Desis Rising Up and Moving
Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM) is a multigenerational, membership led organization of low-wage South Asian and Indo-Caribbean immigrants, workers and youth in New York City. My collaboration with DRUM began in 2021 as part of my masters research about post-9/11 policing and immigrant organizing in New York City. The project organized an online exhibition of DRUM’s archives from the domestic War on Terror as part of an online exhibition Stop the Disappearances! Organizing for Freedom in the Wake of Post-9/11 Violence.
My current project and dissertation-in-progress is developed in close collaboration with DRUM organizers and members who are food delivery workers. Developed as a “Workers’ Inquiry,” I have worked with food delivery workers and DRUM members to conduct a survey and interviews about the conditions of food delivery work in the city. We plan on expanding this to include focus groups and community workshops to share our learnings and the results with community members and other food delivery workers in the city.
Scrapbooked photos from a rally in Union Square on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2002, when Uzma Naheed became one of the first people to speak out publicly about the racist targeting of Muslims in the post 9/11 sweeps. Naheed’s husband was one of thousands disappeared by INS, JTTF, FBI, and NYPD in the New York City area during the War on Terror. DRUM Archives, 2002.
Scrapbooked photos from a rally on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2002 outside of Passaic County Jail, where many immigrant detainees were being held. Drum Archives, 2002.