Samip Mallick Builds The South Asian American Digital Archive

Samip Mallick is the co-founder and executive director of SAADA, which he has guided from its inception in 2008 to its place today as a national leader in community-based storytelling. SAADA, stands for South Asian American Digital Archive.

SAADA uses the power of stories to create belonging to the 5.4 million South Asian Americans by documenting, preserving, and sharing stories from the South Asian American community, so that the struggles of past and current generations for equality, inclusion, and representation are not the same struggles we leave to our children.

We talk about how a lot of childhood is shaped by the feeling that you don't belong, the incredible impact the 5.4 South Asian Americans truly have, the beautiful stories SAADA has collected from our community about their first days in the US, and how their walking tour of Philadelphia and Harlem shows that South Asians have been part of American history from the very beginning.

We both agreed that the power of storytelling can help one truly feel embraced for who they are, discuss how SAADA's book, Our Stories, is out now and in 2500 school, libraries, and homes, and the importance of having access to information in order to really understand the whole picture.

https://www.saada.org/