Portraits of our Immigrant Mainers

Immigration to Maine has been part of the American narrative for past few centuries. America, as a nation of immigrants, has historically, with a few exceptions, welcomed the world’s persecuted by offering them safety and a chance to start a new life. Maine’s recent immigrants, most of them refugees fleeing wars, religious and political persecution, arrive war-torn countries such as Somalia, Sudan, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Rwanda, to name a few. The Book, New Mainers, Portraits of Our Immigrant Neighbors tells the stories of 29 New Mainers. Reza Jalali will discuss the book and the need to tell the stories of today’s immigrants.

Reza Jalali is a writer, educator, and a community activist, who has taught at the Bangor Theological Seminary and the University of Southern Maine (USM) as an adjunct faculty. Jalali has written the Foreword to New Mainers(©2009, Tilbury House, Publishers) a book on immigrant’s lives in Maine. His children’s book, Moon Watchers has received a Skipping Stones Honor Award for Multicultural Book. Jalali’s short story collection, Homesick Mosque and Other Stories was published in 2013. His play, The Poets and the Assassin, which is about women in Iran and Islam, was published in 2015. He has been a storyteller in the National Public Radio’s nationally-acclaimed The Moth Radio Hour. He coordinates the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs at USM and advises Muslim students at Bowdoin College.

This program is presented in partnership with the Holocaust and Human Rights Center attached to the library at the University of Maine in Augusta.

Lunch will be available for $10. Please pay at the door. Lunch will include a sandwich and salad buffet with a variety of breads, wraps, deli meats and cheeses, side salads such as kale or potato salad, fruit, veggies and hummus, and cookies. We'll also have soda, coffee, tea and water.

Please register for the Friday March 4 program no later than Tuesday, March 1, by contacting HHRC office administrator Jordan Bannister at jordan.bannister@maine.edu or by calling 621-3530. When you register please advise Jordan, if you have any dietary restrictions.

Please note: Registrants who request lunch are responsible for lunch fees.  If your plans change and you are unable to attend, please notify us so that lunch orders can be adjusted.