This 1,800-piece crowdsourced art project for Kamala Harris honors her Indian heritage
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President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will soon receive a traditional South Indian welcome at the U.S. Capitol with a kolam, an art form that is used as a sign of welcome and new beginnings.Courtesy of Ed Wondoloski /
As Vice President Kamala Harris took office this week, many people in the Bay Area and across the country celebrated by collectively creating a kolam, a traditional South Indian art form used as a sign of welcome and new beginnings.
Harris, an East Bay Area native, is the first woman of Black and South Asian descent to hold the vice presidency. The artwork honoring her Indian heritage, consisting of hundreds of pieces submitted by the public, was part of the digital inaugural ceremonies for Harris and President Biden on Wednesday.
Vanessa Hua December 31, 2020Updated: December 31, 2020, 4:00 pm
On New Year’s Day, Vijaya Nagarajan will make a
kolam, a rice flour design, on the front threshold of her home.
Vijaya Nagarajan, author of “Feeding a Thousand Souls: Women, Ritual and Ecology in Southern India, An Exploration of the Kolam.” Photo: Lee Swenson
Growing up whether in her ancestral village in southern India, a government flat in New Delhi or a townhouse in suburban Maryland she and her family celebrated each Hindu festival. They’d wake up early, then bathe and massage coconut oil and turmeric paste onto their bodies. Washing it off left a smooth, golden glow. And her mother drew the patterns before sunrise; the kolam is performed daily by Tamils to signify auspiciousness and a wish for the well-being of the family, the household and the world.