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About Us

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Immigrant Stories

Preserving the voices of South Asian immigrant restaurateurs in Atlanta.

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Cultural Heritage

Exploring food, memory, identity, and tradition.

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Community Narratives

Highlighting restaurants as cultural community bridges.

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EXPLORE RESTAURANT STORIES & VOICES
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Restaurant Voices is a storytelling project that centers the experiences of South Asian immigrant restaurateurs in the Atlanta area. The project examines how individuals build businesses, preserve cultural heritage, and navigate life between East and West through food, work, and community.

By focusing on the people behind local restaurants, Restaurant Voices uses oral history and multimedia storytelling to preserve immigrant narratives and highlight how small businesses function as cultural bridges within their communities. Rather than treating food as the subject alone, the project foregrounds the lived experiences, choices, and identities of the people who create it.

The project is led by student interviewers who work closely with participating restaurateurs to document personal journeys of immigration, entrepreneurship, family, and identity. Stories are shared through written, audio, and visual formats, allowing participants to represent themselves in their own words.

Through digital platforms and community-based exhibits, Restaurant Voices amplifies contributions often overlooked in public history and fosters understanding, dialogue, and cultural exchange across communities.

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Our Mission

Restaurant Voices seeks to preserve the stories of South Asian immigrant restaurateurs who have built lives and businesses in the United States. Through oral history and storytelling, the project explores themes of immigration, entrepreneurship, and identity, highlighting how individuals blend cultural traditions from Atlanta with life in America. By centering the firsthand accounts of restaurateurs themselves, the project moves beyond food to focus on the people, decisions, and experiences behind local restaurants. Restaurant Voices aims to create an accessible, community-centered archive that honors immigrant narratives and reveals how small businesses connect culture, memory, and community.

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Our Principles

Our Core Values

Community & Contribution

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Restaurateurs are more than business owners. They are community builders. This project recognizes the cultural and economic contributions immigrants make through entrepreneurship and local engagement.

Cultural Exchange

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Food is more than cuisine. It carries memory, identity, and adaptation. We value the ways cultural heritage and American life intersect, evolve, and influence one another across generations and communities.

Preservation

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This project is committed to documenting and safeguarding immigrant stories for future generations. Through oral history and digital storytelling, experiences are recorded with care and respect.

Respect & Consent

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This project is grounded in ethical storytelling. Participation is voluntary, informed, and collaborative, and storytellers retain agency over how their narratives are recorded and shared.

Story First

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We believe people should be represented in their own words. Every story is shaped by the voice, perspective, and lived experience of the individual sharing it.

Representation

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We aim to present stories honestly and accurately, ensuring individuals are portrayed with dignity, nuance, cultural understanding, lived context, and authentic voice.

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Program Components

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Training

Volunteers participate in workshops focused on oral history practices, ethical storytelling, cultural sensitivity, and journalism fundamentals. This training prepares students to conduct respectful interviews and accurately document lived experiences.

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Production

Volunteers are paired with South Asian restaurateurs for a series of interviews. Together, they record personal narratives that reflect immigration journeys, business ownership, and cultural identity. Stories are captured through written profiles, audio recordings, and visual documentation such as photography.

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Presentation

Completed stories are shared through a digital archive, public exhibits, and community presentations. These platforms invite the public to engage with immigrant narratives and recognize the cultural and economic contributions of South Asian restaurateurs in the Atlanta area.

Get Involved

Restaurant Voices is a collaborative project built on community participation. There are several ways to get involved, whether you want to share your story or help document others.

Share Your Story

Restaurant Voices is a collaborative project built on community participation. There are several ways to get involved, whether you want to share your story or help document others.

Share Your Story

Become a Student Interviewer

South Asian restauranteurs in the Atlanta area are invited to participate. Participation involves a series of conversations focused on immigration, entrepreneurship, and identity. Storytellers maintain agency over how their narratives are recorded and shared, and participation is entirely voluntary.

Apply

Support the Project

Community members, educators, and organizations can support Restaurant Voices by helping share the project, hosting community presentations, or connecting us with potential participants. Collaboration helps ensure these stories reach a wider audience while remaining rooted in the community.

Get Involved