We are very excited to tell you about two fascinating oral history projects that members of our BCLP leadership team have helped to make possible:
Dougla Lives: At the Intersections
This project, a part of SAADA (South Asian American Digital Archive), was curated by our teammate Aleah N. Ranjitsingh. Check out the site here for a variety of interviews on what is means to be Dougla, or in the project’s words:
“Dougla Lives: At the Intersections” centers the Dougla, that is, the Caribbean person of mixed African and Indian descent. The Dougla emerged through the meeting and sexual unions between the African and the Indian—two presumably pure ethnic groups, who were transported to the Caribbean region as slave and indentured labor. Through their own voice, Douglas in the United States share stories of how they maneuver their experiences of mixedness in a space where racial systems and processes of racialization, racial quantification and stratification vary from those in the homeland, and where the rules of hypodescent apply.
Disruptive Engagement: Oral Histories of Anti-Displacement Organizing in New York City
The second collection we’d like to highlight project is described like this on its website:
This participatory oral history project documents histories and struggles of housing and land-use organizers from across New York City.
Check out the collaborative interviews here, which were conducted by a team that includes the BCLP’s Naomi Schiller.