UMaine Somali History Project Set for Folk Festival Stage Performance
Contact: George Manlove, 581-3756
ORONO — A group of UMaine faculty members and students will present a Somali Narrative Project Readers’ Theater performance at the American Folk Festival in Bangor Saturday and Sunday.
The performance, on the Maine Folklife Center Narrative Stage, is about Somali life, history and culture, and is scheduled Aug. 25, 4-5 p.m., and Aug. 26, 2-3 p.m.
The presentations include stories about Somali life from before and during the civil war, as well as stories from the diaspora and Maine. Collaborators include faculty members Mazie Hough, Kim Huisman, Kristin Langellier and Carol Toner and students Nasra Mohamed, Safia Nur, Hibat Sharif, Ismail Warsame, Khalid Mohamed, Abdirahman Osman and Britney Harris, joined by Lewiston-Auburn community members Ismail Ahmed, Hassan Adan, Qamar Bashir and Fatuma Hussein.
Huisman, Langellier, Hough and Toner established the Somali Narrative Project (SNP) in 2004 to address the rapid change and cultural tensions that emerged in response to the secondary migration of Somalis to Maine. The project is an interdisciplinary collaboration by University of Maine faculty, students and the Lewiston/Auburn community.
The project was made possible through the cooperation of the Maine Humanities Council, the University of Maine Center for Teaching Excellence and the University of Maine Women in the Curriculum and Women’s Studies Program.