Postcard Project at Helping Hands Festival

On Sat­ur­day in Indi­anapo­lis, The Fair Trade Resource Net­work kicked off a national tour of my project “From One Farmer to Another.”  The project fea­tures a post­card dia­logue between a fair trade com­mu­nity in India and another in Guatemala. The Help­ing Hands Fes­ti­val hosted the exhi­bi­tion as one of over 100 events in Indi­anapo­lis’ annual Spirit & Place Fes­ti­val, which fos­ters col­lab­o­ra­tion and dia­logue among com­mu­nity organizations.

I deliv­ered a keynote address to about 70 peo­ple who gra­cious came at 9:30am.  They heard about the his­tory of Santa Anita La Union in Guatemala and San­jukta Vikas Sanstha in India, the reac­tions each com­mu­nity had to see­ing pho­tographs of the other, and the post­card exchange that ensued.  As the day went on, a steady stream of peo­ple came to view the exhibit.  One of the festival’s board mem­bers enthu­si­as­ti­cally told me that she over­heard some­one call­ing friends and insist­ing they come to see the show.  A few com­mu­nity orga­niz­ers sought my input on how to do com­mu­nity his­tory projects around pho­tographs.  I had a lot of fun answer­ing ques­tions and hear­ing about the orga­niz­ing going on in Indi­anapo­lis.  It’s a vibrant com­mu­nity, and I was warmly received.  Thanks Becky and Michael Wig­gin­ton for host­ing me on Fri­day night, to Roberts Pho­tog­ra­phy and Bruce West­phal for pro­duc­ing the exhi­bi­tion at a gen­er­ous dis­count, and to St.Richard’s School for host­ing the event.

Cur­rently, two more loca­tions in the Indi­anapo­lis area are slated to host the exhi­bi­tion.  If you are inter­ested in bring­ing “From One Farmer to Another” to your town, get in touch with Sam Car­pen­ter at sam@globalgiftsindy.com.