Now, CGD Development Matters Meetups

The more than 80 events that CGD hosts each year include a wide variety of formats and range in size from those whose participants can fit around our conference table to audiences of more than 300. Our occasional Development Matters series has focused on popular culture treatments of development, such as books and movies. We also host CGD Meetups, monthly evening activities for people who want to combine some social networking with learning about development.As popular culture has become increasingly engaged with global issues (we've seen it in mainstream cinema -- from Babel to Blood Diamond, as well as development-themed books like The Kite Runner that stay on the New York Times bestseller list for months), we have decided there is sufficient fare to merge these two types of events into the newly dubbed CGD Development Matters Meetup. The first of this new series took place last week and featured Ghanaian filmmaker Kobina Aidoo.Aidoo screened his new documentary, The Neo African Americans (watch YouTube preview) which explores how the rapid immigration from Africa and the Caribbean (about 3 million black Americans are foreign born) is transforming the African American narrative. The impact of migration, cultural and otherwise, is a topic of interest to many of us at CGD in part because of Michael Clemens' ongoing work on Migration and Development.With a background at both Harvard's Kennedy School and Warner Brothers, Aidoo asks the immigrant subjects in his documentary pointedly: Are you African American? The answers, after an initial silent pause, are complicated and varied. One woman responds that she is a "true African American" while another comments on how others see her as "not 'regular' black."Part of the difficulty is language itself -- as evidenced by the confusion interviewees demonstrate when asked how they would "label" themselves. Even with Aidoo providing various boxes to check off -- including, among others, "African American," "(African) (American)," "African African American," and simply "A Person," there is hesitation and ambivalence about which label to choose.The Meetup audience's reaction to the film was equally complex, with praise for Aidoo's attempts to bring this difficult, and often polarizing, discussion into the debate space while others in the remarkably diverse audience articulated their own personal struggles to understand a complicated identity.Aidoo's provocative documentary and the lively discussion that followed was a vivid reminder for me of the power of film to address, question and reflect development issues that need attention and examination. While here at CGD we mostly do this through rigorous academic research, we also recognize that research does not exist in a vacuum but is part of the larger social and cultural context in which we all live.If you are not already part of our Development Meetup network, I hope you will consider joining us. Events are posted monthly to MeetUp and are also included in the CGD online calendar. However, unlike the policy-oriented events typically held during daylight hours, we do not send CGD e-mail invitations for MeetUps. I'd welcome your suggestions for future topics for our newly christened CGD Development Matters Meetup.