Category: Storytelling

Shall We Dance Bollywood?

As a student in India, Prashant worked hard and finally achieved the American dream of a well-paying job in engineering and a career that made his parents proud.  

Food Feeds our Souls

Born in Tehran, Iran in 1978, during the Iranian revolution, Sara came to Portland with her family in 1986. As young teenagers,

Taking Some Losses to Win

TK grew up in segregated Rhodesia under British control and experienced the joyous birth of independent Zimbabwe. As a young lawyer,  

There is No Peace in Kunar Valley

As a boy growing up in a remote valley near the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, Nasirullah was fascinated by the US soldiers who came to fight the Taliban  

This is what I want, To Be Who I Am

Franke Tokam-Powell was born in Douala, Cameroon. As a quiet effeminate boy, he always felt he did not fit in so, when he got the chance to go to college […]

One Voice Brings a Big Change

Meghna Damani grew up in the thriving city of Mumbai, India and established herself in a flourishing career in marketing. But when she married her long-time boyfriend 

Caught Between War and Paperwork

Newly married, Ghassan Bin Hammam came to get a graduate degree in the US, planning to return to Yemen to teach. But, on a quick trip back  

I’m Not Supposed to Be Here

Chanpone Sinlapasai was born in war-torn Laos and came to the US at age four. As a child acting as interpreter for her parents, she soon realized  

My Self-Honoring Choices

Peggy Nagae grew up in Boring, Oregon, the second generation of her family to be born in the US. With other Japanese Americans, her parents and grandparents

The Immigrant Story Live: See Jane Run

The trauma of war has followed Jane Mantiri from her birthplace in Indonesia soon after the Indonesian Revolution to her early childhood in the Netherlands  

On My Parents’ Shoulders

Growing up in Taiwan, Janet Liu had no memory of her father, who had left to study abroad when she was very young. At age 10, she finally met him

An Orphan’s Long Journey Home

Liani Reeves arrived in the US when she was only a few months old. With no way to trace her ties to her birth family in Korea, she grew up […]

Nothing Else But Miracles

Samir was a teenager in love, his days full of farm chores, school and walking his girlfriend home. When war came to his corner of northeastern Bosnia,  

A Story I Never Signed Up For

Rama could not escape the war all around her – the sounds of bullets, the sights of suicide bombings, the constant fear of being caught in the middle of an […]