About This Exhibit
Dr. Vivek Bald's groundbreaking text, Bengali Harlem, unearthed and uplifted long forgotten histories of cross-racial solidarity, community-making, and belonging found in 1900s Harlem between Black, Puerto Rican, and South Asian communities. This exhibit draws from and expands on his research to help educators bring the history of Bengali Harlem to their classrooms. The story of Bengali Harlem challenges assumptions about who the South Asian community of New York is, and centers voices of undocumented, working-class, and mixed-race South Asian New Yorkers.
We hope as you read these exhibits you consider how the story of Bengali seamen who built new lives in Harlem reveals how this often overlooked part of the South Asian diaspora and its history is one written not only in classrooms and archives, but shipyards, kitchens, and city streets. It shows us how the elusive feeling of “belonging” within the diaspora has always been intellectual and lived, as well as personal and collective.