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Sikh Heritage
Week starts in New York
WSN Network
New York: The New York City started a “Sikh Heritage Week” from
Saturday coinciding with an annual festival here to showcase the
arts, culture and tradition of the community.
The Sikh Art and
Film Foundation is organising the festival, which will feature film
shows, cultural programmes and an awards gala. The New York City has
declared the week starting September 22 as Sikh Heritage Week.
A proclamation
issued by Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office commended the work being
done the Foundation to increase understanding of culture and history
of the Sikhs who, it said, contribute talent and hard work to the
city and strengthen the social fabric.
While welcoming
the declaration, the Foundation expressed concern over the United
States Transportation and Security Administration’s questionable
searches of turbans as part of airport security. The celebration
would help create visibility for the United States’ estimated half a
million Sikhs who wear the turban as a sign of their faith and
religious tradition, it said.
The week will see
the staging of the 4th “Spinning Wheel Film Festival”, held annually
in Toronto, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami and
Washington. The Foundation will also “honour individuals who have
shown vision and courage in elevating the Sikh experience as well as
a leadership award to a Sikh.”
This year’s
awardees are Shonali Bose and Bedabrata Pain, co-creators of the
film “Amu”, Jagdeep Singh, CEO of optical telecom equipment provider
Infinera Corp, and Thomas Di-Napoli, the 54th Comptroller of the
State of New York.
26
September, 2007
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