CultureShift: ‘Bangladeshis in Michigan’ exhibit highlights growth of the community

There’s about a week left to check out the culturally-rich fiber art exhibition, “Bangladeshis in Michigan,” at the Shapiro Library gallery in Ann Arbor.

Open to the public through Dec. 20, the exhibition showcases the generations, lives and culture of Bangladeshi Americans through hand embroidered portraits by writer, educator, and fiber artist Fatema Haque, and personal photos from Bangladeshi Michiganders.

Haque settled in Detroit with her family when she was nine and is a product of Detroit Public Schools and the University of Michigan. She says the lives of Bangladeshi Americans have changed in dramatic ways over the past 30 years.

“I remember my father was really a big fan of something called shatkora, which is like a wild orange, and you couldn’t find that in America, and when someone would go back home they’d bring some back like dried wild orange to cook with. I remember him one time just like kind of pleading with an auntie to give him some because he missed that taste so much,” she said. “But now you can buy like Frozen shatkora or wild oranges in the grocery stores with no problems whatsoever.”

There’s also a lot of generational differences, Haque said, as a lot of young people who have been educated in the U.S. feel a duel identity of being both American and Bangladeshi, with many experiencing more upward mobility socioeconomically than their immigrant parents.

“Bangladeshis in Michigan” will be on view through Dec. 20. at the Shapiro Library gallery, 919 S University Ave., Ann Arbor.

Listen: Fiber artist Fatema Haque speaks with WDET about her latest exhibition, “Bangladeshis in Michigan.”