Minneapolis-based poet/writer/actor/educator/hip-hopper Robert Karimi has made an artistic career out of exploring his mixed identity: "There's no Iranian/Guatemalan handbook," he said. Saturday, you can catch Karimi's acclaimed one-man performance at the Playwrights' Center. Karimi tells his story through a variety of spoken-word and acting pieces while his DJ, D Double, provides the soundtrack -- everything from classical Iranian and Guatemalan music to Tom Jones, the Clash, De La Soul, Prince and N.W.A. Karimi provides numerous examples of ways others have tried to attach identity to him. Take his experience as an 8-year-old in Catholic school during the 1979 U.S. hostage crisis in Iran. He remembers being taken out of a class photo that his teachers were planning to send to a hostage because "they felt it might be offensive to include me."
It’s too soon to tell how much the immigration crackdown is to blame.
