Documentary by UC Davis professor shines light on Punjabi women
Starting in 1910, Punjabi women began trickling into California, joining a community of men who started arriving from the northern Indian province of Punjab in the 1890s. But even as their numbers grew in Yuba City, Stockton, Sacramento and other Northern California areas after World War II, these women remained largely invisible.
The women’s story is now being told, thanks to Nicole Ranganath, historian and assistant adjunct professor of Middle East/South Asia Studies (ME/SA) in the UC Davis College of Letters and Science. Along with amassing an archive of interviews, photographs, letters and archival footage, she, with help from students, has created a documentary film “Walking into the Unknown: A History of Punjabi Women in California.”
The movie will premiere Nov. 16 at Sikhlens: Sikh Arts and Film Festival in Orange and air on KVIE public television Nov. 21, 23 and 24 and will also be available for viewing on the station’s website. Ranganath interviewed 24 women ranging in age from 21 to 85, among them women who arrived in the U.S. in the 1960s, a recent college graduate, a doctor, a lawyer and a petty officer in the U.S. Navy. Time was of the essence, especially in getting the stories of the older women, and Ranganath did all the interviews across much of Northern California in December last year.
Contributed by Jeffrey Day, College of Letters and Science
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Annabeth Rosen's work will appear in Michigan
This November, Cranbrook Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, will open three exhibitions that showcase the incredible range of alumni and Artists-in-Residence that have emerged from Cranbrook Academy of Art and the significant impact they have made in the art world. One of those is UC Davis Department of Art Co-Chair Annabeth Rosen.
Annabeth Rosen: Fired, Broken, Gathered, Heaped; Binion/Saarinen: A McArthur Binion Project; and Danielle Dean: A Portrait of True Red will all open at Cranbrook Art Museum on November 17. The Annabeth Rosen and McArthur Binion exhibitions will run through March 10, 2019, and the Danielle Dean exhibition will close on January 6, 2019 to be followed by an upcoming exhibition by Cranbrook Academy of Art Ceramics Artist-in-Residence, Ian McDonald.
“Cranbrook Academy of Art’s legacy is known worldwide, but is often overlooked in the Metro Detroit area,” says Andrew Blauvelt, Director of Cranbrook Art Museum. “Our hope with this series of exhibitions is to shine a light on the contributions of both the students that study at the Academy and the notable artists who mentor them. The work emanating out of the Academy has in many ways shaped the world of art and design, and these exhibitions will show how relevant and contemporary that work continues to be.”
The exhibitions will open with a special celebration on Friday, Nov. 16, 6-9 p.m. All exhibitions will open to the public Nov. 17.The exhibition runs through March 10. More information is on the museum's web site.
Shiva Ahmadi exhibiting in Tokyo
Shiva Ahmadi, associate professor of art, is among 40 artists participating in a new exhibition at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo that addresses the question of what art can do in chaotic times where the future is uncertain. Catastrophe and the Power of Art looks at how art deals with the major catastrophes that strike communities, as well as personal tragedies. The exhibition runs through Jan. 1. Also in this exhibition of many artists is the Yoko Ono Wish Tree, a version of which was exhibited at UC Davis during the opening of the Manetti Shrem Museum in 2016. In the interactive exhibition, people right their wishes on pieces of paper that they tie to a branch. After the exhibition closes, the work is taken to the Imagine Peace Tower in Iceland.
Ahmadi's art historically focuses on painting and drawing.
Art Graduate Students: Wanting to know about art grads' fulfilling careers? Read the Majors Blog
This entry illuminates many art grads' lives and work.