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'Misunderstood': Listen To Seattle Storywallahs Event

caption: Aneesh Sheth speaks at KUOW's Storywallahs event in early May at the Kirkland Performing Arts Center.
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Aneesh Sheth speaks at KUOW's Storywallahs event in early May at the Kirkland Performing Arts Center.
KUOW Photo/Isolde Raftery

The South Asian community in the United States has roots in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The community represents one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in the country. From 2000 to 2010 their population grew by 81 percent nationally, in Seattle the increase was 173 percent.

This past fall, KUOW presented a six-part series by reporter Liz Jones titled Two Indias, Near and Far. In it, Jones explored a nuanced web of connections between the Pacific Northwest Indian community and the city of Hyderabad, India.

Out of that reporting came the idea for Storywallahs, the first of a series inspired by The Moth storytelling program. The result was a better understanding of people and places far away for some of us, but potentially close to home for many. Fittingly, the theme of this first event was “misunderstood.”

Storywallahs: An Evening of Storytelling took place on May at the Kirkland Performance Center. Presenters included KUOW, Tasveer and Pratidhwani. Thanks to Anna Tatistcheff for our recording.

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