The Diasporic Imagination: Introduction to Essays by Peter Reed, Adrienne C. Macki, and Christina S. McMahon

\ The Diasporic Imagination Introduction to Essays by Peter Reed, Adrienne C. Macki, and Christina S. McMahon —HEATHER S. NATHANS During 2004 and 2005 I had the great privilege and pleasure of working with an exciting group of scholars interested in exploring the concept and boundaries of the diasporic imagination. The three essays that follow grew out of a year-long collaboration between colleagues from institutions including the University of California at Berkeley, Florida State University, the University of North Carolina, Tufts University, the University of Maryland, Northwestern University, the University of Ottawa, and the University of Texas, all of whom corresponded by e-mail and gathered at various national and international conferences to discuss current scholarship on theatre and diasporic identities and to share their own research. The chance to work with such a dynamic group of scholars was extraordinary—perhaps because of the opportunity it afforded to engage in sustained dialogue with scholars pursuing similar research queries who could all engage with, push, probe, and help to develop each other’s work. Although we all worked very hard, it felt like a luxury to converse with colleagues as passionate about a particular topic as we were. To have those conversations develop over the course of a year was even more exciting. Throughout 2005 we followed the theme of improvisation, questioning how the need to spontaneously adjust, adapt, and invent on the spur of the moment affects diasporic cultures.We took our 2005 theme from the form and concept of jazz. Although many view jazz as an undisciplined art form—one in which the artist feels free to improvise at will—in fact, when a musician impro- { 60 } vises he or she may play a random note on the chord, but underneath it all, the musician must know the structure of the music. As Barry Kernfeld notes in What to Listen for in Jazz, the form “amalgamates evolution . . . expansion . . . and synthesis.”1 Kernfeld’s description might be borrowed to describe the experience of improvisation in diasporic performance. Our contemporary performances of diasporic imaginings are improvisational riffs on what has gone before. Throughout 2005 our group collaborated on a series of essays and discussions that examined the tension between the chords and riffs in the texts and performances of communities in racial, national, and ethnic diasporas. How have diasporic communities used text to codify the performance of their identity, or how have they resisted efforts to contain their meanings within a more structured format? The inherent tension in this relationship is one that must lie within the very de¤nition of diaspora: a group whose movement is continual (and often uncharted) yet whose connections to that original “chord” remain the thread that anchors them and provides their meaning.Are diasporic cultures by their very nature improvisational, since they have so often been shaped and redirected by forces beyond their control, forced to adapt to new temporal, geographical , linguistic, spiritual, class, racial, and aesthetic boundaries? Process Our group met informally a number of times throughout 2005 (including gatherings at the International Federation for Theatre Research and the Association for Theatre in Higher Education), and we pre-circulated papers, comments, and questions via e-mail before the American Society for Theatre Research conference in November. We met in Toronto to continue our conversation and to help develop a group of essays for future publication. The articles that follow were among those that emerged from our November conversation. Several of the other projects we shared are currently under development.2 At the November meeting we used the pre-circulated essays as a launching pad for a discussion of improvisation in a diasporic context. We repeatedly returned to the question of how one traces both process and progress within a diasporic community, noting that the improvised quality of performance can blur the lines between tradition and assimilation. Members of the group acknowledged the ways in which the question of authenticity remains a challenging point in conversations about diasporic performances, suggesting that THE DIASPORIC IMAGINATION { 61 } successful/authentic performance may lie (as Joni Jones observed during our November meeting) in “a body knowing how to do”—a performative retention offering some link to a point of...