The Women and Gender Studies Program (WGS), in collaboration with Multicultural Student Affairs at USM will be holding their Annual Women’s History Month Dinner, which recognizes and honors the students, staff, faculty, and community members who have contributed to the program’s success.
Women’s History Month actually occurs during the month of March, but because of scheduling issues, the event is usually held at the end of February as a kick-off to the month.
The dinner will include Persian pastries, and a “really special menu” based on a Middle Eastern dinner.
Following the dinner will be a presentation entitled, “New Mainers: Stories of Survival and Arrival” which features four women describing the journey from their land of origin to Maine. These stories, along with many more, are the subject of the new Tilbury House publication, “New Mainers: Portraits of Our New Neighbors.”
With the upcoming release of the book, the WGS after dinner presentation will include speeches by immigrant women living in Maine, who were featured in the book.
“New Mainers,” a book of photographs by Jan Pieter van Voorst van Beest, texts by Pat Nyhan, and a foreword by USM’s own Reza Jalali, contains photographs and stories of twenty five refugees and immigrants living in Maine.
WGS Program Chair Lorrayne Carroll, says they chose the book becaus it represented “local people, interested in feminist approaches.”
WGS aims at “making our diversity clear” and with the book, “women’s history has brought them to Maine.”
Carroll goes on to say that “feminism is about understanding immigration in a larger, more particular frame”, an issue that “New Mainers” addresses.
Reza Jalali, Coordinator of Multicultural Student Affairs at USM, wrote the foreword for the book. He says his job at USM is to “include those students who often feel invisible, because students have to feel good about themselves.”
He says a few of the people interviewed for the new book have strong connections at USM, some of them professors and graduates.
Their stories are as diverse as the places they came from. Many people come from religious minorities, others are Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist.
He reiterates that while some of them are immigrants, others came here for economic reasons or marriage. Others are refugees.
He hopes that the book will create “an accurate picture of new Mainers, and dispel myths about immigrants and refugees.”
Jalali mentioned a recent article in Newsweek about how Somalis saved Lewiston. A caption in the article said: “a dying Maine mill town gets a fresh burst of energy.”
According to the article, since Somali immigrants first started arriving in 2001, “per capita income has soared, and crime rates have dropped.”
Enrollment at USM’s Lewiston Auburn Campus also went up, with immigrants seeking higher education.
Jalali believes there are many reasons why immigrants come to Maine.
“Some come for higher education, safety. people come for different reasons.”
This is an issue that is explored in the book. Some Mainers might not know that the state actually seeks out physicians from other countries because “rural Maine needs doctors, no one else wants to work up there.”
The book, which is officially released February 15th, will also be used as a textbook for a Political Science course at USM (POS 380) titled “Refugee Experience.”The course will show what happens when they come to Maine, including finding jobs.
Jalali emphasizes that immigrants have really helped bring a new energy to Maine.
If you walk along Congress Street it’s hard not to notice the ethnic restaurants such as Indian and Thai places, something that was not around until the mid-1980’s when immigrants began to arrive in Portland.
Jalali reminds us that prior to that there was no Indian food, no place to buy Kosher food, and no Muslim place for worship.
Even the suburbs are changing; more immigrants aspire to have status and move to bigger homes.
“It was always a dream of mine to write the book, and put a face on these hyphenated communities,” said Jalali.
He hopes the book will stop people from labeling them as “refugees” and “immigrants.”
Jalali anticipates that the book will educate Mainers about other cultures and about what is going on in other countries.
“It’s really up to the readers,” he said.
“People are realizing that the U.S. is changing and people hunger for accurate knowledge.”
“New Mainers: Stories of Survival and Arrival” will take place on Friday, February 27, 2009 at 6PM. It will be held at the Hannaford Hall in the Abromson Community Education Center on the USM campus in Portland. It is free and open to the public. FMI contact (207)780-4862/780-5798.
A book signing will follow the event’s program. Say It Loud, a local multicultural hip hop poetry troupe will be opening the program, and Shamou will provide Middle Eastern music throughout the night as well.
The USM Area Gallery will also be displaying the complete collection of J.P. van Voorst van Beest’s photographic portraits. New Mainers, Portraits of Our Immigrant Neighbors will be on display at the Area Gallery inside the Woodbury Campus Center in Portland from February 27, 2009 – March 30, 2009. FMI call (207)780-5008.