THIRD ANNUAL
SIKHS IN STORYTELLING: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
Your story is waiting to be told. Who gets to tell it?
This is what it looks like when Sikh stories take center stage and when a sangat shows up to claim them.
On April 25, the UCLA Fowler Museum became something it had never been before: a room full of Sikh artists, writers, filmmakers, and advocates gathered to do one thing: take ownership of how our stories are told. That room exists because of you.
We began the afternoon as Independent filmmaker Mridu Chandra offered a preview of her work-in-progress on Congressman Dalip Singh Saund, the first Sikh, first Asian American, and first Indian American elected to the United States Congress. To see his story being reclaimed on screen, in our own hands, set the tone for everything that followed.
Then, Navraj Rai, the first Sikh judge in Kern County, shared the story behind the title.
Not only did he deliver an emotional recounting of his family’s experience of injustice in America, but he also added how that pain became the foundation for a life shaped by justice and purpose.
Next, the Off the Record panel brought together authors, a filmmaker, a journalist, and community voices who made one thing clear: we cannot wait for permission. If we do not tell our own stories, someone else will and they will get it wrong. The room left with a charge: start now, with what you have, because silence is never neutral.
Finally, the panel on Sikh representation in modern media did not just diagnose a problem, but offered a path forward. For the next generation entering spaces not built for them, the guidance was grounded and urgent: use those spaces anyway. Find the point of connection that goes beyond identity alone, and let that be the door.
Throughout the day, we highlighted emerging creative work including a preview of Unfolding Identity, as well as SALDEF and APARRI’s Photovoices project documenting gurdwaras across California through the eyes of Sikh college students.
Los Angeles Poet Aman Batra brought the room into stillness with her beautiful poetry before we ended the only way we know how, together, in music and movement, with a Spanish-Punjabi performance by Talibelico and Harveer Singh that had the room on its feet.
At some point, the afternoon stopped being a program. It became an interconnected sangat: fully present, fully alive, fully itself. When we create space for Sikh stories, we create space for Sikh belonging. And it does not exist without you.
What we witnessed on April 25 is exactly why SikhLEAD Media is launching this summer, to carry this work forward and ensure the next generation of Sikh storytellers has not just access, but ownership.
A heartfelt thank you to The Sikh Foundation and The Asian American Foundation for their sponsorship and belief in this work, and to every staff member and volunteer who gave their time and care to make the day what it was.