Over the weekend from Friday, July 29, to Sunday, July 31, three of the Monadnock Region’s cultural institutions — the Mariposa Museum, the Amos Fortune Forum, and the Monadnock Summer Lyceum—will cooperate to bring various interpretations of the refugee crisis to our attention.
At 8 p.m. on Friday, July 29, in the Jaffrey Meeting House, Susanne Wentzler will deliver this year’s fourth Amos Fortune Forum lecture. Her topic will be “The German refugee crisis, a threat or an opportunity? Reflections from an engaged volunteer.”
Wentzler will focus on her experiences when 180 refugees suddenly appeared in her small Bavarian town, just before Christmas last year.
Wentzler will put the problems of her village into the broader context of Germany as a whole, emphasizing the importance of volunteer organizations such as hers as the country attempts to fulfill Chancellor Angela Merkel’s vision that Germany has a moral, legal, and humanitarian duty to help refugees seeking asylum.
Then at 11 a.m. on Sunday, July 31, in the Peterborough Unitarian Universalist Church the Monadnock Summer Lyceum will host a lecture by Professor Karl Kaiser on “Refugees in Europe: Overture to a Global Crisis”.
Although Kaiser is a resident of Peterborough, he spends much time in Europe, including a visit from which he returned on July 7. He will describe how hunger and insecurity in North Africa and the Middle East are generating waves of refugees so large that they are taxing Europe’s ability to cope and threatening European unity. Indeed, the recent Brexit vote was driven in part by anti-refugee sentiment. Professor Kaiser will offer his insights on July 31.
After Professor Kaiser’s lecture, there will be a reception and refreshments at the Mariposa Museum. Visitors to the museum (free admission during the reception) will have the opportunity to view the Museum’s current exhibit of photographs by Becky Field, entitled “Different Roots, Common Dreams: NH’s Cultural Diversity.”
In 2010, Field learned that the homes of three refugee families in Concord had been defaced by hate-inspired graffiti. In response, she asked this immigrant community if she could take photographs to document their lives and share with others the richness that multiculturalism can bring to New Hampshire. The result was not only the stunning images included in the current exhibit, but also an award-winning book, “Different Roots, Common Dreams: New Hampshire’s Cultural Diversity.” This remarkable exhibit is part of a constellation of exhibits on view at the Mariposa now and which will continue to evolve this summer and winter under the broad topic, “Why Inclusion Matters.”
A sculpture by artist Maggie Cahoon, entitled “The Women,” depicting four generations of Iraqi and Syrian women, is another focal point of the current exhibition and is the artists response to the specific impacts of the refugee crisis on women and girls.
This innovative cooperation among the Amos Fortune Forum, the Mariposa Museum and the Monadnock Summer Lyceum is an indication of the concern about refugees and their host countries that all three organizations share, as well as the hope that solutions to this problem of global magnitude can be found.