Desi in Philly: A Community Photo Project
JULY 13, 2015
Contact:
Samip Mallick
Executive Director, SAADA
July 13, 2015 (Philadelphia, PA) -- Today, the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA), a Philadelphia-based 501(c)(3) national non-profit organization, announced the launch of a new community photo project titled “Desi in Philly: The Life of an Immigrant Community.” This project will provide South Asian American immigrants and refugees in Philadelphia an opportunity to help showcase the diversity and depth of South Asian American experiences in the city. South Asian America includes those in the U.S. who trace their heritage to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Maldives, and many South Asian diaspora communities around the world. “Desi in Philly” allows these communities a chance to communicate their individual experiences with the wider public in Philadelphia and hopes to spark cross-cultural dialogue. The project consists of three core components: photographing, presenting, and preserving images.
Over the course of its one-month community photo project, SAADA will recruit at least 30 South Asian American participants residing across the Philadelphia area to submit photographs on five themes central to their lives: home, family, work, play, and memories. Photographing these themes is left up to the participants interpretation and imagination. Online photo submissions (at http://www.saada.org/desiphilly) will be accepted from July 15, 2015 to August 12, 2015. After the month-long photothon, SAADA will host a reception in which participants will be invited to share their photographs, experiences, and reflections. Submitted photographs will be made available online to the public on SAADA’s website, which had more than 164,000 visitors from around the world in the last year alone.
The “Desi in Philly” project will empower South Asian Americans in Philadelphia to see themselves as agents, creators, artists, thinkers, and contributors to the city and to nurture a sense of Philadelphia as home. Because the stories of South Asian Americans are often erased from public consciousness, this project is an exciting and important step toward greater visibility, self-representation, and community dialogue.
This project is supported in part by the Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts program of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. Support is also provided by PECO. This program is administered regionally by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance.
About SAADA
SAADA is the South Asian American Digital Archive, an innovative grassroots non-profit organization with a mission to document, preserve, and share stories of South Asian Americans. Since its founding in 2008, SAADA has built the largest publicly accessible collection of materials related to the experiences of South Asians in the United States, all made freely available to the public online through its website. The archive has had more than 164,000 visitors from around the world in the last year alone and materials from the archive have been used extensively by scholars, researchers, students, and artists in books, journal articles, documentary films, and a variety of creative works.
Samip Mallick
Executive Director, SAADA
July 13, 2015 (Philadelphia, PA) -- Today, the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA), a Philadelphia-based 501(c)(3) national non-profit organization, announced the launch of a new community photo project titled “Desi in Philly: The Life of an Immigrant Community.” This project will provide South Asian American immigrants and refugees in Philadelphia an opportunity to help showcase the diversity and depth of South Asian American experiences in the city. South Asian America includes those in the U.S. who trace their heritage to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Maldives, and many South Asian diaspora communities around the world. “Desi in Philly” allows these communities a chance to communicate their individual experiences with the wider public in Philadelphia and hopes to spark cross-cultural dialogue. The project consists of three core components: photographing, presenting, and preserving images.
Over the course of its one-month community photo project, SAADA will recruit at least 30 South Asian American participants residing across the Philadelphia area to submit photographs on five themes central to their lives: home, family, work, play, and memories. Photographing these themes is left up to the participants interpretation and imagination. Online photo submissions (at http://www.saada.org/desiphilly) will be accepted from July 15, 2015 to August 12, 2015. After the month-long photothon, SAADA will host a reception in which participants will be invited to share their photographs, experiences, and reflections. Submitted photographs will be made available online to the public on SAADA’s website, which had more than 164,000 visitors from around the world in the last year alone.
The “Desi in Philly” project will empower South Asian Americans in Philadelphia to see themselves as agents, creators, artists, thinkers, and contributors to the city and to nurture a sense of Philadelphia as home. Because the stories of South Asian Americans are often erased from public consciousness, this project is an exciting and important step toward greater visibility, self-representation, and community dialogue.
This project is supported in part by the Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts program of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. Support is also provided by PECO. This program is administered regionally by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance.
About SAADA
SAADA is the South Asian American Digital Archive, an innovative grassroots non-profit organization with a mission to document, preserve, and share stories of South Asian Americans. Since its founding in 2008, SAADA has built the largest publicly accessible collection of materials related to the experiences of South Asians in the United States, all made freely available to the public online through its website. The archive has had more than 164,000 visitors from around the world in the last year alone and materials from the archive have been used extensively by scholars, researchers, students, and artists in books, journal articles, documentary films, and a variety of creative works.