enabling students to feel that their multicultural identities were affirmed by the education
system, to develop a positive self image (which included pride in their
racial/ethnocultural identity and heritage), and to accept and appreciate diversity and
reject discriminatory behaviour (Ontario Ministry of Education, 1992).
The trigger for intensified debate in Ontario occurred in the wake of the Rodney
King beating in Los Angeles. Outrage was sparked and the rioting of L.A. unleashed a
little of the pent-up anger within Toronto youth who hit the streets and Macleans
magazine proclaimed the Yonge Street riots. These 'riots' triggered the provincial
government to commission Stephen Lewis to file a report which was coined the 'Dear
 213

Bob' letter, after the provincial premiere Bob Rae to whom it was addressed. As the
Advisor on Race Relations, Lewis included a section on the negative experiences of black
students within a school system that utterly failed to recognize their cultures, their stories,
their identities. Seeing his role as fact finder and one who bears witness, Stephen Lewis
wrote with empathy of the experience of black students who had no means to understand
'self within the weight of the dominant curriculum (Lewis, 1992).
A wide range of political initiatives to address systemic racism were brought
forward in the wake of the Lewis report. The education system was obliged to address
issues of equity with each Board of education being required to put in place policies and
programs to review their systems in accordance with the policy document, Anti-Racism
and Ethnocultural Equity in School Boards: Guidelines for Policy Development and
Implementation (Ontario Ministry of Education, 1993). Boards of Education would be
required to plan change in several areas ranging from leadership and curriculum through
school-community partnerships.
The flurry of progressive measures also included new curriculum documents,
most notably the Ontario Common Curriculum guidelines. Clearly articulated within
were principles of equity, identity and school values which sought to include, validate
and reflect the lives of the children in the schools:
All students are entitled to have their personal experiences and their racial
and ethnocultural heritage valued within the context of a society that
upholds the rights of each person and requires each person to respect the
rights of others. All students must, therefore, see themselves reflected in a
curriculum that acknowledges both the diversity and common aspirations
of the various peoples that make up our pluralistic society.
(Ontario Ministry of Education and Training, 1993. p. 8)

This enshrinement of the rights of students to inclusive curriculum acknowledges

that schools are integral to the process of identity development.
Therefore, for a short period, from the late 1980s in Toronto and between 1992
and 1995 in Ontario, the social and political will was behind the movement for inclusive
education as a mandatory, state-sanctioned precept of educational practices. The ethos of
education that required teachers to extend the realm of curricular concerns to the lived
experiences of the students in the classrooms disappeared some time in the late 1990s,
terminated as a societal objective with the election of a conservative government that
 214

decimated such reforms in their first year in power. While schooling, we might wish,
would have less to do with the day-to-day workings of government, there clearly was a
seismic shift in educational policies during the late Nineties, complete with turbulence
and dissatisfaction among the various 'stakeholders'35. Schools and school boards
sustained intense re-structuring that complicated the focus during a time when
government removed funding from key areas of equity and good educational practice
such as ESL and special education. In general, energies were drained away from progress
as internal adjustments set back the momentum and externally, concerned citizens
attempted to resist the neo-conservative agenda
In the Schools, the Cartographies of Difference
The need to express identity must be understood as key to realizing each person in
his/her difference. Picking up on de Certeau, in the act of teaching, a key
requisite/principale is to allow students to recognize themselves as different. De Certeau
wrote of the "arts of making and doing" in everyday life with an emphasis on plurality of
places, of speech, of action, of knowledge. He proposed a "dynamic cartography" where
"differences" circulate (de Certeau, 2000). The circulation of differences would seem to
undermine the hegemony of the 'dominant culture'. 'Dominant culture' is a term which
must be used with qualifications, particularly within the social sphere of certain schools
whose populations are diverse and, in fact, where the white population of the student
body significantly has become a minority, including the three secondary schools at which
I have taught in the last decade.
Bottom line, the curriculum has been surprisingly slow to change despite the early
progress. The dominant mainstream curriculum, "largely ignores the experiences,
cultures, and histories of other ethnic, racial, cultural, language, and religious groups has
negative consequences for both mainstream students and students of color....one major
way in which racism and ethnocentrism are reinforced and perpetuated in the schools, in
colleges and universities, and in society at large" (Banks, p. 242).

38
Another rather peculiar outcome of the advent of conservativism was the shifting discourse in education and elsewhere, including this rather
commodified notion of each grouping being deemed stakeholders as if this were somehow a business transaction.
39
At the time, I joined the ranks of those who banded together to protest under various titles. During a protest at Queens Park of People for
Education, a group largely comprised of mothers, I spoke on national television after being physically removed from the Legislature for
protesting the policies that were being passed without public debate. That, too, is praxis.
 215

A common premise among progressive educators is that students learn best and
are more highly motivated when the school curriculum reflects their cultures,
experiences, and perspectives. The corollary: students may be alienated and "experience
cultural conflict and discontinuities that result from the cultural differences between their
school and community" (Delpit and Dowdy, 2002). This phenomenon must be taken
more seriously by educators whose belief of their obligation to students rests in the
'delivery'and drill of information. The experiences of students whose lives are not
reflected in the curriculum must be attended to and remedied; otherwise, there is the
ongoing message that "students' cultures [are] dysfunctional by not addressing the wealth
of culture and experience" (Ali, 2004, p. 6).
This offence, whether it be by omission or commission, ought to be named. By
failing to be more inclusive in our practices, teachers commit symbolic violence40 as
students continue to feel that their home cultures are devalued within the system. While
many students may attribute this to the huge geo-cultural gap between cultures, as in the
case of many second generation Chinese Canadian students, students continue to receive
the message that the cultural capital recognized by schools does not include them. (Nieto,
2000, p. 323)
For those conducting research work in school settings, the cartography tends to
be framed in terms of Bourdieu's concept of symbolic marketplaces. Rampton's study
speaks to the symbolic marketplace and, similarly, Canadian researchers including
Goldstein, Yon and L.K.Taylor adopt this concept. To varying degrees, within such
frameworks, social theory may be woven into and developed out of sociolinguistic
analysis rather than embracing a more traditional linguistic ethnography of the school
environment. Rampton (1995) speaks of the more policed spaces of a very narrow
official culture of presumed, but in no way true/culture-blind' Anglocentric citizenship
and these dynamics may be enforced.
Schools are integral to the process of identity development for it is here that
young people negotiate gender, race, class and other divisions. Groups are defined by
affinity or belonging. To ignore the groupings is to ignore aspects of the social body
within a school. They are sites of feeling and of intellect and to ignore them is to fail to

Here, the term being mobilized was one developed by Bourdieu.

 216

realize what may be possible (Rampton). As researchers and educators enter each school,
then, the world requires an assessment of the variables. For instance, in some schools, the
preponderance of a large South Asian population may define the symbolic value of
certain languages such as Tamil or Gujarati. Goldstein (2002) analyzes the effects of
different groupings within a classroom and the types of regulation that go on with respect
to language usage. Dominance in the social world of the students co-exists, and is
challenged for dominance by, the regulators of curriculum - both standard and hidden -
and all aspects of the school's life. Some schools maintain a white middle class culture,
though that may vary even by department within schools based on the staffing, the
resources, the leadership and the varied powers within the 'marketplace'. There have
been several excellent studies that deal with power relations, with some fascinating
accounts in Toronto schools such as McLaren's Life in Schools (1994), James Ryan's
Race and multi-ethnic schools: a case study (1999) and Daniel Yon's (2000) study
entitled Elusive Culture: schooling, race and identity in global times.
Several theorists have resoundingly condemned the methods of schools, the
blindness of schools to the struggles of young people in favour of curriculum delivery.41
As documented earlier, the focus on race, culture and language, multicultural and anti-
racist education has been supplanted by a return to high stakes testing with literacy
almost defined by the results.
Few of the innovative measures associated with earlier programs survive. One
notable example: the Toronto Board of Education, in its time prior to amalgamation,
developed equity camps designed for students to come together in the countryside around
Bolton at Camp Rena. These camps, which I attended as a facilitator along with our
theatre group for social change, set out to engage students in considerations of gender
(some of the early camps focused on this with groups of females and males meeting
separately to discuss discrimination) and race (later camps brought together students in an
anti-racist initiative). Informing the structured activities of the later equity retreats was a
commitment to an analysis of everyday racism (Essed, 1991) in students' lives to develop

41
Sometimes the analysis has attributed the failure of schools to the broader disintegration of public life (Wexler
1992, McLaren, Giroux).
strategies to collectively challenge all levels and forms of discrimination in schools and
communities (McCaskell, 1997; Taylor 2002).
The final camps, before funding made the camps obsolete, were organized for
ESL students and were conducted within the city with support from staffing possibilities
through the OISE/UT teacher training program. The institutional support of the program
was necessary for the camp to be viable due to the fiscal restraints imposed by the
provincial government on the amalgamated Toronto District School Board.
The words of criticism leveled against the school system by Rezai-Rashti seem
even truer today:
The work by race relations advisors has become an addendum if not a
marginal aspect of the overall educational functions of the various boards.
Schooling was not reorganized in order to facilitate the changes that a
policy of race relations has implied; it has remained fundamentally the
same... .It can be surmised that the development of race relations policies
is a political response that is not aimed at changing teaching practices.
(Rezai-Rashti, 1995, p. 11)

The serious work involved with the 'reprogramming' of teachers required to

implement the spirit of antiracist education, I would argue, never took hold. In order to
undertake such work, there needs to be a sensitivity born of cultural awareness and
principles of anti-racism education. George Dei spoke of the deeper understanding
required:
Anti-racism calls for putting power relations at the center of the discourse
on social difference.. .Race, class, and gender and their intersections are
explored as both sites and sources of difference and identity as well as
sites of relations of domination, exploitation and oppression.. .The first
principle of anti-racism education recognizes the social effect of "race"
.. .There are powerful social meanings to race which are anchored,
particularly, in the lived experiences of minority groups in White-
dominated societies. (Dei, 1996, pp. 26-27)

While it may be tempting to believe that time has past and that, therefore, the
schools some fifteen years later have adopted curricular materials that reflect the student
bodies, this is not the case in many school settings. One of the great preserves of tradition
involves the schools and their attachment to canonic traditions and Eurocentric
orientations, versions of history based on imperialist traditions uncritically written and
taught. Surprising to outsiders to the system, this problem was revealed by students who
 218

responded to a recent large-scale survey undertaken with secondary students.

Newspapers in the fall of 2007 highlighted the results: Students do not 'see themselves
reflected in the curriculum'. The Metro paper judged this, stating that "Students want to
see themselves in the curriculum and good educators should."

Altering the "Dominant" Curriculum: Talking Practice and Its Limitations

Teachers' continued reluctance to diversify their curricular choices and to bring

up difficult issues in schools speaks to the severity of the problem of engagement and
inclusive practice. In her book Re-mapping Literary Worlds: postcolonialpedagogy in
practice, Ingrid Johnston suggests reasons apparent to most in the system. Teachers tend
to teach what was taught to them, and they therefore both feel comfortable and familiar
with those books. The value of those books, from the ancient to the modern classics, has
been ingrained in their minds from their own education. This cycle must be broken.
The presence of 'others' in our classrooms calls on us to find the means to adapt
our curriculum so that the students see and find themselves. Gayatri Spivak (1993) speaks
lyrically of the power of recognition: "to "recognize" oneself as also an instantiation of
historical and psychosexual narratives that one can piece together, however
fragmentarily..." (p. 26) Recognition and belonging are very linked.
Insight into how to find a means to connect with students in a manner which
fosters a receptivity to placing cultural identity on the table can be an art in itself.
Establishing an open atmosphere of exploration requires skill sets that many educators
lack. Like a clever journalist, it's sometimes finding out information without necessarily
appearing to do so and it's about tapping your sources and resources.
With some students and in some school spaces, this may be very easy as this tale
from my fieldwork suggests. Somewhat surprising, the election of a young Muslim
student to the key post of Junior Mayor occurred post-September 11 despite the fact that
Muslims were a minority grouping in an Asian-dominated population. Teaching English
to this young man, it was utterly natural to suggest that he and a friend choose, if they
wished, to do a seminar on Islam and the Muslim faith. They were very pleased during a
period of time when they, like Yomna in the previous chapter, felt that their religion had
been mis-presented in the media subsequent to the crashing of jets into the World Trade
 219

Centre. This, I believe, was an early intervention in the climate of Islamophobia which
was taking root in North America. Later in the course, building on their enthusiasm, I
introduced the two Ahmeds to the writings of Naguib Mahfouz. Although usually
reluctant to spend time reading, they read his long works, complimenting Mahfouz in his
ability to remind them of their childhood days in Cairo. Indeed, they were highly vocal
about how special the discovery of this author was in their lives. Once this happened,
other students were keen.. .asking for suggestions of an author from her/his cultural
background.
A few years later, I was placed at a composite school which is located within an
area of 'poverty by postal code' district, one of the fourteen as defined and identified by
the United Way in its report with the City of Toronto. Such a school moves ideas of
student resistance from theory into the throes of practice. In such situations, some
students treat teachers as authority figures against whom one struggles regardless of the
individual traits of the teacher.
After an initial rough transition, complete with a fist fight in my class, I did an
analysis of my identity location vis and vis my classrooms. The cultural mismatch of
students to teacher was statistically noted: of my ninety students, only seven presented
with cultural backgrounds remotely similar to my own.. .broadly defined as European. I
stood before what became known in the women's movement as the 'world Majority', a
majority constituted of racialized minority students.
This coincided with a period of coercive curricular constraints in that school
obliging me to teach the canonical works of my own past schooling experience as Lord of
the Flies and The Great Gatsby were deemed the suitable fare. This seemed more than
absurd after being immersed in the world of critical pedagogy at graduate school. The
spectre for me of standing before a classroom in which the vast majority of the young
people were from India, Sri Lanka, Guyana, and Jamaica raised issues as I felt myself
placed in a perilous relationship reproducing power relations of the colonizer and the
colonized. Understanding myself to be utterly compromised while steeped in the ideals
of engaged anti-racist pedagogy, I agonized over the problematics of my situation.
On a very basic level, when communication/curriculum fails to engage the
collective experiences and collective identities of our students, then the school sets itself
 220

outside the world of the students of that group. The collective belonging that involves our
clusters of students from the Middle East, from China, from the state of Gujarat in India,
from Pakistan remains ignored, by and large, in the dominant curriculum. The legacy of
the British Empire becomes painfully visible in our classrooms through the curriculum
choices of the programs; in effect, we are enforcing a "cultural" mask onto our students
by our rejection. Haunted by the words of Fanon, in my conflicted state, I saw myself as
carrying the mantle of the oppressors.
The novel reading lists prescribed by what was available in the book room held
little room for "differing cultural perspectives." Suzanne Scafe, who has specialized in
teaching black literature in Britain, describes the result of the type of reading lists
presented to me as required texts, a status quo reproduction. In her succinct phrasing,
schools "transmit the notion, passed off as truth, that culture is white, male and middle-
class" (Scafe, 1989, p. 23). The hegemony of the Western canon weighs in and down on
our contemporary youth whose experience in the world bears little resemblance to the
lives and experience of the texts, let alone the language. Even more worrisome are the
ways in which the canonic texts re-inscribe power relations of race and gender that
perpetuate inequality.
From readings of various studies, I understood that, although students' cultures
are important to them both personally and in their families, they are also problematic,
partly because they are rarely valued or acknowledged by schools. When it comes to
cultural capital, theirs is left at home. Yet, curriculum has the possibility to encourage
students to become confident, active critical thinkers who learn that their backgrounds
and experiences are important tools for further learning, for what Maria Torres-Guzman
refers to as "cognitive empowerment" (cited in Nieto).
There is often a tremendous mismatch between students' cultures and the culture
of the school. Thus, in a school such as the one under discussion, learning starts not with
what students bring to class (Shor, 1992, p. 44), but with "what is considered high-status
knowledge; that is, the "canon", with its overemphasis on European and European
American history, arts, and values". (Nieto, p. 182)
I undertook a review of the course profile and course outline of the Ministry of
Education and the Toronto Board of Education for the grade level in which I would teach
 221

half my courses that school year. The evidence indicated that one to two of the five units
in each were based upon an Independent Novel with an expectation that students would
develop their major or culminating activity based on their reading. The Toronto Board
encouraged reading selections that would diversify the authorial voices with books such
as Alice Walker's The Colour Purple, Wayson Choy's The Jade Peony, and Joy
Kogawa's Obasan.
The possibility for individual reading of a novel of particular cultural relevance to
the student seemed an ideal remedy to the moribund, and I do mean deadly, books.
Sanctioned by the course profiles, there seemed little doubt that this would be an
'allowable' disruption of the individual school's practices. Colleagues in the English
department were reluctant but with the enthusiastic support from the librarian and the
principal, the project was considered a pilot project.. .though this terminology remains
strange since both the Ministry of Education and the Board of Education contained such a
unit in the course of study.
Plans proceeded with my firm belief that students, by virtue of reading
appropriate texts, could comprehend their 'home cultures' more deeply and that students
would be enabled to bring their past experiences and their pre-existing knowledge to
make meaning both of the literature and of themselves. For once in their school lives, I
hoped that by reading a special book, a book that connected somehow to their cultural
identity, the student might derive a pleasure in identifications and that the familiarity
would allow for an intertextuality of response.
The attempt to find material that related to their cultures as a central feature of the
course might succeed in something more. As Grumet (1988) suggests, there is a need for
curriculum to "span the chasm presently separating our public and private worlds" (p.
xv). This revised curricular approach would be my means of beginning to answer the
question: How do matters of cultural representation reshape our pedagogical
responsibilities? This was not only an obligation to my classroom peopled from the
diaspora, it was a pedagogical responsibility for me as a teacher.
Together, we would explore: how, by reading and interacting with literary texts
that speak to the hybrid existences, students find their own lived realities more
comprehensible. The perspectives of modern youth are better prepared by the reading of
 222

such texts than by re-inscribing the race privileging of the English course curriculum that
tends to place the experience of white Europeans in the central roles. Instead, there
would be the prospect that young people may read within and across cultural experiences
forming an intertextual meaning that assists in comprehending the world of migrancy and
postcolonial life. At the core of the exploration would be, I hoped, cultural identity.
Embedded in the approach would be the understanding among us that there are
multiple identities worthy of study, departing from the notion that the only lives worthy
of study are those of white English-speakers from Britain or the United States. What is
often required, in dealing with identity conflict, is not so much about understanding of
cultures although that is very helpful, but respect for identities. A curriculum that takes
seriously the cultural works of African Americans may be helpful here, even if it does not
communicate deepened understanding of African American culture (Appiah, p. 30).
Besides those mentioned from the TDSB document, I took measures to especially
seek writers whose cultural backgrounds matched my South Asian students who
constituted the majority of my classes. Armed with my knowledge, albeit limited, of
such writers as M.G. Vassanji, Antia Rau Badami, Shyam Selvadurai, Anita Desai and,
one of my favourites, the Pulitzer-Prize winning American Jhumpa Lahiri, the means of
lining up students with appropriate texts involved both a sense of the student and the text.
With the depth of knowledge of the enthusiastic librarian, there were two of us looking to
match.
This centerfold of the school newsletter on the following two pages stands as a
testament to the engagement of the students with texts not ordinarily offered as part of
their English literature courses. Requested by the principal and then culled by me from
the essays and journals of the Grade 11 students who had participated, the selection of
comments were intended to reflect the breadth of literature and the thoughtful reflection
of students whose lives had been touched by the unique opportunity not only to choose
their own book but to make meaning of their engagement with the text....
 223

WHAT'S Concord READING ?

As a part of their Grade 11 University level English program students have
chosen from the rich and diverse collection available at our school library. Students
explored themes of belonging, human conflict and adversity as well as cultural identity.
The class felt that this was an amazing opportunity to find out who they are while reading
some of the best in world literature. They encourage YOU to check one of these titles out
for yourself!

The Kite Runner

by Khalid Hossein
While reading, I realized that each chapter was more moving than the other.
The book was so detailed that it felt like I was a part of the plot. When the author
described a character, I felt like I was seeing them face-to-face. When they
described a setting, I felt like I was present in the actual place. For the first time a
book made me cry as I was reading it and that is when I realized that this is the
most powerful book that I have ever come across. Jasmon

Tamarind Mem
by Anita Rau Badami
Saroja's ambition to finish a medical degree becomes a
dream as her parents forcefully make her marry Vishwa Her life as
a wife isn't fulfilled as a female would hope. ... Even after
marriage, Saroja lives a life under strict rules by the society and
what her caste expects a female to be. Kajethra Umathevan
... an exceptional book ... Kamini's relationship with her
father reminds me of the sort of bond my Dad and I share. The way
her Mom emphasizes the importance of education makes me
smile.. .I'm not the only one having to hear their parents repeat,
"Your power is your education!" Suba

The Colour Purple

by Alice Walker
This inspiring novel explores the black culture and demonstrates
in a variety of ways how women were looked down on and continued to
struggle after the abolition of slavery. The Colour Purple is an amazing
novel that depicts the hardship of a black African American girl, who
throughout her life faces extraordinary situations and life changing
experiences. Sabita

When I started reading this book, it almost made me cry because

I sympathized with Celie. ...it's very emotional for me. Though she suffered through
poverty and abuse, she still maintained her self esteem and confidence. I encourage
people to read this book. It will send you a very powerful message. Allison
Londonstani
by Gautam Malkani LONDONSTANI
The book Londonstani relates to me and other students in high
school so much because a lot of people want to fit in and follow today's
trend of style and talk. Jas, the central character, speaks slang instead of
proper English.. .1 do too.
Later in the novel, there is a big fight with Harjit and Tariq over a
girl. Mr. Ashwood their former classroom teacher saves them from the
constables by saying that they are good students. I can relate to this novel
very easily. Nitharsan i

Cinnamon Gardens
by Shyam Selvadurai
Cultural beliefs and traditions versus individual ambitions
and happiness... Individuals such as Annalukshmi and Balendran
are caught up in the struggles of the transitional period between the
British and Sinhalese rule in Sri Lanka People are more
concerned about how many problems tomorrow brings, more than
with what their culture is about. The moment I started to read this
book, it showed the never-ending battle of young Tamil-Indian
women against their cultural boundaries. .. .Many of the Tamil
movies that I have watched have a similar ending to a girl's
stubbornness Renujan /

No New Land
by M.G. Vassanji
Migration within the South Asian population has gone on for
decades as they move to various parts of the world. The primary focus of
Vassanji's novel is the situation of Asians residing in East Africa. The
members of this community later undergo a second migration to Canada.
Diapora affects the lives of the people in many small and big ways, thus
changing its course tremendously. .. .Migration creates a dual identity for a
person. The life of every immigrant is caught up between two cultures
resulting in conflicts and making life unendurable to some degree.
Zubin •:-••••.

Angela's Ashes
by Frank McCourt
Life may get tough but who is to say give up? Every time I think that
Frank McCourt's life can't get any worse, it does. To have a
childhood like this, it really makes you appreciate what you have
because we are fortunate not to have to go through such sad events
like Frank did. Frank McCourt saw death strike four members of his
family and used to go to sleep on an empty stomach, but no matter
how bad Frank's life got, he always held on, praying that someday he
would have the strength to move on with his life and live in
prosperity. So, if you are down and second guess why you are
alive, tell yourself, "I'm alive because Frank McCourt is alive.
Christopher
 225

Commentary
As a commentary on this newsletter, I would draw attention to certain strategies in
selection. The range of texts was deliberate with an eye to suggesting the possibilities:
from the bestselling book, The Kite Runner set in Afghanistan from the perspective of the
man who had immigrated to California but who returns to face his childhood to three
books written by South Asians now residing in Canada. Among those, Tamarind Mem
provided a terrific author and book for the school's large population of females struggling
with the sorts of cultural conflicts played out in the narratives of Anita Rau Badami. The
tensions between freedom and traditions within the gender role expectations and
constraints led to lively discussion in our classroom. This dialogue inevitably invited the
participation of normally reticent girls, girls for whom freedom of choice in marriage still
remains elusive. Another, Cinnamon Gardens, by Shyam Selvadurai, a Tamil-Canadian,
whose three books challenge readers not only culturally but also in matters of sexual
orientation. At the school, the large Tamil population might not read him without
encouragement. Renujan, a sixteen year old Tamil-Canadian, likened the "never-ending
battle of young Tamil-Indian women against their cultural boundaries" to Tamil movies
that he had watched with similar endings. His intertextual reference not only suggested
the meaning-making due to familiarity of themes but also provided a great marketing line
to encourage others to read the book.
Of note, I took care to include a best-selling white author, Frank McCourt, whose
book Angela's Ashes gained huge popular appeal with its somewhat depressing story of
childhood poverty in Ireland. Of course, the work describes lives that survive the poverty
of Ireland. The young person who read this book was a rather disaffected boy whose
prior project had been on 'stoner comedies' reflecting his taste in the rather puerile
humour of Wayne's World. Thus, when he describes his response, noting that this story
proved that others survive suffering, this is a testament to the empathy that he felt for the
character. For him, as well as others, the books that they read will remain favourite texts
for a lifetime.
With the success of this initiative, I am also mindful that such an alteration of text
titles does not in and of itself provide redemption. Henry Gates made the acerbic remark
 226

that "there is something wrong with a vision of literature that... .imagines that replacing
Hemingway with [Zora Neale ] Hurston can solve substantial social ills" (cited in
Johnston, 2002). Still, the meaning-making from such reading is evident in the
responses. Zubin notes that his reading of the diasporic experience of M.G.Vassanji's No
New Land provided him with an understanding of the South Asian global migration and
the dual identities that emerge. Nitharsan was delighted by Londonstani, the book by
Gautam Malkani, the ethnographer of London's South Asian youth gangs; the
Scarborough teenager relates to the slang of Jas, the central character and the edginess of
the narrative utterly absorbed him whereas he had found a means to avoid reading other
English novels in high school. Finally, Alice Walker's The Color Purple provided
several young women with an emotional outlet and a powerful representation of black
women and the impact of violence in the lives of girls and women.
Why can't these wonderful selections constitute the novel study for book circles
in all classrooms? Why are teachers afraid to let go of the canon?
Many factors inform the defensiveness among educators. In its worst
manifestation, the resistance of educators might be described as coming from a
conservative sensibility. "Among many conservatives, multiculturalism is a term of
derision, deployed to represent a variety of challenges to the traditional European and
male orientation of the educational canon" (Johnston). However, in my experience, the
reproduction of traditional texts may proceed out of inertia as much as out of resistance.
This is what has been taught before; this is what I learned in secondary school. The
standardized lists may provide a measure of security for the teacher as a known quantity
and as one with which the teacher is armed with lesson plans.
A curious byproduct of my pilot project, this minor incursion into a plurality of
texts fully sanctioned by the course profiles, involved the senior teachers within the
department who seemed to think that I needed to be brought in line. In a rather
transparent move, the English department leader included a new departmental policy that
any changes to courses had to be presented to the entire English staff. Of course, such
measures are designed as a deterrent to change in the name of consistency of curriculum.
More recently, I had occasion to encourage another group of English subject
educators to make new book selections. Allegations of censorship were made by a
 teacher when it was suggested that alternatives to To Kill A Mockingbird42 be considered.
In the course of a mediated session, what emerged was a meritocracy argument, the old
Quality vs. Inclusive Curriculum positioning. That is, teachers asserted that the book list
had remained the same as the list from the 1960s because the teachers could not find
'excellent' multicultural books. This statement seems ludicrous in the face of all the
magnificent literature available and the obligation to our students that we respect the
global identities within our classrooms.
The age-old defence against change in the book rooms of our English departments
often will come down to a 'quality' argument. In the eyes and experience of educators
who themselves were exposed to, and are a product of, the books of quality - read the
canon - approach to education, there frequently arises a defensiveness based on a notion
of meritocracy instilled in them during their own schooling. Assimilationist approaches
to the study of literature dictate that students need exposure to the great literature, the
classics. The polarizing effect of debate on the issue may lead to allegations of 'dumbing
down' the curriculum.
The challenge for educators involves the acceptance that our role has less to do
with canonic education and skills building and more to do with engagement of our
students in and with material that allows them to consider their lived realities.
The stance of educators may well be informed by a sense of care while still
reproducing curricular designs that remain not only distant from the students in our care
but, in fact, re-reproduce the problematic representations and power relations that ensure
not only visions of inequality and entitlement but also leave our youth without a means to
navigate their multiple worlds and find expression for their cultural heritage in diaspora
within a Canadian context. As educators, then, we run the risk of sending the message
that our schools are established as bastions of old paradigms of Canadian identity based
on some amalgam of British and American influences.

42 One of my objectives in altering such novels as The Great Gatsby or To Kill a Mockingbird has to do with the obvious American cultural
and historical focus. That each of these books may reinscribe notions of race and class that may be understood by progressive thinkers as
problematic seems entirely germane to the discussion. For the recently-arrived immigrant student, a lack of familiarity with Canadian context in
general and in particular, the historical legacy of the oppression of slavery in the U. S. precludes, I would argue, contextual understanding.
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As Greene (1995) argues, the concept of disrupting the order of our own
established lives is to "provoke our students to break through the limits of the
conventional and taken for granted" and is important to examining imagination and
learning in teaching. Like Greene, my imagination and pedagogy is linked to the
importance of "the idea of beginnings and freedom, disruption and consciousness and the
awareness of possibility and that has so much to do with the teaching of other human
beings (p. 109).
Indeed, one of the most compelling reasons within a school setting for liberatory
pedagogy (see Freire, hooks, Giroux) must be to disrupt notions of power and dominance
currently perpetuated in traditional curricular practice. By engaging in this resistance act,
teachers assist students in identity negotiation. Do we not have this obligation and if we
fail to do so, does this not leave us complicit in a systemically racist system?
This, however, may call into question the curricular hagiography. The
preponderance of Shakespeare within the English curriculum continues to be the single
most overwhelming factor in students' experience of what is worthy of consideration.
Each year, regardless of the plethora of other voices - non-British, non-16th century -
students are compelled to study Shakespeare as if no other - or 'other' - merits
consideration. To unpack this 'knapsack of White privilege', laden with its biblical
reverence for the Bard, seems impossible within any lifetime. Rupturing such whiteness
(for lack of a better word) will surely not take place within this generation forced back
into a conservative, colonial positioning in their reading while young. Promoting change
in schools truly takes effort and shall indeed meet with resistance. Appadurai (1996)
recognizes that "advocates of "minor" literature seek not just to add but to de-stabilize
majority literatures" (p. 34).
Nevertheless, attempts to de-stabilize the canon via replacing the "great" books in
order to add diverse voices in and of itself does not constitute a transformation of
knowledge transmission. Granted. My interest, at the bottom line so to speak, lies in the
lessening of harm. I have sat with a crying student, not one from my class, who has
found the process of studying To Kill a Mockingbird to be upsetting to her very sense of
self and identity. This is the way that symbolic violence plays out in our classrooms and
that ought to be a sufficient reason for change. .
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First Language, Accent and Embrace or Denial of Identity

There has been a body of work to indicate the benefits of first language literacy in
second language acquisition since the initial findings of Jim Cummins. Emerging from
this has been an understanding of the importance of pedagogical strategies that draw
upon the resource of first language (Vogt and Short, 2000; Coehlo, 1998; Cummins,
2006). Among the initiatives, this has spawned some innovative projects to produce
bilingual editions of books, based on the stories of children newly arrived to the country.
Told in first language, an English translation is made available. Peel Board of Education
teachers in collaboration with researchers documented the benefits of the project and the
results are available through the Multiliteracies project (Cummins, 2006).
The power of agency and voice to produce meaning must not be denied the child
due to immigration. In fact, at these times when greater demands of acculturation occur,
the child needs to retain a sense of competence in language and communication.
During my time shadowing students in Peel Board of Education, there were
certain interactions with students surrounding the use of first language in the classroom
as opposed to English. In the ESL classroom of a warm and supportive teacher, the rules
against this practice persisted despite the research which demonstrated that first language
literacy was an asset and should not be prohibited. Yet, here she intervenes:
Mrs. B. was heard one day to cajole two of her students: What did I hear?

The two boys froze and would not speak in any language.

Mrs. B. Oh. I thought I heard Punjabi, (with a gentle tone of censure)

Another time, I happened to be moving between the school and the portables
when I witnessed this same rule being reinforced beside a portable classroom by a far
'less warm' teacher. The student had been removed from the classroom in order to be
reprimanded. In this instance, the teacher was threatening the student with a visit to the
office for breaking the rule. Even in my passing, I was able to overhear the teacher's
disparaging remarks about the use of the female student's South Asian language. The
student appeared frightened. In the first instance, a teacher was encouraging her students
not to rely on use of first language amongs themselves for either the essential
communication between them or their socializing. In the other instance, a teacher
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enforced English-language usage as if it were the law of the land and as if the first
language was deficient. She regulated the girl through her position of authority.
The challenge to progressive educators has been further complicated by the
emphasis on EQAO assessments, testing of literacy based on standard English usage.
Thus, in evaluations of students, it remains our job to "correct the problems",
whether those be grammatical variations or manners of speech which are quite accepted
in their dialect or not. Haunted by the words of Gloria Anzaldua about the pain that
disrespect of language may cause:
So, if you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language. Ethnic
identity is twin skin to linguistic identity - 1 am my language. Until I can
accept as legitimate Chicano Texas Spanish, Tex-Mex and all the other
languages I speak, I cannot accept the legitimacy of myself... and as long
as I have to accommodate English

Speakers rather than having them accommodate me, my tongue will be

illegitimate. I will no longer be made to feel ashamed of existing. I will
have my voice: Indian, Spanigh, White. I will have my serpent's tongue -
my women's voice, my sexual voice, my poet's voice. I will overcome
the tradition of silence. (Anzaldua, 1987, p. 59)

The very real challenges of dialect have not been discussed adequately in our
Canadian schools. In the States, the discussion around ebonies which peaked about ten
years ago engaged people in the matter so that there was an awareness that mainstream
schools might be setting children up for failure by the insistence on standard English.
While recognizing that our role as educators must be to teach standardized
English, the whole area of dialect among the children of West Indian immigrants does in
fact impact on their sense of identity and community and self esteem. When a whole
system condemns their 'talk', which inevitably occurs during the process of classroom
evaluation and standardized testing, there has clearly been an under-estimation of the
devastating effects to children. At the very least, schools become sites which enforce
language 'switching' whereby the children switch to standardized English at schools as
opposed to talk among their family members. The "internally-persuasive discourse"
(Bakhtin, p. 424) of the home and, likely, the friends struggle in the landscape of
authoritative discourse of the schools. This becomes in itself an instrument of violence as
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the young person must bisect his language identity into two in order to gain a level of
passable fluency in the system.
Little thought in the school system interrogates this practice despite the widely
understood belief that language is central to identity. The correction of dialect transmits
a persistent message of deficiency to the student. For some time, there were ESD classes
held in several Boards of Education. Although problematic on the one hand - after all,
the children spoke English, didn't they? - public acknowledgement of the dialect, it
might be argued, at least placed a respectful terminology on the dialect.
Recently, as someone sensitive to the racist overtones to the imposition of
standardized English, I found myself at a parent meeting communicating some of the
challenges that a 15 year old student raised in the West Indies would face going into the
EQAO standardized literacy tests. As I paused in my search for language to describe the
problem to the mother, she said, "Oh, it's because of my broken English, isn't it." This
was presented not as a question but as a statement of fact with a sense of weariness for
this mother knew from her own experience the inferiority of her language in the eyes of
schools. We carried on our conversation with me thinking of Freire's Literacy all the
while scrambling to valorize the mother's language. "It's not broken. It's different, that's
all," I offered. "But I am afraid that the examination markers will not realize that's why
Shereane writes that way." I realized that my placing the blame on the markers was a
weak offering after this mother's sustained experience of domination through the
invalidation of her language.
The correction of dialect within schools proceeds apace. Perhaps, discrimination
based on accent may decline as legitimacy is gained through the broad accents of
journalists who appear on City TV. But that context remains a rarity.
The subject gains attention in the recently released The Poetics of Anti-Racism.
Co-editor Nuzhat Amin (2006) describes this as a discrimination of covert racism; the
message conveyed: "they speak "bad" English and have to learn standard English" (p.
151). Both Amin and co-editor George Dei describe the experience of accent
"dis-acceptance" after arrival in Canada. There remains a sense of hierarchy and
intellectual assumptions made based on accent.
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Ngugi Wa Thiong-0 (1986), one of the great African writers says this of
language: "The choice of language and the use to which it is put is central to a people's
definition of themselves in relation to their natural and social environment, indeed in
relation to the entire universe" (p. 4).
Our schools now 'contain' many tongues, many languages and dialects that must
be met not only with respect but with a sense that each is a marker of literacy and
possibility. Not only is language a part of student identification, it pertains to the
plurality of cultural identities swirling in our school spaces.

Schools and Change

Schools provide the central face of society as they serve as the main site for youth
development. The key question of inclusion seems stalled in old talk of the need for
more multicultural education which provides a veneer of acceptance while generally
failing to take action for change in the classroom and outside the classroom.
Equality at this level of society means offering full participation at schools. The
experiences of youth are complex negotiations of cultural meaning as it affects their
everyday understanding of themselves. These experiences are diverse, posing dilemmas,
contestations, and complicated challenges for the youth. For marginalized youth, the
failure of schools to re-define their objectives - away from formulaic, transmission-based
curriculum delivery to a liberatory space of engaged pedagogy - may yet be revealed
through the side effects. The murder of Jordan Manners in 2007 at C. W. Jefferies, a
school in the troubled northwest sector of Torono, led to a report with recommendations
for change. Does it take a death? The question ought to administer a shock to the
institutional rigidity which seems to prevent even modest change in the form of new
stories appropriate to contemporary youth of the diasporic, postcolonial world. There
remains little doubt that schools must engage in a process to "heal the physical and
emotional wounds of racism" (Dei in Amin, Dei, & Lordan, 2006, p. 15)
These case studies demonstrate that students in this generation in fact do wish to
undertake significant explorations of their individual and collective identities within a
context of ethnicity exploration. The reality is that our classes are inhabited by young
people living in the borders (Giroux), in the process of cultural translation, and identity
transcreation. With the provision of space, most especially as articulated in the work of
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creative expression, there clearly is value for the entire class or school community or
even broader networks as evidenced from the cyber-circulation of Indo-Canadian Reality
which opened up dialogue among community members across generations and
international borders.
Through such projects, a person gains access to the broad range of conceptual
schemes and methods of thought for critically understanding and interpreting the social
and cultural milieu. As a teacher and as a cultural worker, I believe that more attention
must be paid to positive interventions to create a space in which students participate in:
the magic of imagining and creating a world that does not yet exist, a
world in which difference is lifted and complicated. Cultures get to speak
and then fracture into beautiful, diverse, contradictory slices. Young
adults narrate their still unformed selves and listen to their own brilliance
and disappointments. (Fine & Weiss, 2003, p. 275)

This magic cannot emerge without a greater commitment on the part of those who
facilitate young people as teachers or in other positions. Our pedagogical practices must
take far more "seriously how ideologies are lived, experienced, and felt at the level of
everyday life as a basis for student experience and knowledge." (Giroux, 1992, p. 176)
The school community, as Durkheim (1973) emphasized, mediates in the child's
experience between the close personal moral relationships of the family and the
impersonal morality of the national society.
Yet, many teachers enter the profession of teaching with little awareness that their
own white middle-class positioning predisposes them to biases, attitudes, and stereotypes
as they enter classrooms that are different from the population with which they are
familiar. This lack of familiarity may lead the teacher to assumptions and practices that
are problematic. In an issue of Education Canada two senior administrators are critical
of teachers:
With the best of intentions teachers can pre-judge families from different
ethnic cultures and misinterpret communication styles and, more
importantly, value systems. Both blindness to their own culture and
blindness to others' cultures prevent educators from developing inter-
cultural insight and can create harmful misunderstandings. (Beairsto and
Carrigan, 2004, p. 5)

While there may be some inevitable improvement as younger teachers have had
somewhat greater exposure in their own experience of the city, still there must be active
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interventions to provide what in the early 1990s was referred to as "cultural sensitivity
training". Teachers, in fact, need to "step outside of their cultural comfort zone and
comprehend the nature and origins of cultural differences". Instead, it is time to bring
multiple world views into the classroom and to build from the life experience, past and
present, of students themselves (ibid., p. 6)
The reason is clear. Young people need to be able to make themselves and their
social struggles visible, and open the possibility of dialogic engagement. As educators,
we have an obligation to promote a depth of understanding across cultural groupings in
order for the students of today to be global citizens with some understanding of the many
narratives of those whose lived realities draw upon the polyphony of voices of the
diaspora. This ought to be a minimal requirement for cultural citizenship which must be
"concerned with questions of imagination, identity, recognition and belonging" and as
seeking "to rework images, assumptions and representations that are seen to be exclusive
as well as marginalizing." (Stevenson, pp. 26, 18) Without cross-cultural understanding
at the classroom and school level which is one of the few public places of heterogeneity
within the population mandated to exchange.... We are doomed.
The Community Mix: Community Programming of the Arts
Dionne Brand, whose novel What We all Long For, captures the mix in the high
schools of Toronto where, as playwright David Gow put it "rasta meets pasta". In her
exquisitely written book, she follows the lives of a quartet of young people as they
converge in the school and out into the metropolis. The question arises whether there is a
new era? Brand certainly believes so as she spoke to the Toronto Star (Walker, 2005) of
the increasing co-mingling of the various populations of Toronto. "There aren't 'them'
and 'us' anymore.. ..It's a city of everyone." Yet, the very title of that article continues to
suggest the exoticism of the multi-racial with its alliterative and evocative word play,
'Sweet Smell of Ethnic Stew'.

Sometimes, schools cannot provide adequate space for exploration and, indeed,
why should it exclusively devolve upon the schools. The arts education potential or
culcha exploration has been known for some time in Toronto and elsewhere. Lillian
Allen, the noted dub poet, approached me years ago with the proposition for a massive
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grant to generate a youth project entitled FRESH ARTS. That first summer, the
organizational structure of our theatre group, committed to anti-racism and progressive
educational practices, served as the host group with many of our artists involved as
facilitators. This venture was so successful that it was institutionalized through the
Toronto Arts Council.
The urgent need for such projects, based on the understanding that creative
expression affords social development and knowledge and skills building caused me
lately to reactivate my theatre activist side in order to create a context for further projects.
The project, developed in 2007 and entitled Scarborough REMIXed, proposed
storytelling or narrative development among youth in Scarborough as a means of
transformative learning. The proposal (See Appendix) reflects my beliefs and
understanding about the power of such engagement with youth. To a large extent, the
research for the thesis provided evidence that such cultural projects, which provide
context for voice, are vital to youth identity formation prompted the proposal.
The project was approved for modest funding and, while the scope of this
dissertation limits reportage, I would like to briefly describe a shared moment of creative
expression. The core of the group of participants who developed the script were two
sibling groupings of brother and sister, one set from Jamaica and the other from Iraq. In
each case, it seemed that the parents required the older sibling to include the younger one
as a means of ensuring care of the young child. This became, then, a fascinating
opportunity for the duos to process together some of the traumatic events of their lives.
For the two from Jamaica, there had been periods of distress associated with separation
from their parents; for the two from Iraq, there had been the violence in the marketplaces
of Baghdad which they had witnessed and their subsequent escape across borders in a car
filled with fear that they would not make it. These two storylines are now interwoven in
a script that has emerged out of workshops.
One evening, I joined the group under the direction of my colleague, Jodi Miller,
whose work with youth from the Six Nations reserve was an affirmation of the value of
stories from the rez, stories of struggle and crime and anger. Kareem and his sister were
uncertain about how to represent the marketplace of Baghdad, how to suggest the
tremendous activity and the dynamics of trade. Stepping in to assist them creatively, I
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managed to learn a single Arabic word and become part of their story for a brief period.
In an effort to enact the marketplace, I uttered 'B'ul', a word for 'pull' while miming the
action. The students were both amazed and amused as I showed that with just a single
Arabic word, it would be possible conjure the setting. As the sometime teacher of the
young man, I was delighted that we could share his past world.
Final Thoughts: Problematics in a Post 9/11 World and Backlash
Cultural identity increasingly becomes a subject of public discourse. In Britain,
whose immigration and integration over the past several decades has altered the national
identity, the government is looking now to legislate and define British identity.
Specifically, the Commission on Integration and Cohesion was established in the wake of
the July 7, 2006 bombings, an act committed by young British males. The primary
objective of the commission was to find ways to foster cross-community links. An
observor/journalist described the reaction of some to the suggested initiative as "a risky
but courageous bid to cauterize deep social wounds inherent in the multicultural model of
the modern-day U.K." (Potter, 2007, AA1). The new ruling Labour party leader, and
thus British Prime Minister as of June 2007, Gordon Brown's government indicated that
the "Britishness" agenda would include the launch of Britain Day. In the debate which
quickly erupted about this, many have noted that the notion of Britishness is itself averse
to such a display of patriotism. Prominent columnist Jonathan Freedland spoke of the
plan as violating "the two aspects of Britishness whose existence we can probably all
agree on: our vagueness about national definition and our aversion to chest-beating
patriotism."
Like Canada, the British way has presented itself as a liberal vision, to accept
through a "toleration of other's views, free speech open debate" as Philip Stiles described
it. With the entire topic officially on the table, some of the recommendations may revert
to a compulsory Britishness which could further tensions. Among the recommendations
of the commission, was a reduction in government funding for translation services and
greater emphasis in funding groups whose mandate is to create links between different
communities rather than those representing single-community sectors. This suggests the
renewal of fear of cultural retention without an understanding of the evolution of
language acquisition. Plus, rather than include a population, the measure would exclude.
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Notions of national cohesion must surely be considered as one discusses

education and curriculum but the failure of schools may well be in ignoring that the
population change and the global village necessitate a new approach to curriculum and
identity exploration. Is it not preferable to have students explore their identities as a
shared practice within classroom settings than forcing those same students to resort to
questionable cyber-communities geared to youth seeking dialogue about who they are?
Representation within the curricular practices of the schools deeply affects the
sense of self for students. Without cultural recognition within their lived experiences
within schools, students feel separated in their 'worlds'. That leads to alienation and an
attempt to fill the gap may present itself on the internet or at the mosque.
As educators, there must be a pedagogy of possibility that encourages students to
understand that their positioning within the world is worthy of attention. To be clear, the
push to diversify the book lists within the school English programs must be understood as
an act of validation for students and a move toward anti-racist practice. The ongoing
imposition of book lists that reproduce the 'old' suggests whose stories are worthy of
narration.
By the 'right to narrate', I mean to suggest all those forms of creative
behaviour that allow us to reveal the lives we lead, question the
conventions and customs that we inherit, dispute and propagate the ideas
and ideals that come to us most naturally, and dare to entertain the most
audacious hopes and fears for the future. The right to narrate might
inhabit a hesitant brush stroke, be glimpsed in a gesture that fixes a dance
movement, become visible in a camera angle that stops your heart.
Suddenly, in painting, dance, or cinema you rediscover your sense, and in
that process you understand something profound about yourself, your
historical moment, and what gives value to a life lived in a particular
town, at a particular time, in particular social and political conditions.
(Bhabha,2003,p.l80)

Popular Culture and Pedagogical Possibilities

Quite clearly, the world of popular culture inhabits the minds of our youth and we
must engage meaningfully with them in order for them to understand their world. Indeed,
the literacies of this century move into the zones of the post-literate world suggested by
Kostelanetz some time ago. New literacies of the media must be validated in our young
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and be seen as knowledge bases upon which educators may create relevant and engaging
pedagogy, bell hooks has advocated: "popular culture must be the pedagogy"
For progressive educators, the route to meaningful curriculum involves multiple
approaches. On the one hand, popular culture as it fills the daily lives of young people in
a way unimaginable in early decades must be the subject of curriculum as students need
the stimulus to critically discuss meaning. And yet, with the implosion of images in this
Baudrillardian landscape, there may be a danger that the celebrity world of E.T.
television and have gained ever wider coverage in the mainstream through the Metro
papers available in the subway in the mornings may dominate North American life.
Again, the spectre of the carnivalesque world of Britney Spears and her shaved head or
Paris Hilton and her DUI conviction and the paternity of Anna Nicole Smith spreads out
as if meaning and pleasure in our society is attached to knowledge of the celebrity.
There needs as well to be an effort to re-ground the classroom in the lived realities
of our students. That includes the Cyberworld. Otherwise, we fail our students. In
discussions of dropout rates, too little attention is paid to the failure of the schools to
address their own problems of outdated materials and canonical readings which
disempower current generations.
The field of representation serves as a place of struggle and of healing, of
contestations and of hybrid jouissance. We must be conscious as educators that part of
the project of education and equitable and caring practice with respect to children of the
diaspora involves assisting them in reconciling their differences, and articulating their life
narratives so that they too may understand themselves as part of the whole. Within
schools, it is possible to reinforce the sense exclusion in the reproduction of eurocentric
notions of who we are and whose stories have importance rather than opening up the
spaces for engagement with the struggle and contestations and contradictions of the many
students whose lives need space for transculturation within the institution. Indeed, if we
do not, then what message are we sending about their life-narratives or, even more
worrisome, it may be possible that these youth do not find their place in time in a safe
place but rather define it in terms of street status in a violent place.
 CHAPTER NINE
Conclusion

The United Nations commits us all to the

UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity:

Cultural Diversity and Creativity

Article 7 - Cultural heritage as the wellspring of creativity
Creation draws on the roots of cultural tradition, but flourishes in contact with other
cultures. For this reason, heritage in all its forms must be preserved, enhanced and
handed on to future generations as a record of human experience and aspirations so as to
foster creativity in all its diversity and to inspire genuine dialogue among cultures.
(Campbell, 2001)

The thesis has undertaken an exploration of the expressions of cultural identity

among young people and how particular young people work through, or negotiate their
identities through meaningful creative work. What becomes evident is that in the creative
process students find ways to give shape and form to their feelings and conflicting
thoughts about who they are; through reflection and expression they gain an
understanding which contributes to a growth in self-knowledge. Reconciling tensions,
expressing contested representations that circulate in society, finding forms in which to
pour the emotions and thoughts associated with hybrid identities... this is what is gained
when the possibilities are opened up for exploration through artistic process, whether that
be performance or writing.
This research, as it embraces and explores the possibilities of "postcolonial praxis
in education" (Subedi & Daza, 2008), demonstrates the power and value of cultural
identity exploration among the young through participation in creative expression. Such
emergent work may contribute enormously to the child's ability to understand his/her
social context of being. Young people gain agency and are empowered through sharing
and collectively comparing their experiences of negotiating dual-plus identities and
familial tensions. The creative expressions raise vital issues and, to a degree, provide
analysis or, at the very least, fodder, for the circulation of meanings among those who

239
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witness or read the texts. There is evidence of coping, through the artistic expression, of
voice-ing of the struggles of life in the in-between.
Art is, indeed, an exercise of thought at the same time that it offers a resolution of
emotional conflicts. These conflicts may involve those playing out between first and
second generation immigrants as in the poem Indo-Canadian reality or the play by Marty
Chan, (Chapter 3 and 4) or the lived experiences of young people surrounding the
essentialized nature of the embodied representation of a racial category as in the powerful
staging of representation performed by Andy surrounding his racialized identity position
as a young black male (Chapter 5). Performed storytelling recovers traumatic memory
and provides testimony to those who bear witness. As well, the inspiration to expess via
poetry serves as a balm in times of distress in the post 9/11 poem (Chapter 6). Each
utterance and each performance speaks to the capacity of art to transform experience and
communicate the social realities of contemporary youth.
Although the case studies in the thesis are discussed in terms of meaning-making
surrounding culture and identity and in the first two case studies this is broadened into the
social group context, there remains a recognition of the existence of the individual within
these stories, as social subjects. However, in an effort to further our understanding of
youth cultural negotiations, the similarity of positions and ideas of the particular youth
under discussion shed light on the experiences of peers facing similar negotiations.
When offered emancipatory possibilities, students become artists whose creative
voices of resistance produce innovative forms, thus reconfiguring definitions of
belonging in the postcolonial age and exploring topics of race and gender.
How Newness Enters the World
The young artists in this study bring to the forefront important issues of "how
newness enters the world". In their creative works, in their cultural significations, the
world is being opened up and disclosed through their re-presentation of their lifeworlds.
New possibilities are imagined and offered, thrown out even, into the world for
consideration. In their somewhat confused state of 'who am I', these young people mix
'n match in a cultural blend (Gilroy) of their many worlds.
These creative expressions, then, have to do with an attempt to promote
understanding which may serve as a platform for intercultural communication. Their
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own interests illumine emergent themes involved with a "sociology of knowledge about
cultural interactions" (Shimada, p. 148). With respect to making meaning of their lives,
the young people within these chapters have clearly been offered, or discovered due to
their own heightened state of acculturation, the possibility of negotiating their identities.
Along the way, there is the hope that the reception offers a protomoral
understanding of one another. Of this, Drucilla Cornell writes that the question that
needs to be asked, "What is it like to be you?" These works begin to suggest the answers
as creative works which explore cultural identity issues with different perspectives. Each
of the subjects within these chapters lives, and articulates the ambivalence of, life in the
in-between. "Divergent cultural signs interact, but fail to coincide with each other"
(Papastergiadis, p. 188), and contradiction leads to ambivalence. Those creative young
artists who are moved to communicate beyond their particular community often seem to
be struggling with their location in terms of 'ethnic culture' or 'mainstream culture',
'home culture' and 'peer culture'. Their identities are not so clearly attached to family or
they are in the process of asserting agency, testing the boundaries. Their identities are in
process or under construction.
The art richly expresses the contradictions and contestations. Prithi, of chapter 3,
lives out her life at this moment deeply aware of Indo-Canadian reality as a space de-
essentialized in its spectrum of possibilities but redolent with constraints. The traditional
positioning of women and girls in the culture poses some disconcerting potentialities for
her future. However, for that period of her creativity in writing her poem, she could
transform those contestations into a bricolage of poetic imagery.
Andy, of Chapter 5, in his performance based on his body and self-presentation,
proposed that young African-Canadian males are subject to, and subjected to, labeling
from 'without'. Similar to Franz Fanon who proposed that the "colonial subject is always
overdetermined from without", this led to alienation. The postcolonial experience of
migration has not removed the overdeterminism, though it takes on new forms. Capturing
and throwing the images back at his immediate (white) peer group, Andy found a way to
question the subj-agation and express his subj-agitation, to empower himself via his
enacted statement of knowledge about his own positioning. At the same time, he made
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an eloquent statement, with few words, to the audience of young people whose awareness
of race and subject location was limited, partly due to their positioning.
What do we come to understand from two such young voices?
Encouraged to describe the experience of displacement which is extremely strong
among the children of those who chose to, or were forced to, come to Canada, the third
space emerges, the border zones become visible. Through these young peoples'
experiences, we further understand the critique of the models of social integration and
that there is a crisis of signification due to the tensions and contestations which confuse
young people whose state of identity formation is evolving.
Minority discourse within schools enters classrooms more frequently via classes
in politics or social sciences rather than in the rich narratives that contain profound
meaning due to the emotive nature of life world experiences expressed within. In chapter
4, the young people who participated in the play Mom Dad, I'm Living with a White Girl
by professional Canadian playwright Marty Chan participated in a narrative which
provided a means for them to share in processing the many anxieties associated with
dealing with parents in a conformist family model. A ribald, entertaining piece about
Chinese family allowed the students to work through their uncomfortable familial and
cultural identities. Part of this was made possible by the group process of drama
conducted among peers who, by virtue of sharing cultural identity positionings, could
support one another and find space to discuss and enact the issues of second generation
within a model minority group. The argument for separate space as a means to build
identity and communicative capacity (Crane et al, 2005) continues to be demonstrated as
members of that group, empowered by their experience on the project, create their own
theatre and film in California as well as Canada.
The young people at the centre of this study were in the very throes of seeking
some level of independence within the Canadian milieu. For their immigrant parents,
provided that they were voluntary immigrants, two factors allow them a level of security
surrounding their new societal positioning: the strong foundation of the homeland that
they left and the sense of agency or choice in coming. However, that may not provide
sufficient protection against prejudice or systemic barriers in Canada to reduce their
anxiety. For their children, the security of a past period of cultural stability does not
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exist. The young have to deal with uncertainty which emerges out of dislocation and
fragmentation as cultural collision interferes with predictable transmission within
families. These are some of the many challenges within the 'contact zones' in which they
and their peers undertake their identity formation as they navigate more complicated
maturation.
Cultural difference does not offer the opportunity for traveling back in time, as
Bhabha noted (Pastergiadis, 2000, p. 184). Most children of immigrants know this for
their story plays out in this time and place. So, the question surrounding their identity
would be how to interpret and live out the juxtaposition within the present culture. This
is the hybrid zone where they live their lives, the zone that offers a third space (Bhabha)
out of which they make meaning and create art.
In fact, these examples of creative expression suggest that young people in
working through the contestations are presenting both the complexity and the de-
essentialized or processual nature of constructing identity. That is, the work produced by
them frequently reveals their own struggles not to be fixed by ethnicity, not to be
contained within the labels. This takes different forms: whether that involves Indo-
Canadian being conceptualized as containing multiple possibilities or whether that
involves protest about the gaze that would read and judge Andy by/through the colour of
his skin and the clothing on his body. Yomna, too, seems to wish to be considered as
human, outside the limited category of Muslim which took on ominous connotations
among some white Americans in the backlash post 9/11.
Creative expression allows for the reconciliation of the struggle by carrying on
through articulation. Among some young artists, the focus is on the search for an
understanding that emerges when one finds oneself between two undecidables and
discovers the capacity to remain within this situation. It is a scenario where you are
'damned if you do, and damned if you don't' and you therefore go on (Bhabha, 1993) or
find the moment of catharsis and pour it into the art.
What becomes clear through a reading of the experiences of the participants in the
case studies surrounding their processual journey of discovering identity is the dialogic
nature of the process. Part of this negotiation becomes visible, and part seems an internal
contestation and reconciling of tensions. Gilroy, in his analysis of identity, calls for the
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disposal of the idea that identity is an absolute and asks that we find the "courage
necessary to argue that identity formation - even body-coded ethnic and gender identity -
is a chaotic process that can have no end" (cited in Hall, Gilroy, Grossberg and
McRobbie, 2000, p. 94). The interviews and undocumented recent contact with the
research participants support this.

Soothing Expressions, Belonging, Social Bonds

As a researcher and artist, my long collaboration with Fredy Garcia (Chapter 6)
explored the autobiographical creative expression as a means of healing and of
communicating the trauma of a political refugee. His testimony became healing of the
psychic space. In his case, the art work was undertaken as a means to describe the
ruptures resulting from political dislocation and exile. Similarly, the poetic offering of
Yomna was intended as healing offered by a young Muslim woman who mourned along
with the rest of North America when airplanes struck the twin towers and lives were lost.
Hers is a lyrical text that reaches out to other hands in an effort to conjoin in sadness.
The fact is that humans have a need to express and that art allows for a level of
expression unlike others. As a result, each of the students recalls the experience of
creative expression as pleasurable, if somewhat frightening in its daring.
The idea of personal and social development through creative expression would
be ideal in all arts and language arts curriculum. That the benefits of this have been
demonstrated in the case studies should be inarguable as each illumines how it may be
possible for young people to experience a sense of wholeness or completion through their
creative expression. And this is perhaps rare in the lives of contemporary youth whose
lives both in the home and the school seem rather fragmented. The sense of fragmented
self and of self-consciousness disappears when young people find it possible to express
through creativity.
Within the experiences of the young people, ample evidence emerges of the deep
need to belong. Indeed, that need fuels their drive to express. Young people find
themselves in impossible scenarios requiring 'switching' in and out of roles as home and
school and social worlds do not afford them a consistency of expectation with respect to
expressions of identity. It may be argued from this: that their "anxieties about belonging"
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are expressed creatively as they work through how to belong while negotiating their
hyphenated identities. In the act of creative expression, a sense of agency is gained that
moves or scaffolds the identity construction allowing the individual to move forward.
Agency represents the "mechanism through which identity is developed (Cote' & Levine,
2002)", notes Schwartz (2008), as he supports the argument "that agency is the primary
mechanism underlying successful identity consolidation" (p. 10).
Some of what inspires the creative burst has to do with figuring out about fitting
into their identified ethnic communities. This is uttered frequently in the case studies as
students quite openly acknowledge that the "fitting in" is not merely into the mainstream
community but rather tensions emerge due to the level of integration and assimilation the
young person has experienced in school. The mainstream of Canadian life values may
draw the young person away from, or at the very least to question, the values of the home
culture. This becomes very fraught with the complications unique to the Canadian school
setting with our multi-ethnic school scenarios where multiple communities co-exist. Our
heterogeneous classrooms offer a multi-layered cultural experience where contact occurs
among highly diverse groups.
As this research confirms, a key component in the struggles surrounding cultural
identity during adolescence involves the value systems of the parents, a phenomena that
exists for all adolescents but, in the case of second generation immigrant children, this is
compounded as those values collide with those of mainstream western culture. In both
Chapters 3 and 4, young people seek means to work through tensions surrounding their
relationships with parents and cultural values against which the young people feel
themselves constrained. At a time when they are seeking to develop an integrated and
functional value or moral system, not merely one ascribed by their cultural upbringing,
these young people seek forums for expression of the contradictions. When the creative
works circulate - via the publication of Indo-Canadian Reality or the play, Mom, Dad,
Vm Living with a White Girl - then the opportunities exist for both the creators and the
young people who read the 'texts' to gain understanding of the contestations and also to
feel validated. The readers or audience feel validation in their own struggles.
In the process of discussion of these case studies, it has become clear that the
creative expressions of the young people have involved a "transcendence of individual
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feelings and their generalization to the social plane" (Vygotsky, 1971, p. vii). Indeed, in
reflecting back on the experience of creation, the creators have a vague sense of
'metamorphosis'. Vygotsky asserted that the nature of this process may be "concealed
from the observations of the artist himself (ibid, p. viii). The interviews shed light on the
impact of the identity exploration, most especially in terms of the ways in which the
participants re-conceptualized themselves and re-organized their identi-kits. Issues of the
long-term impact on the young people became apparent over time as the participants
became young adults whose decisions with respect to career and personal life choices
reflected their earlier explorations. The crystallization in the meaning-making affords a
resolution of the "merely personal conflict," offering them the "revelation of a higher,
more general, human truth in the phenomena of life" (ibid., p.x).
This period of time marks key developments for young people. Erickson (1964):
writing about "Identity and uprootedness in Our Time" describes the era in the life cycle
between childhood and adulthood as a "natural period of uprootedness in human life."
Like a trapeze artist, the young person in the middle of vigorous motion
must let go of his safehold on childhood and reach out for a firm grasp on
adulthood, depending for a breathless interval on a relatedness between
the past and the future, and on the reliability of those he must let go of,
and those who will 'receive' him. (Erickson, 1964, p. 90)

In consideration of this metaphor, a rather whimsical, yet dangerous one, I have

come to think of the creative bursts of the young artists as expressions in flight.
The complications of displacement intensify the experience. Sometimes, it is
possible to read the distress or anxiety that may be carried by a student due to cultural
displacement. Many of us have witnessed the struggle of students from refugee families,
whose complicated stories may or may not have space in the classroom. The Toronto
educator and art therapist Herschel Stroyman conducted art therapy classes for refugee
children through the Quaker centre for many years. He has spoken of the power of
children to heal and speak through their art.
Despite my desire to support those in a state of stress, I felt impotent to help a
young man from the former Yugoslavia to remain in school. Concerned, I had several
conversations with his mother in which I listened to her pain as she described his asocial
behaviour both in and outside the home. Her attempts to find him counseling were too
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little, too late to salvage his academic year. I observed him standing outside the school in
a pained stasis, unwilling to enter. Acculturation may be so severe that it may not be
possible for ordinary public schools to bridge the experiences. For children whose lives
were ruptures through nonvoluntary migration, the stress factors are compounded.
Gramsci noted that the starting-point for "critical elaboration is the consciousness of what
one really is, and in 'knowing thyself as a product of the historical process to date, which
has deposited in you an infinity of traces, without leaving an inventory" (Gramsci, 1971,
p. 324). Therefore it is imperative that educators be sensitive to this need and assist
young people in creating an inventory.
Even with knowledge, my attempted contact was not sufficient to engage this
young man who wished to return. Ivan, wherever you are, in Yugoslavia or in a room in
Toronto, I wish you well....1 knew the theory but I could not release your pain. The
inclusion of such an anecdote speaks to the ongoing tension of praxis, a word commonly
invoked. However, returning to Marx: "theory cannot thrive without being rooted in
practice, and the practice cannot liberate itself without theory" (Trinh, p. 122).

Learning Possibilities and Learning Measures

Based on the research evidence, I join many other educators and literacy
researchers such as Chiseri-Strater and Sunstein (1997) who urge teachers to encourage
students to act on ideas of diversity and multiculturalism rather than just read about those
ideas. This is possible through a variety of methods in which students are able to see how
their multiple cultures are enacted and shaped in both their own lives, and the lives of the
other young people around them. The high level of communicative possibilities offered
through creative expression is ideal for it is "through communications and interactions
with others in [situated] environments that learners negotiate and co-construct their views
of themselves and the world" (Hawkins, 2005, p. 61). A new paradigm of education in
Canada has emerged, one committed to enfranchising youth, "one that teaches children
the values of their voices by respecting those voices rather than attempting to silence
them" (Schissel and Schissel, 2008, p. 63)
What emerges in the reflections of the participants, as well as in their work,
reveals the high level of engagement that they experience in terms of their social and
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emotional learning (SEL) as they processed their lived realities. In the United States, the
increased research interest in SEL has led to the development of a measurement for five
SEL competency areas: Self-awareness, social awareness, self-management, relationship
skills, and responsible decision-making. (Schonert-Reichl, K.A. & Hymel, S., 2008, p.
65). Young people need warmth and support from educators to successfully navigate
learning within this area so crucial to their successful adulthood. The recent research into
SEL moves the discussion toward cognitive psychology, in particular the constructivist
movement, which posits that individuals gradually build their own understanding of the
world through experience and maturation (Bruner, 1986).
In the field of psychology, there has been increased concern with the affects of
racial and ethnic identity. In a special issue of the Journal of Counselling Psychology,
the journal featured the most recent work of social scientists working related fields:
bringing together Trimble from a social and anthropological perspective and Phinney and
Ong (2007) and Quintana from social and developmental psychology. Trimble (2007)
writes of cultural identity as the heart of a person's 'lifeway', the ethnocultural group-
specific ways of living and being and thoughtways, the ethnocultural group-specific ways
of thought" (p. 247). Quintana (2007) writes of the "positive coping and psychological
benefits associated with certain stages/statuses of racial and ethnic identity development."
(p. 259). Quintana then suggests an increased involvement of schools in support groups,
forums and discussion groups surrounding racial and ethnic identity issues and
development. This is consistent with my study, and is especially evident in the use of the
theatre performance as a means of engagement of students in discussions surrounding
intergenerational stresses and bi-cultural identity for Asian-Canadian youth.
Psychological frameworks for ethnic identity development enhance our understanding of
the role of race and ethnic identity in the lives of our students and their maturation.
The case studies present transformative experiences that teach us about
fostering transformative learning through identity reflections and through creative
expression. "Self-dialogue is one of the most significant relationships for transformative
learning" (E. Taylor, 2007, p. 175) and there may be no greater means for this than
through the creation of a poem or a performance. These creative expressions involved
young people in working through a perspective transformation, a somewhat elusive
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concept which speaks to the way that the young person was finding a change of reference
via reflecting on his/her identi-kit. My understanding of transformative likens it to a
form of identity development, which opens "new dimensions for the negotiation of the
self (Wenger, 1998) which is somewhat reminiscent of Dewey's conception that
individuals undergo transformative experiences when they actively use a concept,
especially in the arts experience, to see aspects of the world in a new way.
There is an increased recognition among a wide range of educators of the power
of creative work that explores identity. In fact, how students are enabled through creative
expressions to enhance their understandings of multiple worlds has become a rich area of
research. Bonny Norton at her keynote at the TESOL conference, presented her study
involved with how the use of "multiple modes of representation (photography, drawing,
and dramatic performance) help Language Learners invest in classroom communities and
construct an enhanced range of identities for themselves." (2008) Norton speaks of
assisting students in an expanded range of identifications through such practices. She
references Cummins'(2006) notion of identity texts:
[0]ptimal academic development within the interpersonal space of the
learning community occurs only when there is both maximum cognitive
engagement and maximum identity investment on the part of students. The
products of students' creative work or performances carried out within this
pedagogical space are termed identity texts... students invest their
identities in these texts that then hold a mirror up to students in which their
identities are reflected back in a positive light, (cited in Norton, 2008, on-
line conference documentation)

Young people present these texts as part of the broader project of negotiating their
identities, of building positive self-esteem and increasing awareness.
These ideas of child development may inform both pedagogical practices and
therapeutic practices. As children develop, young people in the period of late
adolescence face a period of intense identity construction or formation. The identi-kit or
assemblage period requires thoughtful meaning-making on the part of the young person.
Creative identity exploration offers the possibility for problems and tensions to be
surfaced through unique forms of critical reflection about who they are. Adults, in
particular teachers, may be in a position to provide a context or offer permission for the
young person to risk moving out the internal struggle into representations through
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creative expression. Within a community of peers, these manifestations provide viewers,

other young people, a means to make sense of their own situations.

Exploring the Dimensions of Inclusive Anti-Racism Education

From the earliest experiences of 'voice-ing', there is evidence of the way in which
young people will bridge their personal experiences of discrimination and identity
struggle into understanding and challenging other forms of discrimination as
"interlocking systems" (Razack, 1994). As the participants have matured, there is
evidence that their creative expressions may function as acts of resistance to the prejudice
and racism of the city (especially in chapter 5). Further, an argument can be made that
such explorations afford students a space of 'resilience' from which they may attain a
sense of belonging and which may then open up the possibility for significant education
and life achievement.
My critical study is informed by notions of oppression and privilege, experience
and representation, knowledge production and relations of power; it was guided by the
belief that through creative expression and the pedagogical possibilities explored here,
there may be an increased understanding of the emotional and spiritual dimensions of
learning involved with antiracism education. In line with the critical inclusive education
framework of Dei, James, Karumanchery, James-Williams and Zine (2000), these
creative explorations of cultural identity display the possibilities when students' concerns
constitute the curriculum, when young people gain agency and become creators, shaping
their learning both in terms of content and process. Inclusive or transformative
multicultural education (Davidman and Davidman, 2001) validates the cultural identities
and communities of the diverse school population and through such processes young
people gain communication skills and confidence as their identi-kits become the
substance for their learning.
An early intervention, via the provision of spaces of opportunity and inspirational
openings, to afford students this opportunity may well be the most significant educational
'moment' that those students derive from their long years of schooling within the
dominant culture of schools. Projects which enable students to explore their cultural
identities within school settings bring a sense of belonging and a sense that the world of
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this society - which is Canada - invites their voice. Simply put, inclusive educational
practices need to be seen as targeted approaches of engagement. Pedagogical
possibilities that offer young people opportunities to express their sense of self within
their social worlds - the context for voice-ing - produce meaningful commentary on the
contemporary struggle of adolescents as sociohistorical beings.
Along the way, the young peoples' experiences and their learning offer us insights
in terms of the practice of border pedagogy, the exploration of individual cultural
identity, of difference, belonging and meaning within both Canadian society and
Canadian schools. These case studies form part of a growing body of literature on
migration and social inclusion with, in this case, a particular focus on the potential of
creative expression to 'voice', heal and transform young people and their audiences.
Like other researchers working internationally, I see in this "a hopeful model of
democracy as shared method for articulating differences rather than as a conformist
ideology in which everyone has to endorse the same contents and opinion" (Schiffauer,
Baumann, Kastoryano, Vertovec, 2004, p. 13). Building on the research emanating from
The Netherlands, Britain, Germany and France, I join with colleagues in advocating that
staff be willing to do their "very best to facilitate exchange and dialogue between and
among an enormous variety of, sometimes vociferously self-conscious, national, ethnic or
religioius identifications." (ibid, p. 20) This suggests the role that education must play.
After all, as the UNESCO-sponsored publication states, "it is widely accepted education
is a crucial agency in developing a new awareness of the self and other" (Campbell,
2001, p. x).
Within Canadian classrooms, there are highly sensitive matters associated with
oppressions that are emerging and altering the sense of belonging and acceptance in
profound ways. As an example, the youth within the Sri Lankan (Tamil) community
within Toronto are frequently drawn to, and are quite fascinated by, the Liberation Tamil
Tigers of Eelam. Some of these youth are the offspring of refugees; some are themselves
refugees whose experience of life and schooling has been marked by enforced migration
from Sri Lanka to hospitable countries like Germany, or even Greece in the case of one
of my students, prior to finding 'refuge' in Canada. In their understanding of injustice,
the LTTE remains one of the only means for a liberatory movement for [their] people in
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the northern part of the island. In the spring of 2007, many Tamils in the capital of
Columbo were forcibly removed from there and not allowed to live in the capital, being
deemed a risk to the Sri Lankan (Sinhalese) government. Young people here, notably the
somewhat angry young men, were enraged and believe that a liberatory movement is
justified. Few of these young people understand the rationale for the designation of the
LTTE as a 'terrorist group" in Canada. Without interaction on this in our classrooms, the
school by default aligns itself with the state as part of the dominant culture which does
not, in their eyes, acknowledge their homeland's suffering and decades of oppression
since the British occupiers/colonials left the island.
In my English class, interested students were encouraged to sign up for a seminar
that would involve them explaining not only the historical emergence of the Tamil Tigers
but also the current image within the Western press. As a teacher, I was able to refer to
the leader of the movement, Prabakharan, always noting that my pronunciation needed
correcting, and trained myself in knowledge of key dates. Establishing myself as an ally
due to shared knowledge, there was room to probe and assist in their understanding of the
historic context(s) for the struggle. At the same time, I could gently encourage them to
further investigate the grounds upon which the group has been deemed terrorist. There
must be such efforts on the part of teachers to ground themselves in the lived realities and
priorities of those with dual discursive identities. Otherwise, youth create their own
separate spaces, perhaps even cyberspaces where their conflicted loyalties and
understandings will play out.
In the penultimate chapter (Chapter 8), I undertook a critical investigation of the
historical conditions and dynamics at work in Ontario and conducted an examination of
"institutional practices to see how educational institutions respond to the challenge of
diversity and difference.. .to develop educational models that are more inclusive and
capable of responding to racial minority concerns and aspirations." (Dei et al, 2000, p.
24). The situation of canonic reproduction of dated and problematic texts must be
interrupted by liberatory educational practices. As the mainstream eats popcorn to the
sweet tale of the Hollywood movie Freedom Writers, the lived reality within our schools
is shocking.
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Oddly, for this educator, my time in schools has actually eroded my belief in the
power of educators to create spaces of creative and critical thinking. In two very
different schools in which I have worked, the blockage to meaningful adoption of
progressive practices in the area of identity and belonging, cultural plurality and diverse
schooling came in a variety of forms. Exploration of ideological, historical, and mythical
representations outside of the mainstreamcentric curriculm must take place in the
classrooms within Toronto. As teachers, we hold incredible positions of possibility and
power in our classrooms. Our power must be "exercised within a framework that allows
students to inform us and to be more critical about their own voices, as well as aware of
the codes and cultural representations of others outside the immediacy of their
experience" (Giroux, 1992, p. 157).
Giroux speaks of the benefits of the shared critical engagement with voice and
identity that furthers the understanding of students to the cultural representations of
others. With increased programming efforts, these voices from the margins, no longer
marginalized, may contribute to the public dialogue in the culture debates and the
contested zones. A notable example of public debate in 2007-2008 was the proposed
Africentric school initiative of the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), which was
passed by a slim majority after a sustained period of consultation. Converging opinions
seemed somewhat confused as notions of equality and equity and access and effective
schooling seemed to be muddied as liberals alleged a return to segregation. The 'tempest
in the teapot' phenomenon over such a limited initiative, hardly precedent-setting in that
there are examples in the TDSB of first-nations focused school and a pink triangle
school, revealed the sensitivities around how to address the problematics of a racial
grouping ill-served in the current system.43
Postcolonial Spaces
In an era when the mixing and interconnecting of people from different ethnic and
cultural backgrounds takes place in the metropolis, and most especially in a city like
Toronto, as educators and as artists we must understand that identities of the border zone
are destabilized opening up the possibility for dynamic change. This border zone, the

As someone who lives the reality of witnessing teacher expectation, streaming, and the general lack of sensitivity
to disengagement as a function of the school, I favour the initiative.
actual and symbolic contact zone of intercultural encounter and negotiation (Pratt 1992)
is where the processes of hybridization transpire on a regular and ordinary basis.
Hybridization undermines the binary way of thinking about difference which is dominant
in theories of cultural pluralism, whether that's state-mandated multiculturalism or the
legacy of ethnocentrism of a simpler time.
Distinctness of cultures gives way to this intermingling. As Garcia Canclini
stated:
Diversity and heterogeneity are terms that serve to establish catalogues of
differences, but they do not account for intersections and mixings between
cultures.. .It is not possible to say where the British end and where the
colonies begin, where the Spanish end and the Latin Americans begin,
where Latin Americans begin and where the indigenous do. None of these
groups still remain within their original limits.
(Garcia Canclini, 2001, p. 41; 49)

This suggests the transnational character of contemporary culture. There are

strange utterances at this time surrounding multiculturalism in Canada. For instance, one
headline decried the "failure of multiculturalism" and went on to speak of the
complications of co-existence, the tensions being played out. However, by this time, the
invocation of multiculturalism as a political policy or choice seems outdated. Kobena
Mercer (2000) speaks of "multicultural normalization" which describes the massive
process of social transformation that make it more appropriate to describe nation-states as
consisting of many different, overlapping and intertwined groups and identities with
multiple loyalties and attachments, exchanges and interactions both within and across the
border (cited in Ang, 2001, p. 88).
The diversity series on CBC radio in the spring of this year (2008) presented
thoughtful dialogue on the implications of diversity in terms of community and identity.
A favourite moment of mine was the debate between two prominent South Asian women,
who held diametrically opposed views on whether they accepted a hyphenated identity
status. These are contentious notions that need to become part of the general public's
awareness. Cultural citizenship and social inclusion have become central to discourses
which move beyond, or appear to transcend, the language of multiculturalism. The
creative expressions under discussion do not succumb to the regressive mindset of the
migrant whose rememoration of the historical circumstance returns them to nostalgia.
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And, this is a distinct possibility. In seeking to reconcile tensions and sometimes to

recover an imagined cultural identity, nostalgia may well appear in the second generation
whose sense of dislocation has them adopt a cynicism about Western values. In India or
Ethiopia, a person's position might well be better: economically, educationally, and
sociologically. There, the young person might find a community privileged in its
position as opposed to experiencing a marginality in Canada.
With global migration and expanded technology, there is little wonder that a
postmodern aesthetic appeals within a world of rapidly-changing images. Here, there is a
definite sense of impermanence. Ignatieff (1989) characterized postmodernism as the '3
minute culture' - the culture of the short attention span, where the news comes in 90
second bits. The current generation has been born into an era of postmodern sensibility,
raised on a Sesame street layering of information.
Life in the in-between may be described as a bipolar dichotomy of 'where you're
from' and 'where you're at' (Ang, 2001, p. 35), and among the young it has become quite
common place. Jameson (1991) asserted that postmodernism is the "cultural logic of late
capitalism". Whereas formerly countries spoke from a singularity of culture, that is
becoming increasingly difficult in most countries around the world. In particular,
Canadian culture must not present a cultural fa9ade of a Eurocentric orientation. That is
not us. Artists must reveal the constellation that is Canadian culture. After all, "the
performing artist, writer and arts technician are the means by which a culture is made
manifest, brought into a tangible form so that we can see it, read it and hear it" (Lilley,
1998, p. 50).
Thankfully, we have begun to speak in many voices here in Canada and the
upcoming generation will make that so to an even greater extent. Indeed, the energy
produced by each of the case studies has reverberated as those young people, empowered
by voice-ing, have carried on to produce more art, more community expression. These
young voices join with others who have hit the Toronto culture scene with some
fascinating work. To mention a few: Keira Loughran's Little Dragon at Theatre Passe
Muraille in January 2005 was a piece of identity exploration that fused physical theatre
with choral storytelling and captured a sense of the quest for belonging. In the piece, the
young Chinese-Canadian becomes removed form her cultural identity due to the death of
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a parent and the re-marriage to someone Scottish. From the perspective of a South Asian
female, Anita Majumdar's Fish Eyes cleverly captured the experience of Meena, an
"exceptional Indian dancing teenager who would trade it all in just to be a "normal" high
school girl." Still, Meena learns the importance of "embracing her origins and her talents
through Bollywood absurdity and laughter." (on-line press release, 2006) These two
women have become part of a generation that includes artists working at Cahoots Theatre
and the Fu-gen Theatre and Carlos Bulosan Theatre where several Asian artists have
found a community of support to launch their projects. Many of these new voices market
themselves as presenting "the show that celebrates the joys of heritage and heartaches of
youth" (Fish Eyes Program, 2006).
Over the course of writing this thesis many cultural initiatives have been
launched. The Canadian Museum of Cultural Heritage of Indo-Canadians, a $25 million
complex based on Vedic engineering principles, opened in the summer of 2007 in the
highway 427 and Finch area. Besides Desi Life, another hip magazine geared to young
Asians was launched by Lisa Marie Chen. Her magazine, blink, was heralded in the
mainstream press (Grewal, 2007) and spoke of Chen, at 23, as part of the "new
generation of Canadians transforming the energy of culturation into ambition, quickly
defining Torono as the world's coolest cultural gathering place." The article was
sprinkled with references to the intersection between cultures, the possibility of being
"open to all the identities that are out there", and the ways in which youth of the second
generation are taking charge in defining how they construct themselves.
There are more mature voices of the diaspora who see further evolutions of
hybridity emerging. Bharati Mukherjee, who was raised in the state of Bengal in India,
has had a very long career as an esteemed writer both in Canada and the United States
where she resides with her husband, Clark Blaise, with whom she fell in love not long
after her arrival in North America. Mukherjee now would be seen as an eminence grise
in the community of South Asians who have established careers as writers in North
America. Indeed, as she declared on radio, she has now been here long enough to have
raised two sons and described with delight the fact that one son married an Irish-
American and that they now have adopted a Chinese girl who is the only grandchild of
the family. She sees herself surrounded by an increasingly interracially mixed population
 257

in California. Therefore, when she talks about how individuals fuse, it is both in terms of
the meshing of cultures and the interculturalism that result from inter-marriage. In
conversation with Elaenor Wachtel of Writers and Co., she suggested that it is no longer
about having one foot in each culture as Wachtel suggests: 'we're expanding rather than
one foot here, one foot there'. Mukherjee outlines the future where identity falls away.
In a Scarborough school, I stood in front of a classroom where there was one
white male from a rural Ontario town who was the 'outsider' while the vast majority of
students were from Sri Lanka with others identifying home coutries as Ethiopia and
Jamaica. Of note, as teacher I felt a certain 'outsider' status as the cultural capital of the
classroom was certainly understood to surround bicultural identification. As such, I had
limited cultural capital (and yet, inevitably was part of the dominant structures of power
due to my positioning). That is, there comes to be a normalization of hybrid identity.
This embracing of the dual identity, this living in an age of hybridity constitutes
the core of my research over several years. "Hybridity, unlike other key concepts such as
diaspora and multiculturalism, foregrounds complicated entanglement rather than
identity." (Ang, p 3) So, at the same time as my thesis set out to describe the coming to
cultural identity that may occur with young artists, it is with the knowledge that in fact
these second generation young people have just such an entangled set of cultures of
home, school and peer worlds. Postmodern ethnicity, as Ang argues, can no longer be
experienced as naturally based upon tradition and ancestry. Rather, it is experienced as
provisional with partial 'identity' pieces or identifications, the 'chowder' as Gomez-Pena
(1993; 1996) described it, which must be constantly (re) invented and (re) negotiated.

Youth Research: Practices and Perils

Youth research provides understanding of the experiences, meaning-making and
significance of youth in our society. Through the sustained period of teaching during my
graduate studies, I came to understand the impediments to progress in the area of
inclusive pedagogical practices with an emphasis on assisting our young people with
aspects of identity formation. The barriers to this are tremendous unless the community
of educators willingly collaborates among themselves with this as an ideal. Individual
commitment wanes in the face of the dominant curriculum and the hidden curriculum
unless there is an atmosphere of commitment within the school culture.
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One of the foremost benefits of this prolonged period of research has involved the
many opportunities for enactment of the theory in practice. Not all results have been as
positive as those included here. In fact, this researcher in her capacity as teacher has, on
occasion, experienced a sense of resistance in students who are not ready to, or resent the
implication of, conceptualizing themselves as 'different', or may resent the suggestion of
a teacher that s/he might enjoy reading a particular book or investigate a subject based on
a cultural congruence. Due to the fact that mainstream curriculum is so Eurocentric, the
suggestion that a student read the work of a particular author may - in certain rare
instances - be seen as, in itself, an act of 'othering'. Sometimes, as an educator, there is
not a predictable outcome and there may be a level of risk in the act of 'opening up
space'.
Like most researchers, and indeed most teachers, I have chosen to discuss the
more successful interventions, the ones where I or someone else made a difference. Yet,
the complexity of the problem is such that this does not always succeed based on good
intentions. No, there is a delicate negotiating going on among the players when a teacher
operates with an interest in catalyzing the process. There remains a risk that this may
trigger the defences of a student for reasons involving readiness, suspicion or lack of
desire.
As an example of one such confounding response by a student, I relay an
anecdote from my experience as a teacher of theatre in a specialty arts program. The few
students of colour in the theatre program were going through their entire secondary
school career without reading or performing in one play in which any actor would be read
as a racial minority (see Chapter 4). Not only did this mean that there was little
acknowledgement of such notable works as Lorraine Hansberry's Raisin in the Sun To be
Young, Gifted and Black or any of the work of African-Canadian voices as Djanet Sears,
Andrew Moodie, but even more damaging was the transmission of a curriculum in which
there would be no representations of anything other than a white - often colonial -
identity and reality.
She was a bright and engaged student in her senior year and I had occasion to
suggest some (non canonical) writers whose work she might find fascinating. Indeed, she
herself expressed an interest in completing her senior Independent Study Project on South
 259

African theatre. However, I remember her turning to me near the end of the year and
wryly remarking that I seemed to "focus on black artists with her". Tossed over her
shoulder as a parting shot, I had no opportunity to pursue the matter nor perhaps would it
have been appropriate. I believe that she has the right to tell me if she felt discomfort
with teacher attention which, by virtue of suggesting the texts of African Canadian
writers, in her view, treated her differently. As a young woman who already had declared
that she aspired to political influence in mainstream politics, perhaps she had the 'savvy'
to wish to escape the identifying of her as 'different'. I winced. Subsequently, I tried to
track back - Had I 'tried too hard' in my efforts in inclusive curriculum? Or, perhaps the
problem was that I did not encourage all students to read those works.
Students who survive the system by adopting an invisibility based on silence and
withdrawal find themselves unaccustomed to individual attention. And what of the
student who prefers to stay within the realm of mainstream-centric curriculum, despite
their own identity location? Precisely because mainstream curriculum is so Eurocentric,
the suggestion that a student read the work of a particular author may - in certain fairly
rare instances -be seen as an act of 'othering'.
With teenagers, with the heavy load of fitting in and belonging, the transparent
approach to opening up space may not be the most expeditious. As educators, a constant
state of reflection keeps the question of effective practices on our minds. Does my
teaching help students come to consciousness, gain knowledge of value in his/her quest
for self-realization? And, let there be no doubt, this is not just about individual stories or
individual kids. Representations and 'signs', what may be called in critical pedagogical
terms 'discourse', create power and progressive educators must find, or rather create, the
'discursive interventions' as Giroux would call them. This involves teachers in a moral
and political project as liberatory educators.
The project for engagement and for critical pedagogy in the classroom and the
world is proposed by Welch as acknowledging oneself as part of a 'we': "we share our
humanity in work" (p. 98). This simplicity creates an almost Zen-like counterpoint to the
discursive load of the writings typical in the area. So, with a wee apology, I find myself
somewhere between the two.
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Arts-Informed Research

Within these cases, there is ample demonstration of the knowledge that may be
generated and shared through arts-informed research. Throughout the thesis, the young
people become practitioners of arts-based research through their creative expressions
surrounding cultural identity. The analysis in the form of discursive considerations based
on their process and production, explored the larger social issues. Often the teaching role,
sometimes fulfilled by the researcher, sometimes by a third party, has facilitated the
initial creation. Powerful possibilities have emerged and reinforce some of the evidence
of the benefits of A/r/tography: 1. to teachers, by bringing an art practice into their
teaching and research; 2. to researcher, accessing creative resources for uncovering and
reintroducing marginalized ways of knowing; 3. to artists, acknowledging their practice
as research and the sharing of art as teaching (Bresler, 2006, p. 58).
This possibility through participatory action research needs to be welcomed
increasingly within academe. Many of us who practice a form of participatory research
through the arts would, along with theorist Eliot Eisner (1991), suggest that "the
broadening of the conception of what counts as educational research promotes "multiple
ways in which the world can be known" (p. 7). In this spirit, multiplicites are invited,
borders may be crossed, and voices are heard while self-knowledge increases.
Change to the Canadian Culture Scene
For many of us who were raised on both the myth and the teachings of the
Canadian mosaic, there has been a sense of anticipated cultural progress as the design of
the mosaic becomes richer in both colour and complexity as the process of immigration
evolves. As Anne Nothof (1999) cautions, the "comfortable myth of the "cultural mosaic
is an "imaginative construct which reifies the Canadian self-concept of tolerance,
freedom, and diversity." Social harmony is predicted in a "pleasing aesthetic pattern: the
juxtaposition of many, small, brightly-coloured pieces" to make the mosaic, the Canadian
"work of art." But it should be remembered that "the mosaics which constituted the
iconography of the Roman and Byzantine Empires constituted the iconography
reaffirmed religious and epistemological beliefs. A mosaic imagined as a social
metaphor also suggests that each piece in the society has been added as part of a grand
design" (p. 5).
 261

The sense of planned composition has not been at the heart of Canadian
immigration policies. A piece may or may not fit. Still Canada has prided itself on
diversity of celebration or at the very least tolerance as long as there are no problematics
of politics. Sally, the white girlfriend in Marty Chan's play, comments, "we will sanitize
his quaint customs and add them to our multicultural mosaic.. ..We'll take egg rolls and
fortune cookies. Maybe a dragon dance. But not communism unless it comes with Mao
jackets."44 What an insightful comment on the limits to 'tolerance'.
The mosaic patterns have shifted considerably in recent years. We now live in a
world of what anthropologist Clifford Geertz (1988) has characterized as "a gradual
spectrum of mixed up differences" (p. 148). This is a globalized world in which "people
quite different from one another in interest, outlook, wealth, and power" are "contained in
a world where, tumbled as they are into endless connection, it is increasingly difficult to
get out of each other's way" (ibid, p. 147).
Furthermore, the literature on diaspora reflects widespread recognition that links
between geographic place and cultural identity are dissolving rapidly. This happens not
only in Western nations but also globally in a landscape of people on the move, people in
diaspora for reasons of economics, war, family, re-balancing of the world's populations
(with India and China having huge population bases at over a billion each), weather and
environmental degradation (as global warming increasingly displaces people).
These communities of people meet and collide, most especially in Canada with
one of the most diverse populations on the globe, albeit a small one. We sit in the global
community, the global marketplace. Although we can muddle along without a common
culture, our institutions, and most especially that societal institution known as the school,
must treat every significant identity with enough respect to gain its trust. In short, our
students who are in process with cultural identity formation not only deserve but must
have the space of recognition in order for Canada to self-suture its diverse groupings.
Acknowledgement of multiple identifications has to do with health and cultural esteem
without which the very nature of Canadian-ness may fail. The formations of newer

4
This section on the problematics of the mosaic emerges from Anne Nothof 's introduction to the collection of
plays in which Marty Chan's work (Chapter 4) appears.
 262

cultural landscapes by migrant and diasporic communities are the result of the
transformative role that these populations negotiate in the shifting mosaic.

Altering the Arts World in Canada

The young people who are portrayed and present through their work in these
pages do not explore cultural difference at the celebratory level of heroes and holidays.
Rather they are working through their conflicts and anxieties. The conflict for the young
people emerges from their personal understanding of the contestations of life in the
postcolonial diaspora. Through this, their art surfaces the rich possibilities of the hybrid
zones. They and their art are products of diasporaization, to use Hall's term.
The impact on the cultural scene of Canada will be profound as these young
people continue to contribute visions of, not only who they are, but the world in which
they live. During the course of my research, a search of CyberMuse, the National
Galleries on-line data-base profiled very few artists from racial minority backgrounds.
One artist, Tony Lem, spoke on a sound-clip of his interest in expressing 'who he is as an
Asian-Canadian' only becoming part of his art in mid-career. This, certainly, was due to
the fact that artists of a generation ago knew that they had to make it in the art world via
rules of the Art World which remained quite disinterested in the lived realities of artists
from racial minority communities. Lem came onto the art scene prior to the contestation
of identity politics within Can Con which culminated during the 1990s. This period of
Canadian cultural debate was marked by nasty battles surrounding voice appropriation
when issues of equitable recognition and systemic discrimination hit the agenda.
The canon and masterworks debates frequently obscure or at the very least
camouflage the issues of equity. Throughout the book, Challenging Racism in the Arts,
this hierarchy of legitimacy in all things aesthetic is stated over and over again:
.. .artists of European background are more likely to produce masterpieces,
while artists of non-European descent produce only 'ethnic art'. A two-
tiered art world is thus created: on the upper level are mainly White, male
artists with names, an identity, and a history while on the lower sits the
anonymous 'primitive' artist. This lack of representation of the art of
other cultures reflects how Eurocentric aesthetic standards, values, and
norms determine what constitutes a 'masterpiece'. Works of art become
racialized when they are systematically assessed from the perspective of a
racially based cultural hierarchy that maintains and preserves the artistic
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standards that flow from the dominant group... (Tator, Henry, & Mattis,
1998, p. 224)

This phenomenon of culture and power and the consolidation of value systems
has become a subject within the emerging white studies where the perpetuation of
privilege and status is understood as part of the problematics of domination. These
young people must come to understand that their creative voices of resistance join those
of significant artists in the international cultural world, products of the historical
circumstances that shape the postcolonial imagination. Their voices, as they render work
which interrogates the values and representations of people, join with others in shaping
communal identities.
With many of these moments of magic came a renewed faith in the possibilities of
art to express fundamental human conditions in a way which may be heard and in a way
which society may alter its understanding. The research participants' creative
expressions renewed my faith that, as Jameson wrote in describing the new political art,
we may yet achieve a 'breakthrough', "we may again begin to grasp our positioning as
individual and collective subjects and regain a capacity to act and struggle which at
present is neutralized by our spatial (as in critical) as well as our social confusion"
(Bickers, 2002, p. 336). The potentialities of the arts to partake in the transmission of
discourse, to create cognizant publics who recognize and support the values, has been
realized by these young people. Their creative expressions speak of culture in an
inherently political, yet personal, way as meanings and symbols present local identity in
relation to the global identities.
Indeed, through expressions of cultural identity, artists like Lem already produce
highly political statements. His use of billboards has gained him an international
following of people curious to encounter his appreciation of 'how newness enters the
world'. The answer: sometimes in the guise of personal stories posted on billboards.
Lem, like the young people within the thesis, finds voice means speaking from the
margins... .proudly.
On Constructing Identity
Ultimately, these young voices make claim to art as a discursive 'contestatory'
space where not only is resistance possible but also a level of affirmation in terms of
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'Who Am I?'. On some level, the naming becomes a form of belonging when, for
example, with the stunningly brilliant work of Prithi, a finely crafted poem articulates the
contradictions and complexities of life in the in-between. Indeed, P. manages to express
the polyphonic experience, just because she can because she has already lived many
identities. The complicated discourse of the in-between suggests the re-conceptualized
spaces within which our young people, in a state of consciousness gain agency.
So, in honour of Stuart Hall45,1 shall quote Edward Said before apologizing one
last time for the ongoing sense of re-inscribing the essentialist discourse in my writings.
In a rather visceral passage on identity, Said (1991) shares his views during an interview:
I think the one thing that I find, I guess the, the most -1 wouldn't say
repellent, but I would say antagonistic - for me is identity. The notion of a
single identity. And so multiple identity, the polyphony of many voices
playing off against each other, without, as I say, the need to reconcile
them, just to hold them together, is what my work is all about. More than
one culture, more than one awareness, both in its negative and its positive
modes. It's basic instinct. (Marranca, Robinson, & Chaudhuri, 1991, p. 43)

Although I wished to gesture toward the fluidity at each moment, I also wished to
speak of who they are, these case studies, and this led to speaking of identity. However,
what I have found, and what becomes apparent, I hope in reading this thesis is that we
indeed are entering a different time. The aesthetics shift to what's called 'A Hybrid
Place', which happens to be the title of a chapter in Trinh's book Framer Framed.
While being interviewed, Trinh speaks of the new generation...
Many of the younger diasporic generation who come forth today, on the
artistic as well as the theoretical scene, have voiced their discomfort with
any safeguarding of boundaries on either side of the border. This is
precisely because the repressed complexities of the politics of identity
have been fully exposed. "Identity" has now become more a point of
departure than an end point in the struggle. (Trinh, 1992, p. 140)

One of the emerging truths for me, after this research would be that the young
people who find themselves facing the conflicted values of family and the rest, seem to
engage in identity interrogation in a way that allows them to explore the social world in a
critical way. That is, they are less likely than their white classmates to be comfortable in
this commodified consumer-based lifestyle. Instead, these voices, emerging as
 265

postcolonial, "recognize the necessity of speaking for a hybrid place, hence of saying at
least two, three things at a time." (ibid, p. 140) Trinh states that it is "vital to assume
one's radical "impurity".
Identity now is a "point of departure" and, as suggested in the works of the young
artists, the desire to move outside of the boundaries is strong. This leads again to the
hybrid zone where Trinh, like Rushdie, speaks of impurity as a positive, a multi-
perspectival voicing. During my final summer of work on the thesis, I kept passing
through the doors of the OISE library where several panels of scholars greet you. Many
smiled, but on my way out, I would see a rather solemn-looking professor Ray Moodley
whose statement began with 'race, gender, religion, social class... and the multiple
categories" but continued with the admonishment that "We need to think beyond these
categories....". This, as I stated early in my thesis was a point of concern for me, the
potential that I would re-essentialize and I addressed that through citing Spivak on this.
So, as I departed, I would try different lines on the full-body panel of professor Moodley:
"Yes, I agree....but it's not possible yet." Or, when I felt more defensive, I said, "Look,
this is what pre-occupies my participants. Or, at least, it did when they produced these
incredible pieces of self-portraiture, their explorations of self, their epiphanies of
contestations...." In finding a way to pass the cardboard figure, I also attempted to
relieve myself of my ongoing anxieties. Or, was it like a confessional, and I, not even a
Catholic.
As Ang cautions, there can never be a perfect fit between fixed identity labels
(and I confess to having used them) and hybrid personal experience. Indeed, that seems
to have been part of the challenge of reconciliation that these case studies demonstrated:
how it is that one lives a life as Indo-Canadian or Chinese-Canadian yet at the same time
does not conform to the image. This struggle of the young artists involved in this study
resulted in quite magical work. Within the work, the collective identity of an ethnic label
was not liberating but rather confining. For Ang, that very identity is also the name of a
potential prison-house. It is very "hard to imagine and appreciate the complicated

This pun refers to the book, Without Guarantees: In Honour of Stuart Hall, a book published after his death which
serves as a tribute to his influence in a publication that draws together the writings of those influenced by him.
 266

entanglement of our togetherness-in-difference from within the prison-house of identity"

(Ang,2001,p.l0).
Some of these categories persist, though it's increasingly possible to imagine a
world of floating signifiers. Take, for example, gender in schools. Already, there was a
very public case in this new millennium of a student council president at Northern
Secondary School who decided to "change" genders during his tenure as leader of a two
thousand student school. The process of acceptance was described on the front page of
the Toronto Star. Clearly, that alters the possibility and visibility of transgendered youth.
Fluidity of gender identifications is becoming more manifest in many secondary
schools...

From Diaspora to Disney

In the shared in-between are some of the most powerful arenas of cultural
creativity, as suggested by these case studies. Does this mean that there is an evolving
aesthetic of the diaspora? It would be naive for me not to acknowledge that much of this
change occurs because of technology, because of the cultural imperialism of the West
through commodities and a consumer-based culture whose spread is nothing short of
breath-taking. The massive blanket of popular culture means that we know more about
Britney Spears than we do about our own environments.
The homogenizing forces of advanced industrialism and, more importantly for
this generation, popular culture in the form of television, music, and the internet leave
little space for cultural pluralism. Not only has popular culture spawned fashion trends, it
has also generated linguistic trends which emerge out of music culture and the internet.
Quite possibly, it is time for educators to reconsider their ideals of standardized English.
Expressions of cultural identity in the popular culture already begin to reflect the
reality. Oprah Winfrey's endorsement of Barack Obama marked a turning point in the
race for the White House and the engagement of millions of voters of the margins who
hold some hope of inclusion in the dominant culture. For several months, that seems to
be the message of 'hope' resounding with the compelling call for 'change'.
The North American landscape has diversified but there are often problematic
respresentations at play. The Harold and Kumar movies are one of the notable ones. In
the first comedy these guys are trying to buy a good burger at a joint called White Castle.
 267

This seems to be some fantasy fulfillment (castle) within white culture by a couple of
stoned guys who happen to be from minority groups who generally have not been well
represented in film. The New York Times' reviewer applauded the loss of cultural
identity as the "the slap-happy conventions of youthful low-brow comedy and the easy
inclusiveness of consumerism conspire to dispel the stale clouds of identity politics." The
italics (mine) suggest the irony here as the commodified existence for North Americans
offers images of integration through pot use and burgers and fries.
Sameness may not be so appealing if one pauses for a moment to consider what
substance, or lack thereof, homogenizes us. After all, is it that desirable that 'stoner
comedies' feature young men from cultural groups who traditionally are two of the
'model minorities'? Is it progress to have fart jokes which are inclusive? Cultural
inclusivity might well mark the end of meaning if it coincides with the embrace of banal
consumerism46.
Now, as the mix of cultures and time increasingly diminishes the distance
between cultures, there is a loss as there is a merging. Furthermore, the forces of the
global economy, as Fredric Jameson argued, involve "the gradual transformation of
commodities into libidinal images of themselves, this is to say into well-nigh cultural
products... .today no enclaves - aesthetic or other - are left in which the commodity form
does not reign supreme" (Jameson, 1998, p.70). In this scenario, the drama of ethnic
assimilation is being played out in fast food, clothing and fashion as traditions lose their
hold. What might have taken a generation of assimilation now occurs faster under the
golden arches and it has been going on for some time. Decades ago, Hebdige (1979)
talked about the Americanization (homogenization) of cultural styles and patterns. This
powerful universalization process has continued as a burning topic with consumer market
analyzers. After all, as he said then, "there are 50 million kids in Europe, and they have
converging lifestyles in music labels and Big Macs. The international market is a reality
and consumers are becoming more similar globally"(Hebdige, 1979, p. 26) This
powerful process - the branding of us all - extends into all regions of the globe and has
gone on long enough for there to be a movement against it. Naomi Klein's international
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best-seller, No Logo, established her as a spokesperson and leader within the Adbusters
and global resistance movement.
Giroux (1996) wrote a fascinating chapter on the Disneyfication of Kids' culture.
This world of youth, raised on Disney, is one covered in jeans, commodified into the
uniformity of popular culture. And it is there that the implosion of images takes place,
the Baudrillard experience of meaninglessness. Here, students across an "increasingly
diverse spectrum seek their identity and valorization within and through pop culture."
Within contemporary society, the force of popular culture and cyber-life creates
circumstances wherein the home cultures are, potentially, further eroded. In this zone,
the Baudrillardian implosion of images transplants the Bakhtin carnivalesque with
meaning evaporating just as the game zones destroy all.
Although there may be legitimate claims for human 'advancement' into so-called
Smart 2.0 zones where humans toy with the liquid intellect, there are serious implications
for a world in which young people spend hours projected into zones removed from lived
experience. In the last 15 years of the internet, rootlessness has become an ever greater
reality. There is ample cause for concern in terms of how our histories are disneyfied or
turned into Super Nintendo games. In this era, there needs to be greater care in devising
pedagogy which taps into both the personal and the creative forces of our young people.
At home, on computers or in digital television, youth find worlds which both
transport and satisfy them calling into question the value of traditional curriculum. In
fact, there seems to be a revolution out there. "At the end of the day, in this world, most
of what proceeds under the heading of multiculturalism may be a less important source of
cultural fragmentation47 than the internet and the five hundred channels of television."
As Henry Louis Gates wryly remarks, "As we head into the new millennium, we are
consumers first, citizens second. If you're really worried about social fragmentation,
never mind about the canon debates: you're better off attending to the growth of niche
marketing." (Gates, 1996, p. 62)

46
In the sequel, the two characters are picked up and sent to Guantanamo from which they must escape.
Interestingly, this is one of the few pop culture pieces to cajole youth to take an interest in American incarceration
and the violation of human rights. So, despite my earlier concerns about pothead culture, who knows?
47
In July 2008, the Toronto Star published cultural commentary on the amazing 'cultural jambalaya' made possible
through the internet. That is, the availability of everything from Bollywood to remote Chinese village photographs
allows for consumption of culture (and cultures) unprecedented in human history.
 269

Within this virtually-mediated world, the life of a classroom may seem rather too
ordinary to young people. Indeed, the slowed-down experience creates problems for
students and, therefore, for teachers. With many students spending hours on-line after
hours engaged in either social networks or video games or poker, the day time hours
spent inside classrooms may be utilized as a rest zone, a time to zone out because of not
being plugged in.
In this zone, we face the important project of helping students to deconstruct and
reconstruct their very identities:
As part of the language of possibility, teachers can explore the opportunity
to construct knowledge/power relations in which multiple narratives and
social practices are constructed around a politics and pedagogy of
difference that offers students the opportunity to read the world
differently, resist the abuse of power and privilege, and construct
alternative democratic communities. (Giroux, 1992, p. 49)

Although this theorizes the challenge, clearly the reality of enacting such deep
pursuits in the classroom or anywhere is huge. Yet, as the case studies of the thesis
suggest, the value of such processes and projects in self and social awareness is worth the
effort.
In Toronto, like other major cities, there has been a concerted effort to promote
public displays of ethnicity but often in the most benign manner through wearing
"native" clothing, bringing cultural foods, and showcasing dances or music. These
multicultural events often feature all groups simultaneously. Schools declare dates when
ethnic food replaces the cafeteria fare, when the saris and shalwar kameez replace the
jeans, when the Greek or Bollywood dances hit the stage. But by naming these as
sanctioned periods, it suggests that wearing traditional clothes and eating such foods are
'outside' practices. This reinforces the idea that there are certain legitimate or designated
times for performing culture and may further the marginalization effect not only within
the school but, by extension, mainstream society.
Instead, these case studies offer some alternatives in space-creation within schools
for the investigation of identity and ethnic group awareness via the transformative power
of creative expression. Through creative expression surrounding their cultural identity,
there is the possibility of the development of a positive self-identity for students (Dei et
al, 2000) where their background experiences are regarded as "cultural enrichment" not
"cultural baggage" (Dei, 1996, p. 84).
Furthermore, the power of these educational experiences in the lives of the young
seems to be in the significance associated with their agency in self-naming and self-
understanding. Trinh asserts the difference of difference asserted or ascribed:
I make a distinction between an alienating notion of otherness (the other of
man, the Other of the West) and an empowering notion of difference. As
long as Difference is not given to us, the coast is clear. We should be the
ones to define this difference... (Trinh, 1992, p. 185)

Zones of contestation require self-definition in matters of difference, and the

creative projects of the young artists were invaluable as a means of doing just that.
Charles Taylor, the noted Canadian philosopher of culture, advocates a form of
balancing act as a key requisite in the area of cultural recognition:
There must be something midway between the inauthentic and
homogenizing demand for recognition of equal worth [for all culture] on
the one hand, and the self-immurement within ethnocentric standards, on
the other. There are other cultures, and we have to live together more and
more, both on a world scale and commingled in each individual society.
(Taylor, 1992, p. 72)

Ideas of social inclusion, I hope, will gain greater prominence in public discourse,
both in the arts and educational spheres. Encouraged to continuously "re-imagine, re-
evaluate and re-negotiate our understanding and our collective notion of the nation",
perhaps educators would be more inclined to acknowledge the "right of contestation, the
legitimacy of dissent and the entitlement to be different" (Li, 2003, p. 12) as constant
negotiation in the lives of our students. We must all welcome the many voices within our
"shared experiences of complex, but differing lived realities in Canada of inter-sections
of history, culture, race, class, gender, language and relations of unequal power"
(Richmond and Saloojee, 2005, p. 211).
This project must proceed as a global commitment following the wisdom of
Indian ecologist Vandana Shiva: "intolerance of diversity is the biggest threat to peace in
our times. The cultivation of diversity is, in my view, the most significant contribution to
peace - peace with nature and peace between peoples". She speaks of cultivation,
"because it has to be a conscious and creative act, intellectually and in practice" (cited in
 271

O'Sullivan, 1999, p. 181). The idea of opening ourselves to inter and intracultural
communications as a means to peace would suggest the larger possibilities.
With the increasing global movement of people, there is indeed a great creativity
of tensions, a multiperspectival productivity of that position of in-between-ness (Gilroy,
1993) which may lead to fascinating artistic production. While this interpretive
ethnographic journey has provided me with great joy, justifying intimate conversations
about life and meaning-making with some phenomenal people, I hope that this too has
confirmed for the subjects of this inquiry that their lives and their creative expressions
have great significance. The "hanging out" , as an ethnographic practice, that I have
done with the subjects of each of my chapters has evolved over time, with the maturing
of these young people. I feel fortunate that the dialogue and exchanges that we would
organize transformed into quite adult conversations. Some of these conversations will
only live on in our memories: a windy afternoon at Harbourfront where Prithi and I
debated the merits of her various graduate school options in cultural studies or writing;
the community centre in Scarborough where Andy and I have continued to collaborate
but now as co-facilitators with youth groups, seeking to empower them with the
possibilities that emerge from voice-ing their own stories; my kitchen table where Fredy
taught my cousin, the Presbyterian minister, about the role of Catholicism in the
liberation and repression in Central America. There have now been late-nights at the
university with almost all of the subjects as we find some way in which our collaboration
takes a new turn: from the assistance that I could offer them as young artists and young
academics to the professional rehearsals that Fredy and I undertook in order to prepare
for two international conferences at OISE.
Their stories, as explorations of lives in context bring us an understanding of the
"complexities of lives in communities (Cole and Knowles, 2001, p. 11). Both their art
and their lives may inspire further work, not only academically, but also in terms of the
encouragement of pedagogical practice that respects that stories of the self within
community must be voiced. May the creative expressions and their reflections on life in
the in-between act as catalysts for change.

My initial experience of "hanging out" with students during my ethnographic research on the Rainbow Project involved
establishing relationships. Subsequently, I read Brodkey's (1996) definition of ethnography as the "science or hanging out."
 Inspired by Maxine Greene's (1995) position that our lives are narratives in the
making, the generating of these strands of unfolding narratives merely leaves traces, co-
constructed over time. As Greene writes:
Neither my self nor my narrative can have, therefore, a single strand. I
stand at the crossing point of too many social and cultural forces; and, in
any case, I am forever on my way. My identity has to be perceived as
multiple; even as I strive towards some coherent notion of what is humane
and decent and just. At the same time, amidst this multiplicity, my life
project has been to achieve an understanding of teaching, learning, and the
many models of education; I have been creating and continue to create a
self by means of that project, that mode of gearing in to the world.
(Greene, 1995, p. 1)

The project of understanding, of engaging, and of meaning making is ongoing.

With multiple and shifting images of self, the strands may only capture fragments, some
of them magical...
 273

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 APPENDIX

SCARBOROUGH REMIXed
Scarborough stories from the point of view of the teens who live there

Project Description -from Project Co-ordinator Cynthia Grant

This project is designed as part of initiatives to create meaningful and relevant activities
for youth in the Dorset Park and Kennedy Village neighborhoods of Scarborough which have
been identified as two of the at-risk areas (by the United Way and City of Toronto). At this time,
there is little available for youth in this underserviced area. The McGregor Community Centre is
in process in developing projects with the intention of submitting a proposal to the Youth
Challenge Fund. Our project, SCARBOROUGH REMIXed, would be an integral part of
summer plans for the centre in drawing youth together from this diverse community. (South
Asian including SriLankan and Indian; Black including West Indian and African, and families
from Afghanistan, the Phillipines, as well as white and mixed race youth.)

Plans for this project emerged after attending meetings coordinated by George Samuels
of McGregor Community Centre involving several agencies and a Youth Advisory along with
representatives from Councillor Michael Thompson's office. The broader program is entitled
A.I.M. (Activities in Motion) and this project would be an integral component in the vision for
new programming/initiatives in the coming year.

Organization Background
For more than fifteen years, Company of Sirens (founded 1986) was a leading force in Popular
Theatre taking theatre into community settings and creating new work. Known for our theatre for
social change, the company developed a strong repertoire of theatre about social issues such as
gender equality and racism, and employment equity. The theatre was developed in collaboration
with partners from the labour movement, the women's community and diverse cultural groups.
That is, projects were conducted in partnership with such groups as the Cross-Cultural
Communications Network and the Urban Alliance on Race Relations, the various trade unions
and many government-funded initiatives through Ministries as diverse as the Womens'
Directorate, the Solicitor General and the Ministry of Health.
Due to our strong commitment to youth and education, the Sirens also were prominent in
the T.Y.A. community through plays and projects through SIS Theatre Action in Education.
Besides several powerful pieces on topics like Violence in the home (Whenever I Feel Afraid
with over 400 hundred presentations in three provinces), supported through the Family Violence
Prevention Unit of the Ministry of Education, and date rape, as well as innovative pieces on
media and black history (by Diana Braithwaite and Kim Roberts). As well, the company worked
with at-risk youth through Youth LINK creating anti-violence presentations and a major youth
anti-racism summer project, Funny, You Don't Look... sending these performances into
community settings. Indeed, Lillian Allen and Marrie Mumford conducted the first Fresh Arts
with Company of Sirens as the host organization. This summer youth initiative, designed to
serve the interests and needs of disadvantaged racial minority youth, was subsequently run
directly by the Toronto Arts Council.
Now, re-inspired by Jodi Miller's work on Six Nations Reserve with young people
Digital NDN m 2006. The project continues the Sirens' work with youth and empowerment.

Theatre clearly provides a 'voice' for youth to express themselves, to create scenarios
of their lived realities,
-enhance cross-cultural understanding
-build community voices
-update Scarborough's identity as a community
-share personal stories and find commonalities amongst our youth
-culture shock, cultural collapse, cultural clashes, promote healing,
-create positive images of marginalized youth
Thereby
-breaking down myths and stereotypes
-normalizing diversity and enhancing a sense of belonging
-creating a sense of community
-working together to define our values
-enhancing social skills and teach cultural norms

What are the desired outcomes of the program? OR: What are you doing? Why here? Why
now?

Jodi Miller will work with a group of Multi barrier youth to create an original play based
on a series of guided workshops. The youth chosen to participate in this project will be young
people who live in the area of Scarborough surrounding McGregor community centre.

The students will write and perform a script entitled, Scarborough Remixed.
Scarborough remixed will be comprised of a series of stories that reflect the diversity of their
community of Scarborough.

During the Drama workshops students will be given a series of stimulus to create
individual stories. Examples of these stimuli are: photographs of their families and homes,
stories reflecting their journey to Canada as well as traditional and popular music, media and
television that reflects their lives in Canada and their home cultures. These stimuli will be used
to create scenes which the students will act out and then commit to paper. As such, the work will
be written from stage to page. During the workshop sessions, students will role play, physically
acting out the characters and scenes, so the language and the stories will have an authenticity.
Moreover, their work will guide the progression of the script as the many faces of Scarborough
come into focus. The end product will be a play with four or five main characters, with
individual stories which will encompass the performance style that is unique to their culture.
For example, a South Asian story would be presented with elements of Bollywood movies and a
story of immigration from Africa would include drumming and dancing. A Sri Lankan story will
chronicle the transition from a war torn country to living in Toronto. Another story will explore
images of poverty and how the desire for the "American dream" may dissolve with the
experience of unemployment and acculturation.
Questions of 'where have we come from?' and 'why are we here?' will engage youth in
investigating both their roots and their routes, how in moving from there to here their cultural
identity becomes a mix. The end result will be a series of stories that reflect the main characters'
journeys from past, present and future.
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Already some youth have some training in their traditions and our goal is to share this training to
build on these skills and create a sense of community.

Training Vision Statement

The training team of artists bring a breadth of experience and commitment to working
with disadvantaged and multi-barrier youth. Trainers share an understanding of the
transformative power of theatre to both facilitate 'voice' for participants and to create a sense of
community and identity. With various influences and backgrounds, both with respect to
training/education and personal identity, the key shared beliefs in cultural practice as
transformative education informs this project.

To create a theatrically innovative performance which incorporates dance, music and spoken
word as well as storytelling to engage today's youth. Further, to use theatre workshops as a
jumping off point to teach the participants both theatrical skills as well as social skills and, even,
job skills. Moreover, the workshops' process work to build the participants' self esteem by
creating a sense of ownership and pride in a project that is supported and valued by the
community.

> To create a supportive learning environment where youth can develop respect for themselves
and others; to create positive space for young people to both 'voice' and listen, in a
facilitated situation that offers them respect and support
> To enable youth to identify, utilize and strengthen their skills and talents, what is known as
their 'cultural capital', whether that be in hiphop, classical Indian dance, spoken word rants,
or, simply, their life stories.. .to 'validate through voice'
> To provide an opportunity for youth to explore the values of cooperation, community
contribution, community awareness, career development and life skills enhancement by
building self awareness and self esteem through cultural expression.
> To develop solid work ethics and skills that will assist youth to seek, achieve and maintain
employment in the future. For multi-barrier youth, this means establishing an environment
that focuses on believing in our youth and accepting them no matter where they are or what
they have done.
> To develop community based opportunities for growth and involvement as part of the
broader set of initiatives in this underserviced neighbourhoods.

Community Presentations: The cooperation of staff from Councillor Michael Thompson's office ensures
that presentations would be planned as part of significant community events. Indeed, during this year,
several politicians and business people have declared their intent to launch a positive image campaign for
the community.

The cross-cultural nature of the play would draw community membersfrommany groupings.
One outcome would be to actually visit certain apartment complexes, inviting tenants to an evening in the
'meeting room.' In this way, not only would the project involve youthfromunderserved communities
but also the audience would be composed of Torontonians who rarely see 'live culture'. McGregor
community centre would be the hub where audiences would be invited to see performances.
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Youth Participants
The project would begin with a series of workshops prior to July so that young people
could experience the possibilities of theatre, spoken word, and dance (African dance) and music.
Through these early sessions, the team would collaborate closely with Mr. George Samuels at
McGregor C.C., and his Youth Advisory group in order to recruit broadly.
Outreach has been a major component of planning for the community plans now
underway. Thus, such organizations as CAN-TYDE, which serves the needs of youth from the
Tamil community, has regularized meetings at the Mcgregor and the neighboring secondary
school, Winston Churchill Collegiate. Indeed, the school has intensified its outreach to groups of
black parents and other cultural specific groups in order to improve community relations. And,
the offices of Councillor Michael Thompson and the various agencies would be active in referral
of youth to the initial workshops.
The age of the participants would be 16-20 years old. One of the differences between
conducting such a project through, for example, Tarragon Theatre, would be the class differences
and the pressures surrounding living in poverty. Youth in these underserviced communities have
struggles around money... from the Iraqi spoken word artist of 17 who spends significant time
supporting his family to the unemployed teen who dropped out with little sense of future.
The youth in these neighbourhoods face challenges which require flexibility in project
design in order to make the project possible. Therefore, the actual times for the intensive in July-
August would be established with Mr. Samuels/McGregor and the interested youth. Of note, if
Youth Challenge Fund moneys become available, there may be subsidies for such things as TTC
fare and food provision. This would facilitate participation for youth whose poverty tends to
limit their activities.

Objectives
In working on a project of theatre for social change, the goals must acknowledge
that the youth who are from at-risk neighbourhoods are transformed through the
process on a number of levels. Indeed, there would be goals that would address the
critical life skills for future success.

Benefit to Community
1. Promote a healthy living for our community by promoting healthy lifestyles choices through
the theatre venue
2. Promote community awareness of the problem thereby motivating the community to work
together to address the need.
3. To promote community cohesiveness and unity by bonding together to help each other.

Benefit to Youth
1. Enhance and develop positive life skills
2. Development of a solid career plan i.e. actor, stage manager, behind the scene production
jobs, costume design, set design etc..
3. Community involvement and awareness
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4. Employment experience
5. Knowledge of community resources
6. Ability to set long term and short term goals
7. Professional, positive image
8. Self awareness development