Project

For a Home

For a Home is an inquiry into the lives of Bengali immigrants residing in Jackson Heights, NY.

According to NYCgo, Jackson Heights is a melting pot. It has the making of a truly stunning neighborhood. However, the residents of Jackson Heights, especially those who are Bengali are impoverished.

Most families reside in a small one- bedroom apartment. But the four walls do not define their home. Their apartment buildings and streets become their homes. They occupy every corner and leave their imprint on every corner.

With this in mind a a photo essay was created documenting the homes of these Bengali immigrants. Although the series strictly focuses on Bengali homes, it resonates with immigrants from all over.

Projects

Belongings

Belongings is the first publication released on behalf of Being Bengali.

It is a collection of transnational poetry by Thahitun Mariam, a Bengali writer and activist. The poetry is used as a tool to help bridge facets of Bangladeshi identity in relation to migration, diaspora and the arts.

The first edition of the publication was sent to the Odds and Ends Book Fair 2017. The proceeds from the publication went to the funding of the Bangladesh Library Project. Which was a project that began in 2014 as an initiative to build a library on the school grounds of The Principle Mohammad Hossain and Mosammat Khatun Junior High School in Goalpara Bazar, Jhenidah, Bangladesh. The idea was to provide educational resources to the schoolchildren and larger community. The library was successfully built due to immense generosity of contributors and well-wishers.

The project is now collecting funds to provide books for the library, as well as furniture (bookshelves, cabinets, benches), toys/athletic equipments (football, cricket, badminton, ludo, karam board, bagadoli) and arts + crafts materials for the students.

Being Bengali Launch Party

December 1st, 2017 marked the beginning of our organization, Being Bengali.

We invited Jhal NYC up from NYC to celebrate the launch! They brought Jhalmuri, and Puchka to our students and educated them about Bengali street food.