Saturday, May 11, 2019

2:30 – 3:30 pm

C O L L I N S   G A L L E R Y

3rd floor  • Central Library  • 801 SW 10th Ave •  Portland • Oregon

Free

Opening Reception

The Immigrant Story invites you to join us for the second annual memorial event hosted by the Multnomah County Central Library. This gallery opening will honor those affected by the horrific violence that took place aboard a Portland MAX train on May 26, 2017. The Immigrant Story, along with its partners, photographer Jim Lommasson and the Multnomah County Library, is privileged to take part in this event by telling stories of six Muslim women in our community.

Join us for the opening reception for this exhibition, featuring talks from Jim Lommasson, The Immigrant Story founder and publisher Sankar Raman, and Mariamou Abdoulaye. Mariamou, one of the women portrayed in the exhibition, will be telling her story about how she became the 2018 Rose Festival Princess from Benson Polytechnic. Light refreshments will be served.Light refreshments will be served.

The Exhibits

This opening collects two exhibits in one in order to draw attention to the resettled immigrant and refugee community in the Portland metro area. Collectively, the exhibit seeks to represent the emotions, humanity, creativity and resiliency of this community.

“WHO WE ARE: A Portrait Honoring Muslim Women in Our Community” explores the emotions of Muslim women in the aftermath of the violence that took place aboard a Portland MAX train on May 26, 2017. The six stories featured in this exhibit were documented by The Immigrant Story in 2017 and 2018. The first story was documented on June 29, 2017, just one month after the MAX incident. Each story is accompanied by a photo of the subject — with the women all wearing the traditional hijab.

“WHAT WE CARRIED: Fragments and Memories from Iraq and Syria” by award-winning photographer Jim Lommasson tells the stories of refugees fleeing the Iraq and Syrian wars. Lommasson photographed the objects the refugees brought with them to the United States — family snapshots, an archaeology book, heirloom china dishes, the Quran — on a white background and asked the owners to write directly on the open spaces left in the prints in order to elaborate upon each object’s significance. The resulting images are as beautiful as they are heartbreaking, providing viewers with only a small glimpse of what each person has lost.

The Immigrant Story is proud to be a platform for all underrepresented immigrant voices in our community. Our hope is that this display will provide an opportunity for visitors to explore the emotions of this particular community, which continues to bear the brunt of hate speech in the United States.

Please consider supporting and attending this event to honor the victims of the MAX incident.

Exhibition

May 11–June 23, 2019

C O L L I N S   G A L L E R Y

3rd floor  • Central Library  • 801 SW 10th Ave •  Portland • Oregon

Gallery Hours

Sun. 10 am–5 pm • Mon. 10 am–8 pm • Tues.–Wed. noon–8 pm • Thu.–Sat. 10 am–6 pm

Free