Being the “Other”: Naomi Wallace and The Middle East

Abstract

I first read and then saw In the Heart of America as a 21-year-old student. The play entered my life at a moment when, as a Palestinian-American, I found myself alienated, angry, and without hope in a post-9/11 United States overflowing with war, racism, and torture. I was struck by Naomi Wallace’s masterful and poetic storytelling. It was revelatory to see an American writer tackle the Middle East and the ever-taboo subject of Palestine with such nuance and imagination and at the same time such a fierce sense of justice and such a firm and courageous grasp on history. To connect the Gulf War with Palestine and Vietnam as well as with racism and homophobia in the United States, as Naomi does so seamlessly in In the Heart of America, was to me a subversive act of solidarity and a stroke of genius.

Ismail Khalidi is a poet, actor, and playwright whose plays include Truth Serum Blues, Final Status, and Tennis in Nablus, which premiered at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta in 2010. He is currently co-editing an anthology of Palestinian plays and, with Naomi Wallace, adapting Ghassan Kanafani’s Return to Haifa for the stage. He holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and serves on the board of the Friends of Jenin Freedom Theatre.