Stories As We Move: A HOME Interview Series

Sarimar (Myanmar/Milwaukee, WI) in conversation with Moe (Myanmar/Milwaukee, WI) on November 21, 2024

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.

In this episode, recorded on November 21, 2024, Karen sisters, Moe and Sarimar, discuss their future ambitions, the joys of their hobbies, and how to them, “home” is defined by people, rather than a place or a structure. They are also participants of the arts based youth leadership workshop, HOME Be the Change! 2024-2025 cohort at Lynden.

About Sarimar
Sarimar (Hnin Aye Khai Nan) was born in 2004 in Bangkok, Thailand as a Karen refugee. Ten years later, she resettled to Milwaukee, Wisconsin with her younger sister Moe and her family. She attended Casimir Pulaski High School and is class of 2026 in the funeral service program at Milwaukee Area Technical College. Sarimar is part of the HOME Be the Change! women and girls arts leadership program, 2024/2025 cohort, at the Lynden Sculpture Garden.  She loves reading, artmaking, and watching anime and participating in cosplay.

About Moe
Moe (Hnin Aye Moe Nan) is from the Karen refugee community and lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 2004, her family moved to the Ban Don Yang (BDY) in Thailand, and a year later, she was born there at a refugee hospital with the help of a midwife, as there was no licensed doctor in the area. She and her family, including her older sister, Sarimar, resettled to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 2014. She attended Pulaski High School and was a part of the Community Work Experiences (summer internship) with the City of Milwaukee Department of Public Work. She later transferred and graduated from South Side High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 2024 where she lived for some time to support extended family members. She returned to Milwaukee with hopes to pursue higher education and a career as a flight attendant. In the meantime, Moe is part of the HOME Be the Change! women and girls arts leadership program, 2024/2025 cohort, at the Lynden Sculpture Garden. In her free time, she enjoys crocheting and gifting her works of art to her closest friends and playing video games.

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