New England Public Radio has collected the personal stories of nearly 30 people from around the world who have made their new home in western New England. An extensive oral history project, Words in Transit: Bhutan to Springfield, Romania to Hartford, Palestine to Amherst, traverses continents and cultures to illuminate the many pathways leading to our small corner of the globe. It explores shared experiences among the refugees, immigrants and DREAMers creating a new life in a foreign land. Excerpts from the project will air beginning Monday, May 4 during New England Public Radio’s Morning Edition. The project is a collaboration with Amherst College’s Copeland Colloquium.
The project, at NEPR.net/wordsintransit, includes first-person narrative recordings, accompanying photo essays by Beth Reynolds of Base Camp Photo, an interactive map showing where each participant’s journey began, and resources for new immigrants in western New England. There are currently seven stories posted online at NEPR.net/wordsintransit. Over the next few weeks, new interviews will be added every few days until the complete collection of 30 narratives and photographs is posted.
Beginning Monday, May 4, New England Public Radio will air six selections from the project during the station’s news magazines, Morning Edition (5 – 9 am) and All Things Considered (4 – 6:30 pm). The first, which airs Monday during Morning Edition, features Holyoke Community College student Angelica Merino Monge, who lived here undocumented until recently, when the DACA Act (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) was passed, enabling her to become authorized to work and receive deferred action status. Committed to encouraging fellow DREAMers to be open about their situations, she is one of the organizers of the Out of the Shadows March in Amherst and president of the HCC Latino International Students’ Association.
“This has been an extraordinary project for all of us involved,” said John Voci, NEPR’s Director of Programming and the project’s Executive Producer. “Our goal was to put a face on, and add a voice to, the discussion of immigration, and to bring the national conversation home to our community.”
Producers Tema Silk and Cathleen O’Keefe, along with a team of interns from Amherst and Mount Holyoke Colleges, spent months following leads to locate thirty immigrants, refugees and DREAMers from around New England Public Radio’s listening region in order to collect their stories.
“Some have just arrived, some have lived in America for decades,” said Silk of the participants. “Some risked everything — their lives included — to come here. Some are deeply grateful to have left their native countries, others struggle to feel safe here, or to overcome the sense of isolation and loss that comes with being perceived as “other” in the place one calls home. All have had to find ways to belong in a different culture. I feel richer for getting to hear these tales of strength and humility, and hope our listeners will too.”
Connect to the project here: http://digital.nepr.net/wordsintransit/