ARTS AT THE ARMORY —SOMERVILLE, MASSACHUSETTSFRIDAY, APRIL 30, 2010

SUPPORTED BY:

A BENEFIT FOR:

Y U M : A TA S T E O F I M M I G R A N T C I T Y

CELEBRATION & FUNDRAISER

The Welcome Project Community 2010 Mystic Wizards Kallin Toussaint • Reno Toussaint • Rene Peralta • Rachel Peralta • Jacob Ojeda • Joanna Ojeda • Moises Ojeda • Jonathan Aguilar • Mirian Aguilar • Milton Diaz • Jose Diaz • Odali Diaz • Janelly Diaz • Carline Legrand • Berlineda Legrand • Jony Martinez • Yahaida Aguilon

Liaison Interpreters Program of Somerville (LIPS) The languages spoken by our LIPS youth are: English, Spanish, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, Nepali, Hindi, and Mandarin Chinese.

Ritesh Adhikari • Betty Calixte • Clivia Camara • Kai Chen • Isabela De Carvalho Bravin • Navdeep Kalia • Romi Lama • Gabriel Maldonado • Bianca Mampoint • Jessica Masse • Digvijay P. Devkota • Laxchita Shrestha • Subrina Thapa • Kathleen Portillo • Daniela Regalado • Debora Oliveira • Chaudeline Francois

English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Our current ESOL students are immigrants from the following countries: Brazil, El Salvador, Russia, Morocco, Haiti, Vietnam, Egypt, Colombia, Guatemala, Cameroon, Venezuela, Peru, Honduras, Japan, and Cape Verde.

Eber Guimaraes • Jailson Santos • Nathy Martinez • Djalma DeSouza • Roberto Escobar • Basilia Mendoza-Ramirez • Emma Ramos • Jose Luis Lopez • Marina Zaslavskiy • Nisrein Eshtaiwi • Patricia Sanchez • Sherry • Jaime Valle • Marie • Lila Almorshady • Doan Pham • Joelma Lemos • Valdeci De Sousa • Celsa Munoz • Yvania Mejia Escobar • Alexander Rivera • Angela Corado«Donizete Soares • Erik Ferreira • Jaime Rivera • Joffy Manje • Jose Interiano • Maria Silva • Maria Quispe • Maria Moreno • Maria Guadalupe Ojeda • Mariela Hernandez« Marta Martinez • Maryann Vo • Minako Maruyama • Spiro Jorgo • Bethelmy Desvarieux • Destina Michel • Rosa Sofia Huaman • Tirza Braga • Maria Calmo • Alceione Garcia • Alexis Vladamir Flores • Marie Denise St. Fleur • Nilda Vivas • Nohelia Lopez • Oscar Sanchez • Joana Lopez • Shirley Castillo • Valeria Andrade • Yajaira Monge • Yanira Pascacio • Yessenia Rojas Ramirez • Dalva Pereira Millar • Geraldine Lenkoue • Jhon Llorada • Kerline Desrochiers • Liliana Cortes • Maria Calmo • Miguel Mejia • Noni Morales • Johnny Ovilmar • Stella Stone • Wendy Mendoza • Wilberto Marcio Moreiro de Melo • Iris Nacimiento • Perci Vargas • Meirinni Coelho • Reina Mendoza • Renilda • Cleonice Pereira • Fatima • Benilda Souza • Douglas Escalon • Edimilson Alves • George da Silva• Maria de Silva • Jaime Mendoza • LucianaCosta • Mauro Antonio BaumDaCosta • Stella Stone • Alejandro Osorno • Anderson Silva • Ataise Nunes • Bernal Murillo • Carline St. Hilaire • Claudio Oliviera • Daniel • Souza • Dericelia Basilio • Deusmira de Barros • Fanora Gatti • Gardy Mathieu • Georges Precilien • Jose Rosa Crescencio • Juan Jose Gutierrez • Karla Calixto • Kele Alves • Luciana Costa • Lucineia Almeida • Marcelo DeOliveira • Margarita Alfaro • Marie-Denise Raymond • Pollyana Reis • Rozine Sanon • Shantall Robinson • Yanira Vivas • Suzette Sincere • Maria Carvalho • Jacilene • Maria Da Silva • Miguel Mejia • Lucitha Saint-Juste • Margarette Moraes • Winter Jean Louis • Jose Lopez • Maria Esperanza Perez • Milagros Umana • Wilson Teixeira • Carlos Bolanos • Maria Morales • Jose Antonio Vega • Nehemias Escalon Flores • Santos Isabel Rivera • Vilma Cardoza • Marie Monique Alpheris • Sury Gonzales • Thelia Tienne Cheristin • MariElena Cardoza • Emmanuel Cheristin

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Welcome to YUM: A Taste of Immigrant City YUM: A Taste of Immigrant City is a multi-year collaborative project designed to support and promote local immigrant-run

restaurants in Somerville, MA. The initiative includes the YUM Restaurant Card, interviews with restaurant owners, photographic and video essays, as well as special events to support the restaurants. The YUM initiative grew out of Immmigrant City: Then and

Now, a project that shares the stories of Somerville's immigrant communities across generations and cultures. Our purpose is to promote community understanding, respect, and to help recognize and strengthen the assets that the city's many cultures bring to make the city a better place. Key partners include The Welcome Project and faculty, staff, and students in several departments and schools of Tufts University. For the YUM project, Tufts University Anthropology Lecturer Jennifer Burtner and her students have played a leadership role. Tonight's event and this program book introduce you to some of the YUM restaurants, partners, activities, and supporters as well as to the Welcome Project's work with immigrant families in Somerville. These Somerville restaurants are participating in YUM: A Taste of Immigrant City:

Amelia’s Kitchen (Italian) 1137 Broadway (617) 776-2800

Café Belô (Brazilian) 120 Washington St. (617) 623-3696

Café Belô (Brazilian) 445 Somerville Ave (617) 284-6255

Fasika (Ethiopian) 147 Broadway (617) 628 9300

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Highland Creole Cuisine (Haitian) 2 Highland Ave (617) 625-8333

House of Tibet Kitchen (Tibetan) 235 Holland St (617) 629-7567

Maya Sol (Mexican) 179 Broadway (617) 776-9179

Namaskar (Indian) 234 Elm St (617) 623 9911

Neighborhood Restaurant & Bakery (Portuguese) 25 Bow St (617) 628-2151

Ronnarong Thai Tapas Bar (Thai) 255 Washington St, Union Sq (617) 625-9296

Sabur (Mediterranean) 212 Holland St (617) 776-7890

Restaurante Turístico Machu Picchu (Peruvian) 307 Somerville Ave (617) 628-7070

Machu Picchu Charcoal Chicken & Grill (Peruvian) 25 Union Sq (617) 623-7972

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YUM: A Taste of Immigrant City Event Program

6:00 Hors D'oeuvres and Cocktails 7:00 Restaurant Servings Begin 7:00 Dance Performance: Greater Boston Nepali Community Youth 7:30 Dance Performance: La Salsa 7:45 Welcome/Program 8:30 Music and Dance: Yarina 9:00 Restaurant Servings End 10:00 Close

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Welcome Project Staff

Warren Goldstein-Gelb Executive Director

Maria Landaverde Youth Programs Organizer

Lisa Gimbel ESOL Coordinator/Teacher

Jeri Bayer ESOL teacher

Volunteers/Interns

ESOL Program Volunteers

David Neto, Lyn Condron, C. Ché Salazar, Nancy Grant, Jessie Ratey, John Macdonald, Sandi Goldberg, Emma Rolfs, Maureen Tivnan, Karsten Hatch, Mesa Antwar

Youth Program Volunteers Cecelia Flores, Elizabeth Pufall Jones, Linda Luna, Mary Eisenberg, Anushay Mistry, Rosemarie Barker, Jeewon Kim, Mariah Contreras, Nehama Libman, Noora Barakat, Jayanthi Mistry, Margaret Rundle

Mystic Community Garden Volunteer Education Coordinator: Roberta Hayes

Interns: Chelsea Dickson, Aspen Webster, Juhee Chung

Special Thanks to: Jennifer Burtner, Phillip Bleak, Adam Gerberick, Nick Jehlen, Barry Rafkind, Sarah Shugars, Anya Weber, Tracy Stewart, HARBUS Foundation team.

Event Sponsors

Silver

Wayne O'Neill Winter Hill Savings Bank

Gold

Peter McLoughlin Susan Ostrander Wainwright Bank

Platinum

Cynthia Bargar Mark Alston-Follansbee Sid and Goldie Gelb Ray Hyatt Suzanne Sankar Zarita Araujo-Lane Judith Perlstein and Frederick Levy Janet Pula

Event Committee

Molly Bodell Linda Borodkin Danielle Bourke Ben Echevarria Joe Grafton Nimisha Patel Sasha Mae deBeausset Fairman Roxie Salamon-Abrams

Welcome Project Board

Ben Echevarria, President Debbie White, Vice-President Judith Perlstein, Clerk Janet Pula, Treasurer Molly Bodell Gina Cachimuel Maria Guadalupe Ojeda Raul Salinas Ortega Susan Ostrander Nimisha Patel Alex Pirie Suzanne Sankar

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YUM Project Partners

For this project, we have enjoyed a long-term partnership with Tufts University faculty, students, and staff. The Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service is a national leader in civic education, whose model and research are setting the standard for higher education’s role in

civic engagement. Tisch College seeks to ensure that every Tufts student graduates with the skills and habits of an effective, engaged citizen and works to make every university/community engagement one of mutual respect and benefit.

Tisch College is leading the implementation of Project PERIS (Partnering for Economic Recovery Impact through Service), a 3 year initiative to engage Tufts faculty and Somerville organizations in conducting economic recovery activities through service-learning courses. Importantly, PERIS will also develop a

collaborative planning and service delivery system that can be shared and adapted to other communities and other situations of rapid change. Project PERIS is federally funded by Learn and Serve America of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). CNCS plays a vital role in supporting the American culture of citizenship, service and responsibility and is a catalyst for change and a champion for the ideal that every American has skills and talents to give.

The School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA), Boston, has been educating artists since 1876, providing them with the respect and freedom the need to develop. The program has relationships with Tufts and Northeastern University. In Fall 2008, Students in Chantal Zakari’s “Text and Image” class molded by hand the complex 3-D

play dough shapes that became the YUM logo and also developed hand-drawn logos for each business.

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Several courses taught by Tufts Anthropology Lecturer Jennifer Burtner have played a central role in the YUM: A Taste of Immigrant City project. The idea for a project to map Somerville’s immigrant-owned restaurants was originally conceived of by students in Dr. Burtner’s Seminar “Anthropology in Action: Fieldwork Methods for the 21

st Century” offered in Fall

2008.

Students in Dr. Burtner’s “Growing Up Latino” class that semester conducted fieldwork to identify and photograph potential restaurants. In 2009-2010, with support from Tisch College and Project PERIS, students in two additional courses, “Immigrant Cities: Space, Place and Urban Landscapes in the 21

st Century” (Fall 2009) and “The Very Social Business of

Survival” (Spring 2010), provided critical support for the project and its public release through fieldwork excursions, and a series of arts workshops (partnering with the Tufts Craft Center and their student liaison Helen Corless).

Throughout the project, Dr. Burtner has helped build partnerships with additional Tufts departments and programs, including the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA), and the Exposure photography program. Youth from The Welcome Project’s LIPS program partnered with the Tufts students in the field and in the craft center on several occasions. A longer description, written by Dr. Burtner, which also lists many of the participating students, is available as part of tonight’s exhibit.

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Artist Profiles Yarina Artfully blending the ancient rhythms of culture with original compositions that incorporate elements from various western musical styles, Yarina’s musicianship earned the group the title “Best World Music Recording” at the 2005 Native American Music Awards and “Best Folk Music Recording” at the 2005 Indian Summer Music Awards Yarina, which means "remembrance" in the native Kichwa language of the indigenous people of Ecuador, has since its inception committed itself to maintaining musical excellence and musical versatility, with more than 40 different instruments employed by band members, from the native windpipe and flute to the violin and a wide range of percussive instruments. But this band of siblings is about much more than just the music. Yarina is also dedicated to preserving and sharing the ancestral culture of the indigenous people of the Andes. The musicians that make up Yarina share the history and meaning of each song and instrument they perform. And its dancers, traditionally dressed in multi-layered, brilliantly-colored skirts and handembroidered blouses, blend traditional movements and original choreography. This wholehearted dedication to cultural expression earned the group the designation of “Ambassadors for Indigenous Ecuadorian Performers” by their home country of Ecuador.

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Greater Boston Nepali Community Youth This Nepali Dance Group is composed of Nepali high school students from Somerville and Cambridge. Through dance, they have been able to bring their cultural heritage to local communities in the US.

La Salsa La Salsa is a student run cultural/ dance organization at Tufts University. La Salsa was originally created to teach social salsa dancing to college students, and has expanded to include a performance group that choreographs dances in the Los Angeles salsa style. The dancers are active members of the community and have extended their free salsa lessons to communities surrounding Tufts University. All of the dancers share a passion for salsa dance and Latino culture. La Salsa welcomes people of all dance levels to participate in their weekly lessons, performances, and social dance events.

Exhibit in The Mezzanine Since September, students in Dr. Jennifer Burtner’s Anthropology classes “Immigrant Cities” and “The Very Social Business of Survival,” -- along with numerous Tufts and community volunteers -- have been documenting the YUM restaurants through words, photography, video and art. Through a series of arts workshops (partnering with the Tufts Craft Center and their student liaison Helen Corless) they have created buttons, refrigerator magnets and built sidewalk sandwich boards for the participating restaurants. This spring, students produced a blog designed by Signe R. Porteshawver (yumsomerville.wordpress.com).

Photographs of the food and the restaurant streetscapes were produced by Louise Blavet, Kelsea Carlson, Becky Cyr, and Phillip Bleak, and educational & ethnographic video and electronic restaurant reviews are being developed by videographer Emily Schwartz. A sampling of this work is on display tonight. Please visit the Armory Mezzanine for an exhibit of some of this beautiful work.

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About The Welcome Project The Welcome Project's mission is to strengthen civic and community life in Somerville by diminishing racism and

empowering the city's refugee and immigrant groups. We create opportunities for residents of all backgrounds to work together to improve their social, economic, and personal well being. Our current programs focus on providing tools to access education and employment, helping youth and adults to build bridges between the nuances and languages of different cultures, and facilitating the active engagement and strong voice of immigrants in community life. The Welcome Project’s programs include: Youth Aspirations Program. The program focuses on helping immigrant youth reach their full potential. We provide academic enrichment, support for youth preparing to enter college or the work force, and hands-on civic engagement projects on community issues of concern to immigrant youth. We do this through our:

Liaison Interpreter Program of Somerville (LIPS). Trains bilingual Somerville teens to assist with language interpretation at community events and meetings. First Generation to College Program. Offers workshops and programs for immigrant parents and families focusing on supporting children in the US educational system. Digital Storytelling/Oral History Program. Enables young people to explore their own identities and communities by creating digital stories in pictures and words to share with others. Mystic Wizards/Homework Help Club. Provides academic support and service opportunities for youth aged 8-13.

English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). We offer low-cost and free, friendly English classes, with morning and evening offerings to accommodate work and family schedules. The classes are designed to not only help our students improve their English language skills, but also to provide opportunities to engage in the civic life of the city. We infuse our classes with special topics of interest and concern to residents, including parenting/schools, jobs and work issues, health access, and housing.

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Organizing, Advocacy and Civic Engagement. The Welcome Project, together with other Somerville community groups, has played an important role in alleviating racial tensions in the city and helping the city’s immigrants more effectively navigate a challenging economic, political, and social landscape.

All of our activities -- from our liaison interpreter work with youth to our English classes with adults are designed to do more than develop a skill or increase knowledge. At our core, our mission is to play a central role in building bridges between communities so that new immigrants can effectively participate in the life of the city. We help immigrants of different generations share their stories with the community through citywide projects like "Immigrant City: Then and Now", work together with community groups on campaigns such as Welcoming Massachusetts and the Dream Act, and manage an award-winning community garden run by immigrant tenants at the Mystic Housing Development. We work to connect Mystic gardeners with the city's vibrant community gardening community.

Thank you for your ongoing support of The Welcome Project.

More information about The Welcome Project and our programs:

The Welcome Project 530 Mystic Ave., #111 Somerville, MA 02145

www.welcomeproject.org

Email: welcome@welcomeproject.org

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Sabur

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House of Tibet Kitchen—Kelsea Carlson

Restaurante Turistico Machu Picchu—Becky Cyr

Neighborhood Restaurant and Bakery —Louise Blavet

Ronnarong Thai Tapas Bar—Louise Blavet

Fasika—Becky Cyr