PHPM03: How do we decide where “from” is?

Posted by DIM on August 20, 2006

  • Date: Saturday, August 12, 2006
  • Location: Market-Frankford El, Philadelphia
  • Managing Director:
    Director of the Dept. for the Investigation of Meaning (DIM)
  • Attending Directors:
    Director of the Dept. for the Investigation of Neutrality (DIN)
    Director of the Dept. for the Investigation of the Unmentionable (DIUM)
    Director of the Dept. for the Investigation of the Unthinkable (DIUT)
  • Director In Absentia:
    Director of the Dept. for the Investigation of the Structure of Expectations (DISE)

A conversation in public transit, whereby, being both stationary and mobile, we begin to unpack our identity bags. Unpack, that is, our notions about what it means to localize one’s identity in a place, in being “from.” This is turf, the ‘hood, the ‘burbs, the streets, ownership & agency, boundaries, roots, nomadism, isolationism, us v. them, outsider/insider, trespassers & interlopers, homeboys & homegirls, cosmopolitanism, provincialism.

Where are you from and why are you from there?

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KEYWORDS: gentrification, identity, phpm, place