A Race So Different. Joshua Chambers-Letson
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+ the Machine, which became a central component of my writing ritual. Jonathan Cutler, Joe Fitzpatrick, and Miri Nakamura generously read and responded to earlier versions of this project, and their impact has been significant.
The English Department of the University of Cincinnati was a wonderful place to begin my career, and many of my interlocutors and colleagues fostered this work, including Myriam Chancy, Russel Durst, Jenn Glazer, Charles Henley, Emily Houh, Kristin Kalsem, Jon Kamholtz, Jana Leigh, Amy Lind, Furaha Norton, Stephanie Sadre-Orafai, Leah Stewart, Verna Williams, and Marisa Zapata.
I have learned so much from my students at all three institutions, especially the brilliant minds in my graduate seminars on Performing Racial Exception and Asian American Performance. I am particularly grateful to Kantara Soufrant and Mica Taliaferro, who provided invaluable research assistance for this book. I am so grateful to Meiver De la Cruz for being more of a miracle worker than a research assistant.
I do not think it is ever possible to repay the debt owed to one’s teachers, and this is especially true in the case of the Department of Performance Studies at NYU. José Muñoz is more than a mentor to me. He has opened up worlds, training me in the pleasures of rigorous thinking and helping me to keep the horizon of the not-yet-here in my back pocket always. Karen Shimakawa’s pedagogy, patience, and example continue to humble and inspire me. Ann Pellegrini challenged and encouraged me at every step, all the while reminding me that the best antidote to a sense of intellectual frustration is an hour or two with Judy Garland. Tavia Nyong’o set the bar high and continues to model a practice for surpassing it. Gayatri Gopinath and Kandice Chuh gave substantive critical feedback on the first incarnation of this project, and it is much the better for their impactful insights. Barbara Browning, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Richard Schechner, and Peggy Cooper Davis were key in helping me to learn how to think about performance and law. I will always be grateful to Noel Rodríguez and Patty Jang for their support and assistance.
I have tried not to write about the artists discussed herein but rather with and alongside them. I only hope this work is in some way worthy of Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, Ping Chong, Bruce Allardice and the crew at Ping Chong and Company, Dengue Fever and Josh Mills, Eric Owens, John Pirozzi, Hasan Elahi, and Emily Hanako Momohara. I would also like to thank the many institutions that assisted the realization of this book, including Jane Nakasako of the Hirasaki National Resource Center at the Japanese American National Museum, the Metropolitan Opera Archives, the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin, the Charles E. Young Research Library at UCLA, the New York Library of the Performing Arts, and the Tuol Sleng Genocide Center in Phnom Penh. I am also grateful to David Levin and the participants in the DAAD Faculty Summer Seminar at the University of Chicago.
An army of friends, comrades, and teachers acted as protective walls these many years. Jean Randich, Barrie Karp, and Judith Lane are three of the most remarkable teachers in the world. So much of what I have done in this book is a direct result of their influence. Christine Bacareza Balance, Alex Vasquez, and Shane Vogel are the greatest intellectual big siblings that a guy could have. I am also so grateful to Henry Abelove, Patrick Anderson, John Andrews, Sally Bachner, Anurima Banerji, Diego Benegas, Ricardo Bracho, Karen Bray, Katie Brewer-Ball, Nao Bustamante, Andre Carrington, Jamie Champlin, Erica Chenoweth, Patricia Clough, Michael Cobb, Jorge Cortiñas, Robert Diaz, Jennifer Doyle, Lisa Duggan, Keota Fields, Catherine Filloux, Diana Fox, Jane Guyer Fujita, Danielle Goldman, Raquel Gutiérrez, Kelly Haynes, Titcha Kedsri Ho, Stephani Hsu, Holly Hughes, Chloe Johnson, Joan Kee, Sue Kim, Nikki and Jocelyn Kuritsky, Esther Kim Lee, Deb Levine, Eng-beng Lim, Heather Lukes, Martin Manalansan, Anita Mannur, Uri McMillan, Shayoni Mitra, Ricardo Montez, Jeanne Moody, Charles Morcom, James Oliphint, David Pauley, Roy Pérez, Kenneth Pietrobono, Claire Potter, Jasbir Puar, Wallis Quaintance, Elliot Ramos, Joshua Roma, MJ Rubenstein, Sandra Ruiz, Russ Salmon, George Schein, Cathy Schlund-Vials, Shawn Schulenberg, Paul Scolieri, David Simon, Shante Smalls, Gus Stadler, Ryan Stubna, Alina Troyano, Jeanne Vaccaro, Hypatia Volourmis, Martin Waldmeier, Michael Wang, Phil Wells, Maya Winfrey, and Sam Wong.
Yves Winter is my favorite comrade and my best friend and is as a brother to me. So much of this book has been inspired by our exchanges, arguments, and rants. Katherine Lemons and Sonali Chakravarty, too, are everywhere on these pages, and I am so lucky to have them as part of my nonbiological family. I could not have asked for a better conspirator than Amy Tang. Miriam Petty’s brilliance, friendship, and laughter ring throughout these pages; she has become my rock. Riley Snorton’s generous feedback to various parts of this manuscript, his kinship, and our many conversations are woven across them. Jasmine Cobb astounds me with her intellect, and nothing else needs to be said beyond “I know.” Ricky Rodríguez’s mind amazes me, and I can think of no better friend with whom to keep the corner warm at Lil Jim’s. Julia Steinmetz taught me to be a fit lay-dee. Trish Henley, my sister-wife in the attic, offered intellectual companionship and close friendship when it was most needed. Chris Gallahan is my favorite viper squirrel. Michelle Salerno has been a source of intellectual engagement and loving support for over a decade, and I am looking forward to many more.
NYU Press is the perfect home for this project. Eric Zinner is an amazing editor, and I do not know how he transformed these scraps of thoughts into a book, but I am so very grateful to him for it. Josephine Lee’s work inspired me to enter the field, and I could not be more humbled to be the beneficiary of her amazing critical feedback. Another anonymous reviewer offered extraordinary advice, and I am ever in your debt. I am so lucky that Karen Tongson and Henry Jenkins were willing to take this project into their series. Karen’s critical guidance has been invaluable throughout. Tim Roberts has been a great shepherd for this project, and Andrew Katz’s eye is much appreciated. Finally, I am thankful to Ciara McClaughlin and Alicia Nadkarni for their wisdom and assistance.
This book is written under the sign of those who have gone before, including my late grandfather George Letson, Eve Sedgwick, and Randy Wray. Sam Pedraza sat in the Saloon, cried with me to Michael Jackson’s “Will You Be There” after MJ’s death, and was there in my darkest hours. Sam’s death came in the last stages of preparing this book. He’s taken an important part of my world with him. I wish that we could talk about it, but there, that’s the problem . . . I will love and miss him forever.
Finally, whatever merits can be found herein belong entirely to my family. My parents, Shadi and Bill Letson, have nurtured and supported me at every turn in my life, and I simply cannot find the right way to express how much I adore and love them. May this book be a small token. My grandparents Tatsuko and Cleo Chambers and Betty Letson are the reason that I write toward a better world: because they made this a better one for us. My precious Auntie and Uncle, Dr. Shadoan Chambers-Corkrum and Dr. Bob Corkrum, inspired me to pursue a PhD, and they are second parents to me. Although I wish I could name every member of my giant family, I am grateful in particular to Jeannie and Robin Ballard, Sonia, Jeff, and Chad Hinkley, Brenda and Tom Maw, Stacey and Dave Letson, Corey and Tammy Bendetti, Mika and Gabo Mateos, Takao and Mika Yoshikawa, Midori Ikemoto, Toshiko Morinaka, Gwen Chambers, and Christian and Derrick Hodge. Joshua Rains is my greatest source of support and the love of my life. You have filled my world with so much love and carried me when I could not walk any further on my own. Thank you is not enough. Momo is a welcome addition to our weird family. Lastly, the great and powerful Izumi is the best companion in the world, and I could not have written this without her encouragement, barking, and willingness to keep my feet warm as I worked. She is staring at me right now. We are going to take a long-deferred walk along the lake.
A different version of chapter 2 first appeared in MELUS: Journal of the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States 36, no. 4 (Winter 2011), edited by Tina Chen, and is reprinted by permission of the journal.
A version of chapter 5 first appeared in Journal of Popular Music Studies 23, no. 3 (2011), edited by Gus Stadler and Karen Tongson, and is reprinted by permission of the journal.
Introduction: Performance, Law, and the Race So Different
Bashir, a former Guantánamo detainee from Pakistan, stands across the stage from Alice, his former interrogator. It is fifteen years after his time in Guantánamo. She does not recognize him, having taken pills to suppress the memories of her work in the prison. The