Vermont Public is independent, community-supported media, serving Vermont with trusted, relevant and essential information. We share stories that bring people together, from every corner of our region. New to Vermont Public? Start here.

© 2024 Vermont Public | 365 Troy Ave. Colchester, VT 05446

Public Files:
WVTI · WOXM · WVBA · WVNK · WVTQ · WVTX
WVPR · WRVT · WOXR · WNCH · WVPA
WVPS · WVXR · WETK · WVTB · WVER
WVER-FM · WVLR-FM · WBTN-FM

For assistance accessing our public files, please contact hello@vermontpublic.org or call 802-655-9451.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Shaftsbury photographer's book documents Uyghurs before Chinese crackdown

The Uyghurs: Kashgar before the Catastrophe by Kevin Bubriski
Daniela Fierro
/
Vermont Public
The Uyghurs: Kashgar before the Catastrophe by Kevin Bubriski

Vermont photographer Kevin Bubriski's new book documents the everyday life of the Uyghurs in Kashgar in the 1990s.

The Uyghurs are a Turkic-speaking, Muslim minority population who live in the western province of Xinjiang, in China. In the past five years, more than one million Uyghurs have been imprisoned by the Chinese government in “re-education centers.” According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the Uyghurs have also been subjected to surveillance, religious restrictions, forced labor and sterilization.

In the late 1990s, years before this crackdown on Uyghur culture began, Vermont-based documentary photographer Kevin Bubriski spent time in Kashgar, the ancient city of the Uyghurs on the old Silk Road. He made portraits and took photos of street scenes. He collected those images in a new photo book, The Uyghurs: Kashgar before the Catastrophe.

Kevin lives in Shaftsbury, and his work has been featured in renowned institutions across the globe, from the Museum of Modern Arts and the Met to the National Library of France.

Broadcast at noon Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.

Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message or check us out on Instagram.

Mikaela Lefrak is the host and senior producer of Vermont Edition. Her stories have aired nationally on Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition, Marketplace, The World and Here & Now. A seasoned local reporter, Mikaela has won two regional Edward R. Murrow awards and a Public Media Journalists Association award for her work.