Stories of Arrival: Refugee & Immigrant Youth Voices Poetry Project
Founded by Merna in 2009, the Stories of Arrival: Refugee and Immigrant Youth Voices Poetry project takes place at Foster High School in Tukwila, WA, one of the most language and culturally diverse high schools in the U.S.
Uplifting Voices: A New Word Travels Project
What does home mean when home no longer exists in the same way? The words motherland, exile, and belonging are not just concepts. They live in the body I come to tears every single time I say the word home or motherland.
Holding the Earth Together
The garden is an IRC New Roots Program for refugee gardeners which also has a focus on youth programs that support learning about food systems and sustainability from a social justice perspective.
Our Table of Memories
As the project has grown, so too Merna’s commitment to nourishing community partnerships. In 2015 Merna established an intergenerational collaboration with Project Feast, an organization that serves refugee women that was located at the Tukwila Community Center and is now in Kent.
Bridging Borders with Words: Writing with Immigrants and Refugees
Merna’s article, “Poems Without Borders: Writing to Bear Witness” is part of a series in Teachers & Writers Magazine on writers working with immigrants and refugees. Read Merna’s full article here on her work with refugee women in Athens, Greece.
We Are the Future: Poems with A Voice for Peace
Proceeds from this full color book of heartfelt poems and striking images will directly benefit the Stories of Arrival project.