Through The Craft of Cakes, a New Way To Bangladeshi Identity
Shamsun Nehar is a Bangladeshi American Muslim woman who has found a way to literally bake her identity into cakes.
Michigan is home to the country’s third largest population of Bangladeshi
Americans. An estimated 15,000 Bangladeshis live in the Greater Detroit area.
Many express their culture through their Muslim religion, the way they dress, and
the foods they eat. Shamsun Nehar is one Bangladeshi American Muslim woman
who has found a way to literally bake her identity into cakes. In her story for
WDET, Fi2W Food Journalism Fellow Nargis Rahman prepared this profile of Shamsun
Nehar, an engineer by day and a cake baker by night. Cake baking isn’t a
traditional craft for Bangladeshi women who are the primary family caretakers.
Shamsun wants to change how creative jobs are perceived in her community.
“I really want to grow with this business not just because… of for me but I also
want to show people that…you know what you can do other things. You don’t
have to just chose one thing and live with it, you can be… you know… creative,
you enjoy your life. Eventually I want to teach other people who are interested in
how to do these things.”
Feet in 2 Worlds is a project of the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School that brings the work of immigrant journalists and journalists of color to public radio and online media. Follow the FI2W podcast here.
