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HOME WORLD REFUGEE DAY
June 26, 2022 @ 11:00 am – 4:00 pm CDT
FREE
A shuttle bus will run between the Park & Ride lot to the west of the Brown Deer Road exit of I-43. For further information on free transportation options to Lynden, please contact us at info@lyndensculpturegarden.org or call 414-446-8794.
The HOME Refugee Steering Committee at the Lynden Sculpture Garden invites you to observe World Refugee Day in a series of outdoor events and programs that celebrate Milwaukee’s refugee communities through art, food, fashion, and performance.
Bring a picnic–or pick up snacks from the Tables Across Borders booth, featuring community chefs–and enjoy the outdoors with friends, family, and community.
World Refugee Day at Lynden is organized as both a resource fair and a celebration of many cultures. In addition to making art, tasting food, and listening to stories, poems, and music, visitors will be able to gather information on local services for refugees. Stop in to sign up for a library card, to get a blood pressure reading or even a COVID vaccination, or to learn more about the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development’s Worker Connection Program. (Full list of resource fair participants below).
Under the big tent, you’ll find vendors from the HOME community and resource booths staffed by refugee-serving agencies and community-based organizations including Anthem Blue-Cross Blue-Shield; Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, Division of Employment and Training, Worker Connection Program; Hmong American Friendship Association; Hanan Refugee Relief Group; Milwaukee Public Library; Community Center for Immigrants; Milwaukee Public Schools – Department of Bilingual Multicultural Education; Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition; Bloom For Growth; American Red Cross; Catholic Charities Milwaukee; Institute of World Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; Essentially Empowered, Inc.; Burmese Rohingya Community of Wisconsin, and more.
Snacks and lunch food, including injera bites, samosas, pancakes, and bolani, will be provided by the chefs of Tables Across Borders: Abebech Jima (Ethiopia); Sar Kay Lah (Karen); Ifrah Yusuf (Somalia); and Wazhma Ahmadzai (Afghanistan). Please bring cash for donations.
All-day activities include batik dyeing with artist-in-residence Arianne King Comer (we will provide you with a T-shirt to dye and take home). In the gallery, we open HEALING COATS, an exhibition organized by Arianne King Comer featuring wearable art designed and made by refugee, immigrant, Black, and Indigenous artists, tailors, and community members.
The program will begin with a land acknowledgement with artist Valaria Tatera and a series of interfaith prayers organized by the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee. As this is happening, Abebech Jima will be conducting a traditional and aromatic Ethiopian buna ceremony, roasting raw coffee beans and spices.
Hayat Pharmacy will be onsite from 11 am to 1 pm. Let Hayat Pharmacy keep you up to date with your COVID vaccinations and boosters, or stop in to check your blood pressure. Bring your CDC vaccination cards, insurance card, and ID if possible.
From noon until 1 pm, Claudia Orjuela and Julio Pabon take Lynden’s virtual Multilingual Story Time outdoors. They will be reading Señorita Mariposa by Ben Gundersheimer in Spanish and English as they connect Story Time’s theme of migration to Lynden’s gardens. Expect singing, monarch caterpillars, eggs, and milkweed seeds.
At 1:30 pm, artist-in-residence Chuck Stebelton assembles a group of poets, refugees, historically displaced people, and social justice advocates for a Poetry Walk. The group will share poems together in an open, multilingual conversational setting as they travel around Lynden’s grounds. Invited readers include past Wisconsin and Milwaukee poets laureate, translators, and artists with a practice of thinking and writing in poetic forms. Participants include: Alex Niemi (English, Ukrainian, Georgian); Franklin K.R. Cline (English);Brenda Cárdenas (English, Spanish); Inna Dmitrieva (Russian, English); Khatera Nazari (Afghan, English); Nada Azalloum (Arabic, English); Margaret “Peggy” Rozga (English); Ibrahima Fall (English, French, Wolof); Portia Cobb (English, Gullah); and Biluge Ntabala (English, Congolese).
We finish the day with Milwaukee’s hottest percussion ensemble, Samba da Vida. Pull out your dancing shoes and join them as they perform from 3-4 pm.
About HOME
HOME is the theme of our work with refugee community leaders, community members, Call & Response artists, and allies. The HOME Refugee Steering Committee is building a space of leading, coming together, and celebrating refugees.
The HOME 2022 celebration will continue with three more “days” featuring music, dance, and fashion (both ethnic and traditional), and two markets offering handicrafts and homemade goods. For all HOME 2022 programming, click here.
HOME 2022 is sponsored in part by the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families, Refugee Programs; Anthem Blue-Cross Blue-Shield; Hanan Refugee Relief Group; Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition; the Institute of World Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; Our City of Nationals Conference at the Medical College of Wisconsin; the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation; Hayat Pharmacy; Islamic Society of Milwaukee; Milwaukee Public Library; the Community Center for Immigrants; and the Hmong American Women’s Association.
Additional partners include the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development Worker Connection Program and the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
