S228.
From Writing Workshop to Community Action: Storytelling as Immigration Advocacy
Saturday, March 26, 2022
3:20 pm to 4:20 pm
A workshop developed at a rural two-year campus in northern Wisconsin introduced students to oral storytelling traditions, structure, and style. Along with performing their own stories, students partnered with community groups to present the stories of marginalized voices. These service-learning projects led the presenters to feature the survival stories of local Somali immigrants, separated from family for years by restrictive policies, in a documentary film to be be discussed in this panel.
Participants
Joel Friederich is a poet and associate professor at the University of Wisconsin Colleges. Blue to Fill the Empty Heaven, his full-length collection of his poetry, won the Gerald Cable Award. His chapbooks are Without Us and The Body We Gather.
Lee Friederich is an associate professor at Akita International University in Japan, where she teaches Japanese literature and English literature. A poet and translator of Japanese women's poetry, she has worked with the Barron Somali community as an ESL teacher.
Dang Yang is the director for the Office of Multicultural Affairs at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Prior to this role, Yang served as the diversity manager at Chippewa Valley Technical College (CVTC) and the multicultural recruitment and retention coordinator at University of Wisconsin-Stout's School of Education.
Nancy Pike is a literacy tutor in the Barron County, Wisconsin area. As an outgrowth of that experience and relationships made, she cofounded Immigrant Advocates of Barron County to educate the community about systemic wrongs committed against local families and to work with family members for change.
