Becoming Americans: Immigrant and Refugee Writing in the 21st Century

FAIN: GE-264721-19

AWM (Chicago, IL 60601-7426)
Carey Cranston (Project Director: August 2018 to November 2021)

A temporary, single-site, 900-square-foot exhibit that examines the influence on American culture of fiction, poetry, memoir, and other genres of writing by immigrants and refugees to the United States in the last thirty years.

The American Writers Museum (AWM) requests a $40,000 Exhibition Planning grant for Becoming American: Immigrant and Refugee Writing in the 21st Century, an interactive, technology-forward exhibit focused on writing by recent immigrants and refugees to the United States and its influence on our culture, history and national identity. As the nation's first and only museum dedicated to American writers, the AWM, located in downtown Chicago, is uniquely positioned to present this to a broad audience. Exhibition planning includes exhibit based curriculum for middle and high school students who visit the museum as part of the AWM's youth education program.

Associated Products

My America: Immigrant and Refugee Writers Today (Exhibition)
Title: My America: Immigrant and Refugee Writers Today
Curator: Ilan Stavans
Abstract: The exhibit features videoed interviews with 31 immigrant and refugee writers from 18 countries. The exhibit explores themes such as "Why Writing?" "Influence" "Language "Process" and "What is 'American?'" The exhibit includes books from each author, a timeline of milestones in U.S. immigration history, and "What is your immigration story?" where visitors share their own family stories of immigration to the United States. The exhibit is complemented by a program series featuring in-person and online events for the public with today's most influential immigrant and refugee writers, and a specially-designed, inquiry-based curriculum for middle and high school students.
Year: 2019
Primary URL: http://www.my-america.org
Primary URL Description: This URL leads to the virtual My America exhibit that was launched on April 7, 2020.

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