Coolie Art Forms of Guyana Front and Interior Panels
Rajkumari Singh produced an evening of dance, song, poetry, plays and art to celebrate the reinvented cultural traditions of indentured Indians in Guyana. "Coolie Art Forms of Guyana" included a reading of her poem "Per Ajie." The program contained an ad from rum-maker D'Aguiar's, which promises a "bellyful of happiness."
Kokila Bahadur Guyana Passport
Kokila Bahadur came as a nurse trainee at the Jersey City Medical Center in 1966, the year of Guyana's independence. The first in the Bahadur family to immigrate, Kokila Bahadur sponsored her husband, children and many dozens of other relatives through provisions of the 1965 Hart-Cellar Act, the immigration law that profoundly changed the demographics of the United States.
Salima and Aliyah Khan Oral History Interview
Salima Khan, a high school teacher and college adjunct lecturer in Queens, converses with her daughter Aliyah, an associate professor of English Literature at the University of Michigan and author of Far From Mecca: Globalizing the Muslim Caribbean.
Laparkan Business Card
The company Laparkan, employer of Aliyah's father, shipped the many things --- from dolls to books --- that the Khans carried from Guyana to the United States in 1992.
Islamic Prayer Pamphlet Cover
The Khan family carried this prayer guidebook printed by the Ahmadiyya Anjuman, the reformist movement led in Guyana by Aliyah's grandfather, to the United States.
Religion, A Force for Unity
This clip of a newspaper article brought by the Khan family shows Aliyah's grandfather Mohamed Rasheed greeting Guyanese President Desmond Hoyte at the opening of the Masjid Dar Salaam, headquarters for Guyana's Ahmadiyya Anjuman.
The Muslim Times
Aliyah's grandfather Mohamed Rasheed, a religious leader, published The Muslim Times as a newsletter for the Ahmadiyya community in the country.
Women's Section, Ahmadiyya Anjuman Masjid, Guyana
This photo of the women's section at an Ahmadiyya Anjuman masjid in Wakenaam, Guyana, was taken during Eid in the 1960s. The Khan family brought it with them to the United States.
Salima and Aliyah Khan, Small Days Photo
This picture of Salima and Aliyah Khan together in Guyana in the 1980s was among the many things they carried from Guyana, including a collection of dolls puchased from across the world, Enid Blyton and Hardy Boys books, an urni that Aliyah wore as a child in masjid, her brother's Islamic skullcap, pamphlets and documents, crystal and household wares.
Sheorani and Kamelia Kilawan Oral History
Sheorani Kilawan, a claims supervisor at the New York State Insurance Fund, speaks with her daughter Kamelia Kilawan, a journalist who worked most recently for Al Jazeera English in Qatar, at their family home in South Ozone Park, Queens.
