Engender(ing) immigrant space: A praxis through collaborative storytelling and interactive documentary

Abstract

Immigrant space – a place of convergence of multiple movements – engenders through rhythms of the everyday and an art of inhabitation of its people. It comprises stories of resilience that must be amplified and celebrated, especially when they are at a threat of erasure on account of systemic and structural violence, and/or a lack of concerted effort to document them. Little Pakistan is one such immigrant space inhabited by Pakistani Americans in Brooklyn, New York City. In this article, I propose a framework titled ‘Engender(ing)’ for a rediscovery of meanings vested in immigrant space, explaining its emergence and expansion across forms, delimitations and associations. The framework is then applied through a confluence of collaborative storytelling and interactive documentary. The outcome, Little Pakistan – Future Histories, is an interactive documentary project presented as a case study, with people – artist, community, publics – assuming the role of ‘innovators of meanings’ to rediscover Little Pakistan as an ‘ensemble of meanings’. I infer that this framework and its praxis offer promise for future collaborative new media documentary practice and research in the context of other immigrant enclaves, neighborhoods and similarly structured spaces.