Stories As We Move: A HOME Interview Series 2022/2023

Biluge Ntabala (Congo/Milwaukee) in conversation with Azeb Weldemariam (Eritrea/Milwaukee) on March 17, 2023

Stories As We Move: A HOME Interview Series is an ongoing project that launched in 2020 as part of Lynden's HOME virtual platform. Previously named HOME Conversations with Ourselves, the series pairs individuals that have faced forced displacement and its changing forms in a conversational setting that is both purposeful and informational to interviewer, interviewee and their audience. Refugees, asylum seekers and migrants interview those that have resettled to the United States, including friends and family that are based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as well as those that remain overseas, covering various backgrounds and narrative identities, and professions, expertise and interests, including but not limited to artists, community members, advocates and leaders, healthcare workers, caseworkers, interpreters, and students and educators. These interviews are reflections of relationships and conversations that we continue to have long after resettlement; they explore issues that our refugee friends and family members continue to face as they remain in their country of origin or interim country.

About Biluge Ntabala
Biluge Ntabala was born in Congo and raised in Rwanda. She immigrated to the United States and attended Milwaukee’s High School of the Arts. She now holds a M.A. in International Affairs from Marquette University. She is the community health worker/coordinator at Ascension Family Health Center Clinic. Most of her work is in health advocacy for refugees and those that are often disregarded because of their circumstances. She uses her background in Political Science, and Master's in International Affairs, and life experience to teach those around her about proper treatment of the vulnerable. She loves her work and hopes to continue helping people.

About Azeb Weldemariam
Azeb Weldemariam resettled to the United States in the early 2010s from Eritrea, East Africa. She is bilingual, with Tigrinya being her first language. She is currently pursuing a master's degree in Occupational Therapy at Mount Mary University, and works as a rehab tech at Froedtert Hospital. She has worked in acute care, intensive care, trauma, neurology, oncology and sports medicine. She has been active throughout her academic years, which extends to working on the field as a caregiver to emphasize her program work before she began school. 

Check out the entire collection of Stories As We Move: A HOME Interview Series here.