Stranger Tickets

Since the birth of our nation, we’ve grappled with the uncomfortable question of who gets to be American and why. My ancestors came over on the Mayflower; yours made the “middle passage” on a slave ship. Your grandparents were interned in a prison camp during WWII; you serve in the U.S. Army today. My older sister can be deported because she was born before our parents crossed the border, but I’m a citizen because I was born here. Our declaration says all men are created equal; our pledge to the flag says we are one nation, indivisible—so why do so many of us still hyphenate our nationality? Whether you were born in Sarah Palin’s “real America,” The Daily Show’s “fake America” or somewhere in between, what does being American mean to you?

Commissioned by Richard Hugo House, writers Alan Chong Lau, Victor LaValle and Debra Magpie Earling, joined by rapper Khingz, premiere new work on the theme Born in the U.S.A. as part of the Hugo Literary Series.