What if There’s Greater Intimacy in the Collective?

In this research note, I track the reflective process of creating and facilitating a workshop series in Amman, Jordan, as a way in which to explore the (re)creation, (re)construction, and (re)negotiation of understandings of Palestinian cultural heritage and identity. The workshop centers around the idea of materiality from the Palestinian homes in Amman being framed as a “material witness” of exile. These material witnesses become an access point into the individual versus the larger transnational exilic experience. I introduce the idea of playing within a participatory heritage framework and how, by starting with the material witnesses from houses in Amman today, it enables a discussion on the modalities of exile, local identity formation, and the performativity of memory as part of an ongoing creative process of meaning-making. I also draw out discussions of playing with my own methodology practice and what it means for future research.