Appaq Kelin: 'American Blackness' in the Kazazh Cultural Production

• In Event: Liberatory Antagonisms in Labor and Cultural Production in Central Asia

Abstract

This article examines the Kazakh YouTube series Appaq Kelin, which surrounds the life of
Kamazhai and her new Kelin, Leah, who is a Black American woman and the small dramas that
ensue in Kamazhai’s village after Leah’s arrival. Fatima Kubali, an Afro-Kazakh actress who
plays the part of Leah, and her performance of “American Blackness” invites further inquiry into how blackness functions as a signifier in the context of Central Asia. Kubali’s performance not only highlights the ways blackness is conceptualized and constructed through cultural production, but also how notions of blackness recreate spatial difference– “imaginary west” in contrast to the Kazakh village (Nassey-Brown 2005, Yurchak 2005).

Author

• Alexa L Kurmanov, UC Berkeley