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ANUSHRAY SINGH
PERSONAL POETICS
I encountered the term “personal poetics” in Sukhmani Kohorana’s paper
on Crossover Cinema in which she frames South Asian and Western cross¬
cultural affinities as “not merely political but also personal/poetic.””” As an
Indian citizen residing in Canada, I often see my work as an extension of
my personal poetics: a postmodern/postcolonial performativity, challenging
stereotypes and perceptions about my South Asian identity. I reflect this in
my writing, films and media art; similarly, South Asian artists in Canada and
the broader Western world resonate what it means to be “brown” in their host
society. Similarly, through expressions rooted in mass-media products often
disseminated over the internet through social media platforms, many South
Asian artists in Canada express various notions attached to being an ethnic
immigrant in Canada. These enunciative practices help connect various modes
in a broader transnational network of South Asian diaspora dispersed across the
globe — often interrupting mainstream host cultures through their hybridity —
subsuming and performing identities through ambiguity in Third Space.
Indian-Punjabi origin Canadian actress Sareena Parmar often struggles to
negotiate her in-between identity, often perceived to “perform” her culture
through “bhangra dance” or “speaking Punjabi.” This raises a pertinent
question: Is cultural performativity of an immigrant based on the aspects
of culture one partakes in? Is it defined by what it means to be Indian or
Canadian? What if someone does not associate with stereotypical South Asian
or Canadian cultural aspects? Similarly, theatre director, Rohit Chokhani
questions “authenticity” and feels Canadians are searching for their identity,
especially immigrants like him, whose home is both India and Canada. Both
for Parmar and Chokhani, authenticity is reflected in the representation of
South Asians in various facets of cultures, it is not driven by tokenism but
through stories that make sense.** This bolsters authentic representations —
a multifaceted one with nuance — creating audiences both is the South Asian
diaspora and mainstream Canada to engage in a multicultural dialogue.
Desh Pardesh, a multidisciplinary arts festival that used to be organized
in Toronto annually (1982-2001) can be seen as the intersection of diasporic
transnationalism with the host cultures. It was a platform for personal artistic
expression of diasporic identities such as racialized minorities creating
LGBTQ+ positive space with anti-imperial, anti-colonial and anti-classist/
32 Sukhmani Khoranna, Crossover Cinema: Cross-Cultural Film from Production to Reception,
New York, Routledge, 2013, 3-15.
33 Tamara Baluja, I struggle with what to do with my Indian background: Actress cast in
Shakespeare set in South Asia, CBC.ca, 21 July 2020, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/
british-columbia/i-struggle-with-what-to-do-with-my-indian-background-actress-cast-in¬
shakespeare-play-set-in-south-asia-1.5218789 (accessed 1 April 2020).