Stories As We Move: A HOME Interview Series
Yosan Yosief (Eritrea/Milwaukee, WI) in conversation with Lidya Gebrekidan (Eritrea/Milwaukee, WI) on February 24, 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 February 24, 2024, two young women who participate in Be the Change!, a HOME arts-based leadership program at Lynden, interviewed each other about their experiences as refugees.
About Yosan Yosief
Born in 2004, Yosan Yosief is originally from Eritrea and lived in Ethiopia for several years before arriving in the US in 2023. She is an honors student at South Division High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and was awarded Cardinal of the Month in November 2023. She aims to pursue a nursing career.
About Lidya Gebrekidan
Originally from Eritrea, Lidya Gebrekidan was born in 2002 and lived in Sudan for five years before resettling to the US in 2023. She aims to pursue nursing upon passing her GED, and would like to be a lifelong learner in many subjects and fields.
About HOME: Be the Change!
Be the Change! is a HOME arts-based leadership program for young women and girls from Milwaukee's refugee communities facilitated by Afghan women's rights advocate and HOME Refugee Steering Committee Member Maryam Durani. The 2023/2024 cohort includes youth leaders from the Afghan, Congolese, Eritrean, Rohingya, Rwandan, and Somali communities. As a pilot project, the 2023/2024 session is co-sponsored by the Rotary Club-Amigos After Hours, the Women's Club of Milwaukee Foundation, and Our City of Nations (OCON).
Check out the entire collection of Stories As We Move: A HOME Interview Series here.