Citizen Journal: Sindhu Surapaneni’s creation honors Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

“Racism is not getting worse, it’s getting filmed.”

- Will Smith

I just wish I don’t remember what I encountered at school when I was 4, those girls who were just 2 years older than me,

excluded me from letting me play with them during recess saying she is not white.

I wish I forgot that one of the girls in my class when I was 7, asked me to tie and clean her shoes on

Martin Luther King Jr. day saying that’s what colored people do.

I wish some people believed me the first time when I said it was happening.

But I am grateful that I never forget all the friends who see me as just one of them and treat me the same as they treat themselves and

I would remember that forever.”

Message in her art

My creation has nothing to do with politics, it has to do with people.

Everyone has worth, everyone has value and everyone is worth fighting for.

Feeding the hungry

My personal goal is to donate $1,111 to a local charity and our family chose “Blessings Under the Bridge” this year.

I started doing commission work where I draw realistic portraits of people, either pencil sketches or portraits on a canvas.

I would like to put this art for auction on June 1 and donate 100% of the funds to “Blessings Under the Bridge.”

I am hoping either the city or the local business would buy it to show their support for everyone and diversity.

The starting bid is $333 for a 30-inch-by-40-inch canvas, and the auction starts on my Facebook page on June 1. The buy-it-now-price is $1,111. Interested businesses can contact me through my Facebook page for more details before they place a bid.

Sindhu Surapaneni is a 12-year-old, a self described cultural enthusiast and international storyteller from Spokane and has been an artist for about nine years. She describes her artwork as representing different cultures and diversity. Her hope is for art to be an inspiration for all the youth in the Inland Northwest to embrace diversity and their culture at the same time. One of her artwork pieces about diversity has gained notoriety, including being selected by Duke University’s Talent Identification Program in July 2020. Sindhu led over 200 free art and creativity lessons online and as well as at summer camps in 2020. Her schedule for this summer can be found on her Facebook page at facebook.com/ i2csindhu.