About Us

In the depths of the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt launched one of the most ambitious cultural initiatives in American history: the Federal Writers’ Project. Funded through the New Deal, the program employed writers across every state to document what America meant to them and their communities. Its aim was simple yet profound—to restore a sense of pride, identity, and shared purpose at a time when the nation’s spirit was broken. This initiative became known as The America Project.

With the founding of Lapis Media near Washington, DC, we seek to carry this spirit forward. Through documentaries, video, and multimedia storytelling, Lapis Media works to reintroduce diasporic communities from war-torn nations to the depth, beauty, and dignity of their cultural heritage. Our mission is to rekindle a sense of national identity and pride among populations displaced by conflict through powerful, human-centered narratives.

We believe that many of these communities (Afghans, Iraqis, Syrians, Palestinians, Somalis, Rohingya, and others) have been exposed almost exclusively to the trauma and devastation associated with their homelands. Over time, this has created a kind of cultural erosion: a loss of self-image, memory, and collective confidence. A culture deprived of a healthy narrative about itself risks fading—or being defined solely by suffering.

Through our work, Lapis Media aims to help reconnect people to their homelands and histories, inspiring engagement in reconstruction, reconciliation, and peace-building. At the same time, our productions seek to broaden American understanding by illuminating the overlooked and underreported stories of nations too often portrayed only through the lens of conflict. By restoring complexity, humanity, and cultural richness, we hope to replace reduction with recognition—and despair with possibility.