Motee Singh's Arrival Record
Motee "Kid" Singh, a professional boxer, arrives in New York in 1931 on the steamship Munamar and is identified on the passenger manifest as an "East Indian" able to read and write English and "Hindoo." The featherweigh
Rose Su Persaud's Arrival Record
In 1924, a 23-year old widow named Rose Su Persaud arrived at Ellis Island and declared her intention to go live with her sister Agnes Premdas at the Phyllis Wheatley Hotel in Harlem, founded and run by Marcus Garvey’s Pan-Africanist United Negro Improvement Association.
Ronikali Merali's certificate of Naturalization to the US
The process of gaining citizenship for Ugandan parolees in the US was long because they were not technically refugees, but were parolees, which did not grant them the same path to citizenship as refugees. This is Ronikali's certificate of naturalization to the US, and feature of a photo of him in 1984 at the age of 34.
Ronikali Merali's Property Compensation Letter
In Idi Amin's expulsion of Asians from Uganda, they were not permitted to take much money with them, nor keep ownership of their property. The UNHCR worked for years to get compensation for lost property by Uganda refugees. This letter was sent to Ronikali's father for the store he lost to Idi Amin's expulsion. Ronikali said he did not take the money offered to him.
Ronikali Merali Declaration of Business
This was the declaration Ronikali filled out when he was forced to leave his business behind in Uganda. The form says it is for "non-citizens" though Ronikali was a citizen of Uganda, who was stripped of his passport and thus effectively became stateless.
A screenshot from a website. Heading reads “Welcome back for Zoeglossia’s Poem of the Week series curated this month by Kay Ulanday Barrett.”
The piece being shared on the page is Ashna’s Ali’s “Top Secret Club Abjection.”
Poem by Ashna Ali
A screenshot from the website Zoeglossia, black text on a white background, of the poem's text;
Poem Text:
It’s H who starts me on the teas, delivers four fragrant boxes,
mixes them herself. She includes ingredients on a handmade label.
C I find on Instagram talking about her herbalism practice,
Poem by Ashna Ali
Published poem by Ashna Ali; “New York, I Love You” by Ashna Ali, black text on white background, from Sun Dog Lit Website.
Poem Text:
The mornings that the hot clench fastens
my chest to my belly, I wonder who might
see beyond my big grin bounce, suspect
that my day’s first sound is sputter. It doesn’t
Poems by Ashna Ali
Screenshot of “In My Dreams I Write Letters to My Mother across the Ocean” by Ashna Ali, black text on white background, from Sun Dog Lit Website.
Poem Text:
Mother, shall I tell you about my unborn child,
forever a cluster of cells? You share a quality:
I shall write you both unsent letters
for the rest of my life. Marjorie suggests that it bobs