ARTS FESTIVAL 2022 RECORDINGS

REFUGEE STORIES ON STAGE: FINDING MEANING THROUGH STORYTELLING

In the months following 9/11, the unexpected migration of more than 2,500 Somali migrants to Lewiston and Auburn, Maine garnered national attention. The migration changed many lives, including for workshop instructor Cheryl Hamilton. Born and raised in the twin cities, Cheryl was hired to help manage the relocation efforts and to bridge relationships between newcomers and long-term residents. In 2008, Cheryl wrote and performed a one-person play based on her experience. The play addresses issues of refugee resettlement, racism, and sexual trauma. In this interactive workshop, we will explore the important role of theater in creating more inclusive spaces for refugees and others. To learn more about Cheryl and her company's work amplifying refugee and immigrant stories, visit www.stellarstory.com.

Instructor Bio: Cheryl Hamilton

Cheryl Hamilton has devoted her career to advancing more inclusive communities and storytelling. She brings more than 20 years of experience directing local and national nonprofit programs, including as the national coordinator for RefugeeWorks where she advised companies on how to welcome immigrants into their workforces. More recently, she was the creator and director of Suitcase Stories, a program that featured stories of refugee and immigrant life. As Founder and Executive Director of Stellar Story Company, she manages the curation and coaching for Stories from the Stage, a national media program produced by WORLDChannel in partnership with GBH events. In addition to the training and events she leads for institutions, Cheryl has coached over 400 people from 80 countries to tell their stories. Her personal stories have been featured on national podcasts and she routinely performs on stages throughout the U.S.

REPRESENTATION AND FILMMAKING WITH REFUGEES

Filmmaker Loch Phillipps and Tatjana Kulalic, a Bosnian Refugee who appears in Loch’s documentary, Utica: The Last Refuge, will talk about representations of refugees in the media. How does the media’s focus on the trauma suffered by refugees and their dramatic stories work for and against the ultimate goal of resettling them? How much agency do refugees have in how they are portrayed? How can we do a better job of helping them live safer and more productive lives? We will show selected scenes from the film to illustrate how the filmmaking team on the project addressed some of these questions.

SPEAKER BIO: LOCH PHILLIPPS

Founder of Off Ramp Films, Loch has been making films for 30 years. He left graduate school focused on fiction filmmaking, but quickly got bounced into documentaries as the primary editor for UNICEF in New York. From there he moved into shooting and producing, traveling widely. His work for international organizations has been televised from China to Brazil and on CNN International. More recently, Loch has been working with the multiple Emmy-winning production company Hock Films, directing films for ESPN, Fox Sports, and Major League Soccer. He was the main director for Hock’s series MLS Insider, which ran for 5 seasons and was nominated for an Emmy. 

Loch lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Lee Skaife, a filmmaker and sometime collaborator. They have two college aged children, Circe and Eero. He is currently co-directing a short film in western Pennsylvania with a recently arrived Burmese refugee, Hong Sar Mhan, and collaborating with the Rockefeller Institute to produce a series of short films on refugee resettlement in upstate New York.

SPEAKER BIO: TATJANA KULALIC

Tatjana was born in Bosnia and Herzegovina. As a result of the conflict that engulfed former Yugoslavia in 1992, she fled with her family to neighboring Croatia. She was granted refugee status and arrived in the United States with her family in December of 1998. Originally resettled in Columbia MD, the family moved to Utica in upstate NY in 2000, where she found employment with The Center, formerly known as the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees. There she works as the Coordinator for Immigration and Citizenship, helping refugees navigate residence issues and the citizenship process. Tatjana has one son, Isak, who is in college.  

ART, ACTIVISM, AND INTEGRATION

Anthony Romero is a Boston-based artist, writer, and organizer committed to documenting and supporting artists and communities of color. Recent projects and performances have been featured at the Blue Star Contemporary (San Antonio), The Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston) and the Mountain Standard Time Performative Art Biennial (Calgary, Canada). Publications include Lastgaspism: Art and Survival in the Age of Pandemic, coauthored with Daniel Tucker and Dan Wang, and The Social Practice That Is Race, coauthored with Dan S. Wage, and the exhibition catalogue Organize Your Own: The Politics and Poetics of Self-Determination Movements, or which he was the editor. He is a cofounder of the Latinx Artist Visibility Award, a national scholarship for Latinx artists produced in collaboration with artist J. Soto and OxBow School of Art. Romero is a Professor of the Practice at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University.

SPOKEN WORD POETRY: TABO BO

Tabo is a Karen refugee that immigrated to America when he was four years old. His experiences and activities growing up in Utica molded him into the person he is today. He grew up at Thea Bowman, was a Young Scholar, graduated from Proctor in 2018 where he was a part of JROTC and is currently a senior at Utica College. He is now 22 years old, and started exploring poetry and spoken word during quarantine. Loving bringing people together, he founded Nomadic Voices in 2020 – an open mic platform to allow himself and a variety of other young area talent and creators to share their gifts in a public space. You can catch their pop-up events throughout the year as they travel from city parks to other pockets of the city that come alive during their performances.

He has held over a dozen open mics at Kemble Park, Nurses Candlelight Park, MLK Park on South Street, Handshake.City, downtown on Charlotte Street. He has also performed at Levitt AMP Utica Music Series and most recently at the Bank of Utica’s New Years Eve event.