A chat with Lakshmi Menon from the Indo-American Heritage Museum

Lakshmi Menon, one of the board members at the Indo-American Heritage Museum, recently took time out to answer some questions about the Indo-American Heritage Museum (IAHM) and its relationship with the Chicago Cultural Alliance. Her answers are below:

The Indo-American Heritage Museum was just recently awarded 501(c)3 [a federal non-for-profit] status, and though shares the same space as the Indo-American Center, the Museum is a different organization. Their mission statement is to promote understand of the diversity, history and culture of Indian Americans. The museum serves the Indian American community as well as members of wider society, such as school groups, universities, and professional groups though the museum itself represents people who came from India to the United States and settles in Chicago.

The IAHM serves the community by helping document the experiences of the early immigrants from India. Their cultural outreach and educational programs promote understanding of the community and appreciation of the culture. The IAHM's work with schools and with tour groups helps to raise awarness of other cultures and enhances the image of Chicago as a global city that welcomes diverse tradition. The IAHM also nutures interest in the artistic expression of the immigrant experience by organizing programs featuring the work of Indian American artists.

For Lakshmi personally, the most rewarding part of her work with the Indo-American Heritage Museum has been the opportunity to interact with people from a variety of other cultures, other walks of life and of all ages. Their work is creating a positive impact on their interests and in acceptance of persons of Indian origin in this country.

The relationship between the Indo-American Heritage Museum and the Chicago Cultural Alliance is important because the Alliance allows the smaller museums to share resources and knowledge and widens the reach of these museums. The IAHM shares the ideals of the Alliance to to create public understanding of cultural diversity.

The relationship is growing further with the two representatives from the Indo-American Heritage Museum being training in dialogue facilitation is conjunction with the Chicago Cultural Alliance Talking Im/migration programming.

Talking Im/migration Facilitator Training Workshop

On Monday, May 18, 2009 the Chicago Cultural Alliance's first facilitator training workshop for the Talking Im/migration series happened at The Field Museum. This all day event was attending by representatives from the four pilot sites for the Talking Im/migration dialogues, the Cambodian American Heritage Museum, Polish Museum of America, the Swedish American Museum, and the Chicago Japanese American Historical Society. These four sites will be putting together 2 dialogues each with their community on immigration. Also in attendance was representatives from the facilitating members, who were there to be trained to assist the pilot sites in facilitating their dialogues. The Indo-American Heritage Museum, the American Indian Center, Bronzeville Historical Society, and Chinese-American Museum of Chicago, will be the four facilitating members.

The workshop ran from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm and many topics were covered. A review of articles on immigration and civic engagement started a great discussion amongst the group. A trip into the museum to the thresholds case was an illustration of different object related to different immigrant and cultural experiences. The workshop concluded with the facilitator training and general outreach strategies. The 4 pilot sites will now have to hold two dialogues over the summer with people from their community who do not normally participate with their organization. This is an exciting capacity building program developed through the Chicago Cultural Alliance with the support of The Field Museum.

Meet Ritwik

My name is Ritwik Banerji and I have worked with the Chicago Cultural Alliance through the Indo-American Center, Indo-American Heritage Museum, and as a board member of the Alliance. Given the number of entities I have just named, I would like to say that my relationship with the Alliance has been as gratifying as it is confusing to explain to other people!

For the past two years, I have been working at the Indo-American Center as their youth program coordinator. Unlike the CCA, the Indo-American Center is an organization primarily focused on social services, rather than arts or culture programming. While most of our programs focus on social service needs of our community, a few programs, including ESL, seniors, and youth, always seem to be a space where culture is very much a part of us providing a quality social service. In this capacity, the youth program became more engaged in the work of the CCA. A highlight of this work was the gardening project of last summer where we brought together the cultural heritage of South Asia (and Latin America) through various gardening and horticultural awareness activities.

From my experience of working with youth development in a social service context, there can often be a tension of how to proceed around the question of developing more cultural activities or more services. What do we pursue next – classical dance classes or a full-time legal clinic? While these two are definitely very divergent paths for an organization to pursue, when working with young people there is a line between “service” and “culture” that often blurs. For example, our recent series of hip-hop production workshops for teens seem to function as both a social service and a cultural activity. When teens are with me making beats, they are not getting high or getting into other kinds of trouble. But my goal is more than just “saving” them from illicit activities. I’m particularly interested in how they understand their experiences as young, Pakistani, Muslim men going to high-school in an outlying neighborhood of Chicago. While none of them are great wizards of qawwali or any other South Asian musical art, the music we make is a reflection of a culture that was born there and is growing up here. As I “serve” them, we also provide a place for them to create.

To me, it is just as important to create culture as it is to preserve it. This is why I have always wanted to keep abreast of activities happening with the Chicago Cultural Alliance. I have continually seen a benefit for my program, and most importantly, the many young people that we have been able to work with.

Immigration Storytelling Workshop

On Monday, May 11, 2009 a group gathered in the basement of the Cambodian American Heritage Museum to discuss immigrant stories in a workshop hosted by the Chicago Cultural Alliance and the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. The Medill School of Journalism was recently awarded a grant from the Carnegie Foundation to start a collection of immigrant stories to be placed on Immigrant Connect Chicago.

The workshop, run by Jack Doppelt, a professor at the Medill, focused on teaching the participants the core questions and interview techniques required to draw out the stories that everyone has about immigration or migration. With the assistance of some written prompts, the group divided into partners and began to tell each other their stories, or the stories of someone they knew. The results were astounding; when given the task of reporting on other people's story, everyone was able to relate the story of their partner in great detail.

With the knowledge of how to start asking the questions that can facilitate dialogue about an individual's immigration experience, this workshop was timed to occur one week before the Talking about Im/migration facilitator training workshop at The Field Museum. These skills will be expanded during the day-long session on Monday, May 18 2009 and over the next few months.

The Immigrant Connect Chicago program is an online forum, where people can write their own stories or contact a member/student of the university program to assist them with writing their story. The ultimate purpose of this program is to bridge immigrant groups and cross ethnic and generational lines within communities. Their goal can in many ways be assisted by the Alliance, and makes the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University an ideal partner organization. For further information on sharing your own, or someone else's immigration story, you can can contact Professor Doppelt and his students at contact@immigrantconnect.org.

A chat with Jay Luthra, Executive Director of the Indo-American Center

On April 17, 2009 I sat down with Jay Luthra, Executive Director of the Indo-American Center (IAC)to discuss his work with the IAC and its relationship with the Chicago Cultural Alliance. As a part of our interview series we get to look at the relationships that the Alliance is building with Chicago's ethnic communities. The Indo-American Center is located in Rogers Park, and its primary goal is to help South Asians integrate into American life and culture, though they don't turn anyone away (they are currently working with citizens from over 20 different nations). The IAC represents one section of society that contributes to the "melting pot" that is Chicago's cultural diversity. The Alliance mission is to "effect social change and public understanding of cultural diversity", and Luthra believes that this is an important to the IAC because we are working to make sure all different ethnicity's are recognized and treated with tolerance and respect.

The Indo-American Center is a community based organization that runs programs that flow from it's core mission principal of integration. They offer a multitude of classes in English, civic testing, and citizenship preparations. The space also serves as a area to help seniors and youth through after-school programs and free social ethnic lunches, health topics and exercise. Luthra explains their senior work in more detail, illustrating the challenges that face many South-Asian immigrants who have followed their families to American but feel lost when they arrive. The IAC aims to assist them by holding classes on how to get CTA Seniors Passes, library cards and other benefits that require going through many agencies. They also offer their space as a social gathering to meet people of similar backgrounds and comforts from home. The recent introduction of job training skills has become all more relevant during this economic hardships. The IAC offers classes that help people to build resumes, to interview for positions, and to talk to potential employers over the phone. However, Luthra notes that the IAC's shortage of space and funding means they have to turn people away from their classes and training.

For Luthra, years of working in the for-profit sector made him yearn for non-profit work. He has been the Executive Director of the Indo-American Center for a year and a half and in that time has been proud to see the center grow. With an increased budget of 30% since he started, and numerous new programs, the IAC has been able to offer more programs to its community. Luthra finds this growth rewarding as the center offers meaningful help and resources to the South-Asian community. While the relationship with the Chicago Cultural Alliance continues to grow, the Alliance has helped the IAC Board and staff members get on track through the smARTscope, a capacity building program that strengthens organizations' management capacity. With space and funding problems being all too real to many of our members, hopefully the Alliance can help lessen the effects of the current financial crisis through shared services and staff. Luthra sees social networking sites as a way to reach a whole new generation for the South-Asian community, and perhaps this is something else where the Alliance can assist.