All tagged Refugee
War, Art + The Hardships That Shape Our Lives / Milica Popovic
In this episode, Cynthia Jones and I speak with Milica Popovic, Associate Professor of Art at the College of Southern Idaho. Milica discusses her personal experiences with the social and economic disintegration in her home country of Serbia, during the fracturing of the Republic of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. She describes how her and her husband left their home country and made their way to the United States, where Milica eventually settled in Twin Falls, Idaho, and took up a position at the College of Southern Idaho, where this interview was conducted. In our discussion, Milica also discusses the impact trauma has had on her art, and how producing art has helped her work with the traumatic memories she carries with her to this day.
Our Humanity In Times Of Peril: War, Community + Revisiting Trauma / Samra Culum
Samra Culum is Student Development Coordinator at the College of Southern Idaho (CSI), and a refugee. As a child, Samra fled with her family from war-torn Bosnia, and through the CSI Refugee Resettlement Program, settled in Twin Falls, Idaho with her family.
In this episode, Samra discusses what her and her family experienced in her community in Bosnia as underlying tensions and divisions broke out into war and ethnic cleansing, and what the process of escaping and eventually resettling in the United States was like. Samra then goes over her feelings and thoughts about the recent surge of anti-refugee sentiment that has emerged in the Twin Falls area surrounding the CSI Refugee Resettlement Program in recent years, and how difficult, painful, and important it is to revisit traumatic memories and experiences and process them in a meaningful way.
America's Identity Crisis / Liyah Babayan
Liyah Babayon is an Armenian refugee, activist, entrepreneur, and business owner of Ooh La La consignment boutique in Twin Falls, Idaho.
I first became familiar with Liyah after she was featured in a Slate article that explored the upsurge of anti-refugee activism in the city of Twin Falls, Idaho. I approached her to do a podcast with me, and what resulted was an in-depth and fascinating discussion into her personal history as a refugee, of starting a business during the financial crisis of 2007-2008, the Armenian Genocide, the geopolitical chess game being played between the United States and Russia in Syria and the greater Middle East, her personal experience with the xenophobic anti-refugee activism that has grown in this community, and living in this place and time during the great experiment that is America, as well as many other fascinating subjects.