OUR STORY | Iraqi Minnesotans and U.S. veterans tell their stories: Meet them January 24
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Luke Wilcox of the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project told TCDP about the January 24 reception for U.S. vets and Iraqi refugees who told their stories through the Veterans Book Project. The reception will be 7-9 p.m. at the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business, Schulze Hall Atrium, 1000 LaSalle Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55403Iraqi immigrants living in Minnesota and U.S. veterans of the Iraq war told their stories in books and videos, through the Veterans Book Project.How did this project start?The director of the Veterans Book Project, Monica Haller, a local artist — she and I had conversations with visiting Iraqi artists who were participating in an art exhibit that IARP organized in 2010 in Minneapolis.These visiting Iraqi artists said they did not think Iraqis had a voice in American media or consciousness — the stories of just ordinary Iraqis were not being heard by Americans.Monica’s project — the Veterans Book Project — had been creating books with veterans. She and I decided to expand that project to add Iraqi voices, to include both Iraqis and American veterans to tell how the war had impacted, affected and changed lives.So we applied for a grant and got some funding through the Minnesota State Arts Board to work with local Iraqis. Some had been here a while, some grew up here — a variety of Iraqi voices here, who had experienced war in different ways. Continue Reading