The Stories of Others, the Stories of Us

I'm currently on a bus in New Jersey on my way to NYC after a beautiful sojourn through Northeastern PA. The Fall weather is breathtaking. I really miss it so much after living in Northern California for two years.

Plug for awesome little sister here

I am also stoked that this bus has wifi, which I discovered late into my journey...though maybe that was a good thing. I was actually able to take in the landscape instead of doing e-stuff.

Rohingya woman and child

I mostly took this trip out here to visit my sister for her birthday, but I am working as well. On Sunday I am meeting up with a Rohingya man originally from Burma who contacted me via facebook after checking out the different stories and photos I took of  Burmese activists in the Bay Area. I knew little about the Rohingya peoples and their plight, but I have been reading up on them lately to learn more. It has been a fascinating and sad process to learn of the oppressions this ethnic group has faced for so many years. But I want to hear his story, I want to hear directly from a Rohingya person to begin to know about him and his people.

In the past few months, I have listened to so many stories. Some from my new jobs (yes I have more than one now) where I am interviewing different people from Asian communities in the Bay Area and also from many students I interact with at the English Center, another non profit I work for. Everyone has a story and though I have my blogs, I have unfortunately been so busy of late that I have not had the time to write these narratives up. Hopefully this will change once I get a little better at time management ;-)

I have spoken with former youth gang members, who have overcome and are still overcoming hardships to reach their goals. I feel inspired by them but I am also worried, I'm scared that they may get cut down before their dreams take flight.

I recently met a young man from Sri Lanka who had his arm in a sling and found out that he had been injured in a bomb blast. He slowly lifted his sleeve to show me the scars of the attack, his skin-directly-on-bone upper arm with missing chunks of flesh that though healed, still cause so much pain.

Iranian Protestor 2009

I listened to stories of young activists who have been brutalized, tortured, stabbed and almost murdered in Iranian prisons. I have been told of great migrations taken by young men who hoped to save their lives, while leaving their loved ones and beloved lands behind.

author of Donkey Heart, Monkey Mind

Even while out celebrating with a friend during happy hour, I ran into a stranger who handed me a book that he had written called Donkey Heart, Monkey Mind. I went home and read it, and cried as I took in images of severe torture, fear and hope that the author relayed in his story of Algeria, and its brutal suppression of the Berber minority. It was his story and I was grateful that he shared it with me.

The Bay Area is rich in diversity with its many immigrant communities. Many of their lives play out like an Oscar winning film, a heart wrenching documentary, or a massive article out of Time magazine. But these people are real and they live next door or make your sandwiches or prescribe medication when you are sick. They may be your parents, your cousins, your friends...you.

I have recently started to work at an organization that is looking to capture some of these stories through articles and photographs. I am grateful for this opportunity. As much as I love to talk, I also love to listen, share, learn and most importantly connect to human beings from all all over the earth. I have some more ideas of how to capture these stories, but I am trying to take things one step at a time.

Why do these stories matter? Who cares? Well outside of me, I'm not sure who cares, but it matters to me because every story told is a life uncovered, a violation uncovered, a brutality uncovered, inspiration uncovered. I may not be able to bring justice to oppressive situations around the world, but I can help give people a voice by being a conduit of information, empathy and understanding.

Maybe learning and connecting peoples' stories can change the world and bring justice to atrocities that may never find justice in courts. Giving word and sound to a situation gives it justice in my opinion, even in a small way, it names oppressions and exposes them.

Yes, yes it is..

Brown people STAND UP - Part 1

Last week I attended the SAALT Summit in Washington DC. SAALT is the acronym for South Asian Americans Leading Together, a group I affectionately describe as "the NAACP for Brown people". They do work from a social justice and civil rights framework and every two years they bring together South Asian activists, advocates and community members from all over the country for the summit.
I went to my first summit two years ago, when I worked as an advocate at Manavi, an NJ based organization that works to end violence against women in the South Asian community. This year however, I was representing myself and my blog Us Ordinary People, which I would be discussing at a panel session . This was my first time being a panelist at a conference so I was super excited.
The main theme at this years Summit was the 10 year anniversary of September 11 and what has changed in these 10 years. The issues that plagued the South Asian community when 9/11 hit are sadly the same issues today. Islamaphobia is rampant, and the recent shooting and deaths of two elderly Sikh men in Sacramento was one incident that highlighted this. Though the mood of the conference was friendly and unified, I sensed a somber air during the weekend. Issues regarding the rising number of deportations and the cutting down of labor rights added the sense of overwhelming odds for the movement as a whole. During my panel on community documenting, the need to document the stories of individuals and communities facing these issues was apparent. Alongside me in my panel were Dinu Ahmed and Moumita Zaman from Khadija's Caravan, an organization that provides photography workshop series for young Muslim youth in NYC, and Luna Ranjit from Aadikar, a Nepali human rights organization. All three of us were providing documentation in different ways, but the need was clear. If we did not provide the opportunity to tell these stories, then perhaps nobody would. I went to a few other workshops, but I must say that the highlight of my day was just lounging around with other activists. I made new friends, reconnected with people I knew before and I took a TON of pictures (as usual). I met the other co founder of NYTWA, Javaid Tariq, and we shared our love of photography and human rights. Seriously, with my hectic East coast trip, it was nice to just relax for a bit and actually connect with people, which I don't think always happens at conferences. I also loved listening to people tell me about their work, the passion behind what they do is apparent and it really pushes me to work towards my passions to help others as well.

The next day had some open circle discussions and roundtables with government agencies such as Homeland Security and the Department of Justice. I always love the open sessions at the Summit. It's really a chance to sort of kick back, sit in a circle and just share different perspectives. I attended an open space session on art due to my interest in photography. From radio hosts, filmmakers and playwrights, it was an awesome session where I was able to exchange e-mails and ideas with other artists. Afterward I attended the government roundtables, focusing on the ones relating to Immigration and Civil Rights Issues. I often wish that there was some way to work with the government instead of feeling like I am constantly fighting against government policies and budget cuts. I do feel that SAALT is taking the right steps to build those bridges between government and civic groups, this bridge building could be seen at the roundtables, as well as the next and final day of the summit, where summit attendees were able to advocate on capital hill at the house of representatives.

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