Poetic Resistance: Karen Long-Distance Nationalism, Rap Music, and YouTube

This article investigates a concern among encamped elder Karen refugees (an ethnic minority from Myanmar) living along the Thai-Myanmar border that the youth are disconnected politically and culturally. I argue that Karen youth are creative, active participants reimagining and revitalising Karen politics and culture in their image. I explore how displaced youths have found a voice in Karen rap and how they express this voice in the digitally mediated lived space of YouTube. I consider YouTube as a lived space where citizenship is re-imagined and long-distance nationalism is articulated. Finally, I contend that YouTube is transforming Karen youths’ political experiences and mobility and that they are actively political - just not in the way the elders expect.