ABOUT Collapsible

Before I went to Kenya for the first time in 2011 my friend Michael Littig said, “You must read What is the What?” It is a beautiful, harrowing, powerful and ultimately uplifting story of one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. It was hard to read, and it taught me a great deal about Africa and America. I recommend the book without reservation.

When it came time to name the original show about identity we were creating to share with the refugees, I looked to a quote from the end of the book that I couldn’t get out of my mind. Since then I have referred to everything I have done with and for Africans as The Collapsible Space Between Us.

“Whatever I do, however I find a way to live, I will tell these stories. I have spoken to every person I have encountered these last difficult days…I speak to these people, and I speak to you because I cannot help it. It gives me strength, almost unbelievable strength, to know that you are there. I covet your eyes, your ears, the collapsible space between us. How blessed are we to have each other? I am alive and you are alive and so we must fill the air with our words. I will fill today, tomorrow, every day until I am taken back to God. I will tell stories to people who will listen and to people who don’t want to listen, to people who seek me out and to those who run. All the while I will know that you are there. How can I pretend that you do not exist? It would be almost as impossible as you pretending that I do not exist.”

-Dave Eggers
What is the What?
Achak Deng

I am indebted to Achak Deng for the inspiration to live better, to be braver, to cross borders and connect with others, as recounted in the brilliant What is the What? by Dave Eggers.

Click to SUPPORT Achak Deng’s Foundation
Click to purchase What is the What?