When Home Won’t Let You Stay: Stories of Refugees in America

Photographs by Jim Bowey

Exhibition: June 15 – July 28, 2019

Community Event:  Thursday July 18, 6-8:00 PM

WHEN HOME WON’T LET YOU STAY

“When Home Won’t Let You Stay” is a poignant traveling photography exhibition and community event series about refugees in Minnesota by documentary artist James A. Bowey. It provides a new perspective on the often hidden lives and compelling experiences of refugees in our communities. The number of globally displaced people has risen dramatically in recent years and is expected to continue to rise in response to ongoing conflicts, poverty, and climate change. International and national events have prompted debates in communities across the country about our duty to refugees, our American roots, and national identity. The exhibition consists of contemporary color portraits accompanied by first-person poetic stories that create an empathic experience of the plight and resilience of refugees working to make a new home in this country.

COMMUNITY EVENT

As part of the exhibition, James Bowey will present a live community event to consider the experiences of refugees, and our responses to the needs of displaced people around the world. Accompanied by live music and narrators from the community, he will present photographs, stories and reflections from “When Home Won’t Let You Stay,” and lead a community conversation about how current refugee policies and attitudes reflect the state of the empathetic imagination in our civic life. This compelling talk explores how we can bear witness in a contentious world, and awaken our imagination to the possibilities of hope, justice and human connection.