Lived Sikh Stories in South Carolina: Community, Music, and Service at Gurdwara Guru Nanaksar

The paper describes the early stages of an ethnographic and digital storytelling project supported by the AAPI Voices and Stories Grant from the Mellon Foundation and ASIANetwork, The project is a collaboration between my university and members of the Sikh community at Gurdwara Guru Nanaksar in Chapin South Carolina, about 15 minutes outside the state capitol of Columbia. This project focuses on lived experience centered around personal stories, musical and devotional practices, and shared meals that cross boundaries of faith, ethnicity, and language. The paper guides readers through how students from Coastal Carolina University are engaging with the diasporic Sikh community in South Carolina through service, storytelling, and cultural exchange.