PRESS RELEASE (from Rob Neufeld, Director of Together We Read - http://www.togetherweread.org )

Top D.C. immigrant and refugee consultant comes to Asheville

            Immigration enters the spotlight in an unprecedented way in Western North Carolina as Esther Olavarria, one of the nation’s top immigration consultants, comes to Asheville, April 18, to participate in a wealth of programs organized by Together We Read and its partners. Together We Read, this region’s reading, discussion, and heritage program, collaborates with UNCA to bring Olavarria to Lipinsky Auditorium, 7 p.m., Apr. 18.  Olavarria has served as General Counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy (Ranking Member, U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee) for the Subcommittee on Immigration.  She has just been named the Senior U.S. Advisor for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
 

Preceding Olavarria’s talk and discussion, award-winning actress Barbara Bates Smith will perform a 20-minute version of her landmark show, “My Antonia: The Story in Sign.”  She combines American Sign Language, voice, and stage dramatics in telling Willa Cather’s classic story about immigrants on the Nebraska frontier. 

“My Antonia” is the book that Western North Carolina is reading this spring as part of the national initiative, The Big Read, administered here by Together we Read.   The reading of the book allows people to examine immigration realities and stories over time; and spawns a host of activities designed to humanize and inform the debate about immigration.
 

A forum, featuring an interaction of experts and citizens, furthers discussion about immigration issues on the new multi-media website, “The Read on WNC,” created by Together We Read and the Asheville Citizen-Times.  The Center for Peace Studies and Ramsey Library at UNCA extend their roles in bringing timely authors to the area by inaugurating, with Together We Read and other higher education institutions, “Coalition for an Educated Citizenry.”  The Center for Peace Studies connects to its goal of world awareness within this initiative.
 

Together We Read’s Oral History Coordinator, Rebecca Williams is working with the Emma Family Resource Center and A-B Tech Community College to create photograph exhibits, recorded stories, discussions, and parent-child programs that help our community create its own literature. 
 

For many other programs, visit www.togetherweread.org.  For more information, call Together We Read at 505-1973; and the Center for Peace Studies at 250-3870.  This event is part of The Big Read, an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest. Together We Read administers The Big Read in western North Carolina.  In this effort, it is also funded by UNCA and many other sponsors .  Visit www.togetherweread.org.

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Press contacts:

Rob Neufeld, Exec. Dir., Together We Read—including for connections to featured speakers—505-1973.