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An Evening of Storytelling
Posted on Oct 04 2016
The 2016 Gala brought together the stories of many individuals, each of whom shared moments from their life, work, and identity. Board member Adam Yang spoke to his family’s journey from Laos to a Hmong refugee camp in Thailand. Today, his dedication as a Minneapolis public defender, and his leadership as Hmong attorney on behalf of several organizations, is still driven by the dream his family pursued in journeying to America. His commitment to giving back to his community is an inspiration for all Minnesotans.
Jaylani Hussein, who is also a refugee, told guests about his identity as a Somali-Minnesotan and his subsequent career. As Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Minnesota, he has dedicated himself to advocacy on behalf of Muslim-American communities. His and CAIR-MN’s tireless advocacy work to encourage dialogue and protect the civil liberties of American Muslims earned the organization our State Advocate of the Year Award. Jaylani’s words demonstrated the importance and the power of his work.
Prairie Home Companion’s very own Garrison Keillor made our Gala a night to remember. He focused on the topic of immigration as well as the sometimes fraught concept of the home immigrants and refugees leave behind. Keillor muses half of songs are about leaving home and the other half are about going back – or, at least, wanting to. He recalls Sunday afternoons where his neighbors of Scandinavian decent would gather in public parks to sing themselves to tears. They reminisced about their countries of origin, even without ever having seen them. Yet, without having left their homes, Keillor points out, his neighbors would have nothing to sing about. Keillor goes on to applaud ILCM for doing the work that gives people cause to sing.
Maria Isa delivers a tremendous spoken word performance. Her work mixes multi-lingual, rhythmic poetry with Spanish ballads and sound-bytes from famous artists like Bruce Springsteen. During her performance, she parodies Springsteen’s “Born in the USA”. While her jeans are ripped like Springsteen’s, her hands are holding maracas instead of a guitar. The work serves to establish her “Sota-Rican” (Minnesotan-Puerto Rican) identity. For Isa, these two identities are inseparable. Thus, she embraces both cultures, each enriching the other. She embraces art and music to carve out a space for a new identity to form.
ILCM is proud to have hosted these powerful storytellers, friends, and artists, and wholeheartedly thanks them for sharing this moment with us. Please enjoy a few more videos of our storytellers, below: ILCM staff Sandra Portilla and John Keller took the stage to share their words as well.