A Virginia festival this weekend will launch a long-term oral history project documenting the experiences, traditions and cultural legacy of Indian Americans across the Commonwealth.
The inaugural Threads & Bridges Festival, organized by the Rith Initiative, will take place August 15 and 16 at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture in Richmond. The event will publicly launch the Threads & Bridges Oral History Project, an initiative designed to preserve personal stories of Indian American families for future generations.
The project focuses on personal experiences rather than historical milestones, collecting stories about migration, family traditions, faith and everyday life.
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“We didn’t know who the first Indian family in Virginia was, or when they came, or why they stayed,” said Ruchi Gupta, founder and creative director of the Rith Initiative. “That question sent me down a rabbit hole that became Threads & Bridges, an internal gaze through a cultural lens, asking what culture we carried and what culture we’re becoming.”
The project began with 10 pilot interviews conducted by Gupta and co-producer Rupa Ratnam Singh. Those interviews will form the foundation of an exhibition and a broader archive that organizers plan to expand in the coming years.
“Every family carries stories that risk disappearing with each generation,” said Prabir Mehta, festival co-organizer. “Threads & Bridges exists to preserve those memories while creating new connections between generations, cultures, and communities here in our own backyard.”
Singh said cultural identity is often passed between generations through ordinary experiences rather than formal instruction. “Not everything we carry is a conscious choice. Some parts of culture are inherited quietly, through the meals we eat, the languages we hear, the way we celebrate and grieve,” Singh said. “These invisible threads are passed down without anyone ever saying, ‘This is your culture.’ Only later do we recognize what we’ve been carrying all along.”
The interactive exhibition will feature 15 stations built around the metaphor of a loom. Organizers describe the concept as representing the way traditions brought from India are woven together with experiences created in the United States.
The two-day festival will also feature classical dance, a textile fashion show, live music by Mehta and students from the Gandharva School of Music, an artisan market, henna, children’s activities and food.
A centerpiece of the festival will be a panel discussion titled “Being Indian-American: Its Responsibilities and Possibilities,” scheduled for August 16 from 1:30 to 3 p.m.
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Dr. Niraj Verma, a professor and former dean of Virginia Commonwealth University’s L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs, will moderate the discussion. Panelists include Virginia Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi, Richmond Mayor Danny Avula, architect Neil Bhatt and Bhumika Tharoor of The Atlantic.
The discussion will examine how Indian Americans have preserved or lost elements of their culture, how they contribute to their communities, their role in connecting ancestral and adopted cultures, and the future of diaspora communities.
The festival will run from noon to 4 p.m. on both August 15 and 16. Organizers said the 10 stories featured at the launch represent the beginning of an ongoing public archive rather than a one-time project.
The Rith Initiative, a Virginia-based nonprofit, works to explore and celebrate Indian wisdom and culture through arts, stories and community. The organization was founded on the belief that history is most powerfully preserved through the people who experienced it.