A Line Between Integration and Diaspora #2 by Sinejan Kılıç Buchina

2003 by Shanshan Chan

for example // Grandma drops older beta into younger beta’s
bowl /watch them /or walk away / until one dies / one glass
bowl / two tails flashing with passing cars // my night-time
sneak up // their frantic bodies /no witness / each other as
witness // vic / i / too / filming a fight “for fun”/ for
freedom / really / contest each other’s robes in the dark //
beta / beta /becoming alpha // the ribbon-tying of body
parts // for example elbows / knees // for example /soft
insoles / the dirty floor nails we neglect // also // inhale dusty
paint // grasp for breath // 2003 / for example // no senses /
all senses / no beta fish / now beta fish

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Shanshan Chan is a writer interested in crossing boundaries, melding boundaries, when intersectional identities force construction of new language, new rules, new ways of being. She is influenced by ideas of auto-theory and finds inspiration in her heritage, sexuality, culturally subversive modalities of healing, of food/flavor, and the communities she engages with every day.

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Sinejan Kılıç Buchina is a NY based artist and visual instructor. She is of Circassian-Abkhazian ancestry, born in Turkey. She received her B.F.A. in Art in Istanbul, and continued her education with programs in London and Berlin, and completed her MA in New York. Buchina has exhibited in galleries and institutions throughout New York, London and Istanbul, and is currently working on evolving projects in New York, Sukhum and Istanbul.