Project Name: Telling Our Immigrant Stories in Literature and Art
Diaspora Partner: ARCHER (American Romanian Coalition on Human and Equal Rights) (Profile | Website )
Starting Date: September, 2022
Financing: Completed
Project Status: Completed
Total Project Budget: $5,000
Financed by RUF: $1,000
Short Description
Telling Our Immigrant Stories is a contest that invites college students (“traditional” and “nontraditional”) who identify as immigrants, migrants, refugees, or asylum-seeking individuals to submit writing and/or art through which they share their immigrant story.
Details
The contestants are part of a multi-ethnic, multi-racial diverse college age group of individuals who are enrolled in classes at a college or a university at the time of their submission. Entering the contest is free of charge. The contest categories are listed below. All awarded submissions will be published online.
- Essay: submit an essay no longer than 1000 words
- Poetry: submit a poem no longer than 20 lines
- Fiction: submit a story or an excerpt no longer than 2000 words.
- Visual art: This category includes painting, drawing, photography, and collage. Submit an image of your piece of visual art.
- Drama/film script: the submission should be no longer than 2000 words.
Awards:
- First Place – $200
- Second Place – $100
- Third Place – $50
- Honorable Mentions (if number of entries permit) – No cash award.
All awardees and honorable mentions recipients were invited to read their work in an online symposium, which was open to the wider public.
The event was a huge success that attracted students and audience members from across the United States. Romanian American novelist, playwright, and professor Dr. Domnica Radulescu and Yemeni American associate professor, Dr. Waleed Mahdi delivered inspiring and powerful talks underscoring the value of immigrant stories in imparting human and equal rights. During the event, attendees were also treated to music by Ana Everling, and were encouraged to unleash their creative storytelling by the award-winning Romanian American poet and writer, Alina Stefanescu.
