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MENA: Telling the Stories of Refugees & Asylum Seekers

2019 Evanston Literary Festival

Evanston Public Library and Northwestern University’s Middle East and North African Studies (MENA) present talks on the culture, politics, religion, and society of the Middle East and North Africa.

Please join us for this discussion about how to tell the stories of refugees and asylum-seekers — in Chicago and the rest of the world — ethically and effectively. The award-winning journalists and artists of 90 Days, 90 Voices are producing a collaborative storytelling project called Asylum City to fill the gap in coverage about asylum seekers in Chicago and fight ignorance about why they are coming to the United States.

Alex V. Hernandez, a reporter for Block Club Chicago and Engagement Director for 90 Days, 90 Voices, will discuss his reporting on refugees along with Northwestern professor Wendy Pearlman, author of We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria, whose work focuses on telling the stories of Syrian refugees. Award-winning journalist Nissa Rhee, Executive Director of 90 Days, 90 Voices, will moderate the discussion.

This event is part of the 2019 Evanston Literary Festival (evanstonlit.org) and is co-presented by the Evanston Public Library, the Middle East and North African Studies Program at Northwestern, 90 Days, 90 Voices, Chicago City of Refuge, and the Chicago Network for Justice and Peace. This event is supported by PEN America.

The paperback edition of We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria will be available for sale at the event.

Free of charge and open to the public.

Illustration by Dan Rowell for 90 Days, 90 Voices and the Chicago Reader.

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