“i have often wondered what resides in an accent. is it a presence - an identity, a trajectory, a history? or is it rather an absence - an estrangement, a withdrawal, a blank space refusing to be filled? and are we immigrants synonymous to our accents? or are we, or can we ever aspire to be, more than that? this is not to deny that our accents are fundamentally important to who we are, and they are near and dear to our hearts. they are an inextricable trace of the paths we have travelled, the loves we have loved and never forgotten, the scars we still carry and which still hurt. but that doesn't mean we are from our accents.”