California Story Fund
Reflections and Remembrances: Iranian-American Stories
Persian Center, Berkeley
Project Director: Taraneh Hemami
Documenting the Iranian immigrant experience
More than one million Iranians have moved to the United States over the past 25 years, establishing close-knit communities. Yet few people in the general public know much about Iranian-Americans or their rich culture. The events of September 11, 2001, have made it important to give Iranian Americans a human face particularly as Iranians have increasingly been targeted for detentions and deportations.
This project collected photographs and stories of Iranian immigrants in Northern California through small workshops, personal interviews and the Internet. A website was created to display the stories and images, and provide historical background, giving a wide audience better understanding of this immigrant group. The materials are housed at the Persian Center in Berkeley. "Our aim " said Taraneh Hemami, project director, "was to preserve stories that would otherwise be lost and break through misconceptions about Iranians among the general population."
View images from project director Taraneh Hemami's "Hall of Reflections" installation at the Sixth Sharjah Biennial in the United Arab Emirates, and then read a review of the show.