Please join us to celebrate work created by participants in our Detroit to Kabul: Youth Exchange Program. On view for will be work made by girls in both Detroit and Kabul, Afghanistan, who participated in a virtual exchange program at Darkroom Detroit in 2018.
This event is free and open to the public and will take place at Ponyride's Xmas in July Makers' Market.
The Detroit to Kabul: Youth Exchange Program is a free 10-week photography course for girls in Detroit to learn the basics of photography and share their pictures with a corresponding class of girls in Kabul, Afghanistan. Students learn more about each other and each others' countries during class and are given pen pals in Kabul to correspond with each other beyond class.
This course is taught by Ali Lapetina, a documentary photographer and educator based in Detroit, Michigan. Her personal work explores stories of immigrant and underrepresented communities navigating daily life in America. She is also the founder and director at Women of Banglatown, an all women's community arts organization that offers free programing for neighborhood girls and income generating activities for immigrant women in Hamtramck, Michigan.
This program has been developed in partnership with the Afghan Girls Financial Assistance Fund (AGFAF) and Picture Pals.
AGFAF helps young Afghan women, who are committed to working for gender equality and improving life in Afghanistan, pursue and finance educational opportunities in the U.S.
Picture Pals aims to educate and empower young people around the world, providing them support to develop their voices and engage in a multicultural dialogue through the medium of photography.