#aapi history month

We’re streaming with other AMAZING AAPI creators at 3PM EST! See you on our Youtube and Twitch channels! 

We’re chatting with: 

• Tracey Nguyen - a social impact leader and the Founder and Chief Storyteller of the award-winning podcast, Vietnamese Boat People and the non-profit Vietnameseboatpeople.org.
• Keith Chow - the creator of Hard NOC Media and the host of the Southern Fried Asian podcast and the Hard N.O.C. Life podcast.
• Lee Uehara - is the creator of the House of NYC podcast and co-founder of Asian American Podcasters Association and the Golden Crane Podcast Awards. 
• John Zhu - created and hosts the Chinese literature podcasts Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin.

Come join in and chat everywhere we stream! You can also check out the official channels for the stream as well. 

New Digital Collection: Desi Wisconsin, 1950-79

Today the UWM Libraries officially launch the Desi Wisconsin Digital Collection!  The collection contains oral history interviews and photographs documenting the experiences of some of the first South Asian immigrants to Wisconsin.  Here is a brief description from the collection’s webpage:

“Whether it was segregation in the 1950s or the cultural and political tumult of the 1960s and 1970s, South Asian immigrants to Wisconsin confronted a world fundamentally alien to that they had left behind. Neither black or white, these individuals managed to raise families and often succeeded in their careers. From a few dozen students, professionals, and businessmen and their families who settled in Wisconsin, the presence of South Asian immigrants grew exponentially as they became tightly integrated in the fabric of their communities. The journey to develop a distinct identity as South Asian Americans in Wisconsin over the course of decades is highlighted in this collection of oral histories from some of the first South Asian immigrants to Wisconsin.”

The black and white photograph from 1955 featured above shows Joni and Chandra Raja outside St Luke’s Hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and was shared by Sharath Raja as part of an oral history interview with Lajwanti Waghray.  Sharath Raja’s full interview and collection of photographs can be found in the Desi Wisconsin Digital Collection.