Julia Nekessa Opoti is the producer and host of Reflections of New Minnesotans on AM950 where she interviews immigrants from all over the world who have made Minnesota their home, temporary or permanent.As a writer, Nekessa has reported extensively on Somali, Liberian and other immigrant issues in the Twin Cities for the Twin Cities Daily Planet. She served as editor of Mshale, an immigrant African newspaper.Nekessa is the co-founder and publisher of the Kenya Imagine, an opinion and analysis portal that is on hiatus.For questions, tips and story ideas send her an email at nekessa@tcdailyplanet.net.
Kathryn Haddad’s Zafira the Olive Oil Warrior looks at what would happen if Arab and Muslim Americans were held in internment camps just as Japanese Americans were in the ’40s. In this haunting play, school teacher Vicki, played by Taous Khazem, is emboldened by her alter-ego, Zafira. I interview Haddad and Khazem on the making and performance of the play. Haddad says, “It’s ten years later, and what does the world look like in a time of ‘peace’ in America? Young people recruited for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The general public is willing to accept racial profiling and infiltration of private communications of its citizens now. Continue Reading
As the US looks back at September 11th, ten years later, it is important that we look at the political and social legacies left in the wake of that tragic event. We are particularly reminded that the lives of many Americans have changed. Immigration and civil rights lawyers Taneeza Islam and Munazza Humayan, both from the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN), discuss cases and trends that demonstrate the increasing loss of civil liberties of Muslim Americans (as well as those perceived as being Muslim) post 9/11. While cases of hate crimes are not as prevalent in Minnesota as they are in other parts of the country, we still learn that it could be better. [Audio below] Continue Reading
This week I interview local musician, Ethiopian-born, Yohannes Tona. His compositions have influences from around the world (mostly jazz, Afro-funk, highlife and soul) and can be sampled from his first album Sand from the Desert Storm which we play on this week’s show. Yohannes has also just finished producing an album for another local Ethiopian soul singer Asayehegn “Iyu” Alemu whose music you also hear on the show. [Audio below]PS. I was excited about doing a music show at the state fair because we’d have a live audience. Unfortunately, we were interrupted by a state fair parade that was too loud to allow for Yohannes and I to chat in between the songs. Continue Reading
As the world raises money to support relief work in parts of East Africa affected by a famine and severe drought, a small, but important fact remains largely unknown: the American government is restricting the flow of humanitarian aid to central and southern Somalia, the most hard hit regions with the most need.Free Speech ZoneThe Free Speech Zone offers a space for contributions from readers, without editing by the TC Daily Planet. This is an open forum for articles that otherwise might not find a place for publication, including news articles, opinion columns, announcements and even a few press releases. Minnesota Senators Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar have written a letter to Hilary Clinton urging the State Department lift these restrictions. The letter reads in part,The U.S. government’s expansion of the Office of Foreign Assets Control [OFAC] license should enable humanitarian organizations to partner with the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development to deliver aid and save lives in difficult conditions without being in conflict with U.S. laws and regulations.As part of its war on terror, the American government has diligently tracked money from here to other parts of the world. In August, last year, two Minnesota women of Somali descent were arrested for allegedly supporting Somalia’s militia, al-Shabaab.U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder called the cases in Minnesota, California and Alabama a “deadly [pipeline” of terrorist support.But, were these isolated incidences? Continue Reading
I have been torn on what charities to support with the famine in East Africa. I am wary of supporting the aid culture, but I also understand that this is a crisis that needs the world’s urgent financial response. As it turns out, a few friends were also looking to identify effective ways to contribute to the drought/famine crisis. You can read more about the East Africa Relief project here, but for now listen as we discuss smart giving, poverty porn, the politics of international aid and climate change. Quotes from the show:There is a serious sustainability question. Continue Reading
Last year, May Lee-Yang was a hit at the Minnesota Fringe Festival with her play Confessions of a Lazy Hmong Woman. This year, with five shows at Intermedia Arts, she brings you 10 Reasons Why I’d Make a Bad Porn Star. Listen in as we talk developing Hmong theater in Minnesota, her Bush Fellowship, feminism, and sex as taboo.Go see her at Intermedia Arts, you will be pleasantly surprised. [Audio below] Continue Reading
“It pains me that the world is watching as Somalia experiences extreme famine. Is the world watching as a country is wiped out? Why is there no outcry?” Daniel Abebe asks.Back in 1984, Abebe saw a dramatically different response when famine hit his home country, Ethiopia. Then he was a graduate student in Minnesota, working at the university hospital. Today he’s a university dean at Metropolitan State University. Continue Reading
Axis Medical Center’s chief of staff, Dr. Abdirahman D. Mohamed, chats with me about the current famine in Somalia reflecting on the impact this humanitarian crisis is having on his patients here in Minnesota. Dr. Mohamed also addresses Somalia’s 20-yr old war, aid agencies, foreign governments and their failure to intervene in Somalia sooner. [Audio below]Read other TC Daily Planet articles on famine in Somalia. See list of organizations to donate to for famine relief. Continue Reading
Robert Karimi, an interdisciplinary artist and activist, uses his Iranian/Guatemalan heritage as a background for his artistic expression in poetry, storytelling, visual and performance art to explore what he calls “sampled consciousness”. Karimi is currently an artist-in-residency at Intermedia Arts in South Minneapolis. How do we “shape-shift” our identities, not just as immigrants, but as people occupying multiple spaces? How do we negotiate with our multiple identities?Piles of Rice (spoken word piece created by Karimi as an Intermedia Arts resident)Kaotic Good (Karimi’s website)The Cooking Show (still a work-in-progress, but find details and recipes on the innovative show where art, culture and food intersect)On July 27th (7pm), Karimi will host a community pot-luck, with a twist at Intermedia Arts. Artists, and writers, many times have a platform to show how current events affect their daily lives; and Karimi does just that with the Iranian hostage crisis and the days following 9/11. How does he marry, not only his ethnic diversity, but also his Catholic and Muslim identities? Continue Reading
Harrowing images of starving Somalis are reminiscent of the 1984 famine that left one million Ethiopians dead. There are reports of women walking for up to four weeks, without food and water, from Somalia to refugee camps in northern Kenya only to watch their children die from exhaustion, thirst and malnutrition. Images of emaciated children with hollow cheeks and sunken eyes looking at their mothers for help they can’t provide are heart-wrenching. The drought and famine are made worse in Somalia by the civil war, but also threaten lives in other countries of East Africa.Read other TC Daily Planet articles on famine in Somalia. See list of organizations to donate to for famine relief. Continue Reading
