By Asmita Tuladhar
POSA (Portrait of South Asia) is a new student organization founded in 2023 at the University of Michigan, focused on the creation of the first South-Asian centered magazine organization on campus with a mission to share authentic stories through photographic narratives.
POSA’s goal is to capture the essence of being South Asian to help build a tangible history for the South Asian community at U of M. As we see more South Asian representation in all forms of media, various stereotypes become reinforced through editing and refining South Asian stories to fit Western aesthetics. Unlike with traditional magazines, we ensure that the stories will not change from the authors’ words through the process of magazine refinement – as our fundamental value is that we build our photoshoots around the people’s stories, rather than the people around the photoshoot’s theme. POSA will instill a sense of power and enhance our community’s understanding of one another by attempting to paint a holistic picture of South Asia. The medium of photographic narratives will embody diverse South Asian experiences and create a foundation for South Asian students to be able to build and share a physical relic of stories that can be continued for years to come by the future South Asian students at the University of Michigan. In doing so, we hope to provide the larger student population with a form of media that draws its content purely from real experiences and people, allowing for a more genuine form of cultural exchange.
With the help of the BLI grant, we were able to make progress on our goal of creating the POSA Magazine through the procurement of photography equipment. This equipment enables us to guarantee that the stories being shared with us are portrayed in a way that is inclusive, authentic, and to the best of our ability. The theme for this year’s magazine was Intersection of Identities. Individuals to shared their story relating to their identity of being South Asian and … another identity that they resonated with. Initially, we aimed to complete around 6 photoshoots and believed even that may be a stretch, but to our pleasant surprise – we received even greater interest than we had anticipated, and shot 9 photoshoots covering narratives of individuals on their personal experiences through being South Asian and American, South Asian and a Woman, South Asian and an Artist, or South Asian and a Boxer, to name a few.
As a new organization, we overcame challenges of building our team, creating a cohesive vision, and executing the work under tight deadlines. Through this process, we learned the importance of Value Difference and to Always Ask. Value Difference came into play heavily when we began to create the final magazine spreads. To create these spreads, the Storyteller/Model, Graphic Designers, Creative Directors, Photographers, Editors, and Make-Up Artists all came together to collaborate and develop a cohesive, unique vision for each shoot. Drawing from the various expertise and understanding of the model’s vision and storyline, we were able to create spreads that were representative of everyone’s wishes. In relation to this habit, is the habit to Always Ask. During this process, there was communication throughout all of the teams, the executive directors, and the models – and it required many hours of active listening and great questions. For example, from the very beginning when we had our Lead Graphic Designer on developing our official POSA logo, we inquired heavily on what design aspects should we consider when creating something that can visually represent inclusivity and South Asian aspects. Or when we were finalizing the layout of various spreads, we asked models what they wanted to see in their writing or their storyline so that we could gain a greater understanding of how to execute the collective vision better.
In the end, we are very happy to have a final print and website version of our Volume I: Intersection of Identities magazine. Our Magazine Production team is comprised of more than 24 individuals. At the end of semester, we collaborated with five other Asian American Affinity Organizations on campus (AAA, ASIB, BSA, Dil Se, and UAAAO) and we had more than 40 people attend our Magazine Laucnh party, also selling all 60 of our magazines. Our Instagram following has increased from 0 followers when we first began, to now 195 at the time of writing. In the future, we aim to release the second edition of our magazine by the end the next school year, continue to engage with other Asian American organizations to strengthen the community interactions, and further recruit a talented, wonderful team to improve and represent the South
Asian diaspora authentically and beautifully for as long as we can in the foreseeable future.
