This is part of Stories from the Diaspora, a program of Portland Meet Portland (PMP) from 2018–19 that centered and raised diaspora voices through inclusive and collaborative media. These stories originally appeared on PMP's website and have been slightly altered to accomodate their new home on Oregon Humanities' platform. Explore other stories from this project in the related stories column on the right.
Chapter One: Connections
In Chapter One of A Sense of Home, neighbors Qudsia Ashan and Maureen Michaelson meet for the very first time and learn that they share some amazing connections and coincidences in their life journeys. Listen to the podcast below to learn more about Qudsia's flight as a refugee from Afghanistan to the United States, and how her path has taken her from Kabul, to UCLA valedictorian, to the Columbia River Gorge. You can also download each episode of this incredible story via SoundCloud and please share with your own friends and neighbors across the greater Portland area.
Music Cues
Broke For Free - As Colorful As Ever
loscil - cotom
loscil - biced
loscil - The Making of Grief Point (instrumental)
loscil - Endless Falls
Blue Dot Sessions - Thread Caramb
Chapter Two: Gates of Kabul
In Chapter Two of A Sense of Home, Qudsia Ashan speaks about the day her father told the family they had to leave everything behind and secretly make their way out of Kabul, Afghanistan. Listen to the podcast below to learn more about Qudsia's flight as a refugee from Afghanistan to the United States, and how her path has taken her from Kabul, to UCLA valedictorian, to the Columbia River Gorge.
Music Cues
Blue Dot Sessions - Exceter Lask
Incompetech - Lithium
Jesse Ahmann - Very low cello music with binaural effect, peaceful and mourning YouTube: Montana Cellist
Incompetech - Dark Fog
Blue Dot Sessions - Cicle DR Valga
Chapter Three: Escape
In Chapter Three of A Sense of Home, Qudsia shares the story of her mountain journey by jeep and on foot, in order to escape from persecution. Listen to the podcast below to learn more about Qudsia's flight as a refugee from Afghanistan to the United States, and how her path has taken her from Kabul, to UCLA valedictorian, to the Columbia River Gorge.
Music Cues
loscil - cotom
Incompetech - Mystery Bazaar
Blue Dot Sessions - The Air Escaping
Incompetech - Echoes of Time
Chapter Four: The Oath
In Chapter Four of A Sense of Home, Qudsia Ashan explains what it meant to her to take the oath to become a US citizen and shares some exceptional advice from her father. Listen to the podcast below to learn more about Qudsia's flight as a refugee from Afghanistan to the United States, and how her path has taken her from Kabul, to UCLA valedictorian, to the Columbia River Gorge.
Music Cues
Ustad Gada Mohammad - Sara Pola Mollan
Scorebuzz Music - Specialty Scifi Retro
loscil - Estuarine
Incompetech - Mesmerize
Blue Dot Sessions - Transit Alias
Chapter Five: A Sense of History
In Chapter Five of A Sense of Home, Maureen Michaelson speaks about her experience with the Eagle Creek Fire, and both Manuel and Qudsia speak personally about why the Columbia River Gorge is a part of Oregon's natural heritage. Listen to the podcast below to learn more about Qudsia's flight as a refugee from Afghanistan to the United States, and how her path has taken her from Kabul, to UCLA valedictorian, to the Columbia River Gorge.
Music Cues
Kai Engel - Low Horizon
Blue Dot Sessions - The Telling
Blue Dot Sessions - Cicle Deserrat
Blue Dot Sessions - Vik Fenceta
Blue Dot Sessions - Base Camp
Storyteller Qudsia Ashan
Featuring Maureen Michaelson and Manuel Padilla
Program Director Jason Jones
Animator Laura Medina
A/V Editing J. Jones
Executive Director Manuel Padilla
Animator Laura Camila Medina, Artist's Statement
Through different mediums such as animation, printmaking, and painting my practice focuses on themes of memory, home, and cultural identity. My work emphasizes the questions arising from the experience living as an immigrant in the US and an outsider at home. Utilizing the method of memory palaces, I reconstruct spaces reflective of my cultural background through drawing, digital media, and sound installations. I utilize a unique combination of traditional mediums within digitally constructed spaces to create visual analogies of cultural hybridity. My art strives to express the complexities of immigrant experiences within the context of our current political and social situation.
Laura Camila Medina is an interdisciplinary artist born in Bogotá, Colombia and raised in Orlando, Florida. She bases her practice around uprooting and migration as a response to personal, cultural, and historical research. Medina is constantly inspired by her memories of home, her mother’s arepas, and her father’s soundtracks.
Medina's work has shown at the Center for Contemporary Art & Culture, Blackfish Gallery, PLANETA New York, and through the Nat Turner Project. She earned her BFA at the Pacific Northwest College of Art and is currently based in Portland, OR.
Contact Laura for art and commissions at lmedina@pnca.edu.
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