Global Urban Humanities/Future Histories Lab

Rooted in Place: Radical South Asian Storytelling Blooms in Berkeley | Barnali Ghosh (Fall 2022 Speaker Series)

Lecture, 77 minutes; Part of the Fall 2022 Speaker Series (Landscapes of Migration, Incarceration and Resistance)

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Recording of presentation at @BAMPFA Osher Theater; free and open to the public Friday, October 7, 2022

Speakers: Barnali Ghosh, Artist, Community Activist, and Designer

Barnali Ghosh talks about creating the award-winning Berkeley South Asian Radical History Walking Tour, part of a growing movement of activist-led, place-based storytelling. She and partner Anirvan Chatterjee have led thousands of people through walks on Berkeley streets revealing little-known histories of immigrant freedom fighters in the 1910s and queer and feminist organizers in more recent years. Ghosh also led the campaign to rename part of Berkeley’s Shattuck Avenue after Kala Bagai, an early 20th-century community leader who immigrated through Angel Island. As part of her explorations of place and identity, Ghosh has expanded her art practice into photographic self-portraits that highlight the beauty of the native plants of California and the fabrics of South Asia.

Barnali Ghosh is a designer, artist, storyteller, and transportation justice advocate. She co-founded the award-winning Berkeley South Asian Radical History Walking Tour. Her work attempts to bridge homes and homelands, and create spaces for belonging. She is active in Bay Area Solidarity Summer, Walk Bike Berkeley, the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action, and the Berkeley Reimagining Public Safety Task Force. She has a Master’s in Landscape Architecture from UC Berkeley. You can see her work on instagram @berkeleywali and @berkeleysouthasian or at www.barnalighosh.art.

UC @Berkeley Arts + Design Fridays: Landscapes of Migration, Incarceration, and Resistance is a lively series of talks by artists, performers, scholars, and activists exploring themes of global and US migration, exclusion, and belonging. It is also a UC Berkeley course offered as Humanities 20: Explorations of Art + Design. Organized by Susan Moffat, Creative Director of Future Histories Lab and Executive Director of the Global Urban Humanities Initiative and by Lisa Wymore, Professor of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies and Faculty Advisor of Berkeley Arts + Design. Hosted by Susan Moffat.

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This speaker series is part of a program of music and dance performances, exhibitions, public conversations, and courses called A Year on Angel Island (futurehistories.berkeley.edu/angel-island/), using the historic Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco Bay as a jumping-off point to consider landscapes from China to Australia to Mexico as sites of memory and meaning.

A Year on Angel Island is organized by Future Histories Lab and the Arts + Design Initiative. UC Berkeley departmental cosponsors include the Departments of Music; Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies; Ethnic Studies; History; and American Studies. Campus partners include the Arts Research Center, the Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative, On the Same Page, Othering and Belonging Institute, Center for Race & Gender, Worth Ryder Gallery, and BAMPFA. Our community partner is the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation.