"The Eviction" by YaliniDream

DESCRIPTION
This poem was written by YaliniDream in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the 1983 anti-Tamil pogroms in Sri Lanka. While the writing refers to these pogroms as "Black July" it is important to note that YaliniDream no longer uses such language to describe the pogroms due to the racialized repercussions of associating negativity and tragedy with the color black. The poem details how people across ethnic identities navigated conflicting politics in order to support one another. For example, the poem details a Sinhalese man who goes through great risks from his own family for providing safety to Tamils during the pogroms. The poem complicates the essentialized narratives of ethnic conflict that situate two ethnic groups as against one another, providing a counter-narrative in which people from the same ethnicity can be at odds with one another with violent repercussions.

This poem is an important contribution to the SAADA Archival Creators Fellowship Project on Ilankai Tamil Feminism because it is an example of YaliniDream's body of work, which has consistently introduced nuance to IIlankai Tamil American political discourse, thereby complicating the hegemonic nationalism that has characterized the diaspora for decades. In place of nationalism, YaliniDream's creative work emphasizes the landscape of marginalized emotions and traumas experienced by people whose stories are often not told at the behest of upholding hegemony.

ADDITIONAL METADATA
Date: July 2008
Subject(s): YaliniDream
Type: Text
Source: Archival Creators Fellowship Program
Creator: Kartik Amarnath
Contributor: YaliniDream

PROVENANCE
Collection: Kartik Amarnath Fellowship project
Donor: YaliniDream
Item History: 2022-07-08 (created); 2022-07-12 (modified)

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