Friday, October 5, 2018
6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Hillsboro Brookwood Library
2850 NE Brookwood Pkwy,
Hillsboro, OR 97124
Free
We invite you to join us for a panel discussion that seeks to draw attention to a part of the world where some of the worst humanitarian crises are ongoing.
In support of “Hillsboro Reads” events organized by the Hillsboro Library, we will be presenting a panel discussion on Friday, October 5, 2018, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Brookwood Library Art Gallery located at 2850 NE Brookwood Pkwy, Hillsboro, Oregon, 97124.
Join artist Farooq Hassan, and photographers Jim Lommasson and Sankar Raman to discuss how we can better understand crises through art and visual expression. This event will be moderated by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Len Reed, formerly of The Oregonian and Los Angeles Times.
Panelists:
Farooq Hassan is an Iraqi-born painter whose distinguished career spans over 60 years. He is a celebrated and internationally renowned artist whose work has been shown in galleries in London, Amman (Jordan), Basra (Iraq), Baghdad and Portland. He has also designed more than 80 stamps for the Iraqi post office and had over 10 paintings at the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad, which were destroyed during the looting of this museum. Hassan draws upon his vast experiences and techniques developed and perfected over many years of artistic pursuits. He came to the U.S. as a refugee and, after resettling in Portland, has added to his exceptional body of work.
Jim Lommasson is a freelance photographer and writer living in Portland, Oregon. Lommasson received the Dorothea Lange–Paul Taylor Prize from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University for his first book, “Shadow Boxers: Sweat, Sacrifice & the Will to Survive in American Boxing Gyms.” The exhibit, “What We Carried: Fragments and Memories from Iraq and Syria,” documents the life-changing journey of refugees from Iraq and Syria and sheds light on the trials and tribulations they experienced in their search for stability.
Sankar Raman is a Northwest digital art photographer who founded The Immigrant Story, which documents and archive the voices and stories of immigrants in short, accessible, visual and written formats. Its vision is to provide curated and relevant content to enhance empathy and create an inclusive community with a goal of advancing a national dialogue and to dispel myths about new Americans through strong, thoughtful, narrative storytelling. He is board president of The Immigrant Story.
Moderator:
Len Reed is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, who has worked as a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times and as associate editor for The Oregonian. As a member of The Oregonian editorial board, Reed moderated several public sessions in Portland on pressing social policy concerns, among them homelessness and Oregon’s adoption of recreational marijuana. He is a former John S. Knight Fellow at Stanford University and has lived in Oregon since 1995.