Since the beginning of October, over 200 Afghan refugees have resettled in Charolottesville. Photo: Andrew Oberstadt/IRC
Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August, more than 70,000 Afghans have fled to the United States. For weeks, many refugees stayed at temporary resettlement camps located on military bases across the country, as they waited for their immigration processing to be completed. But over the past two months, the federal government has allowed some to leave the camps and move to a variety of cities, where they can finally begin their new lives.
According to the local International Rescue Committee, 210 Afghan refugees—including 75 families—have arrived in Charlottesville since the beginning of October. Most came over the course of just two weeks, giving the IRC little time to make preparations.
“With a lot of these people, they arrive to us at very short notice. It’s very common to get a notice and people are coming the next day…We had multiple times where we had a couple of hours notice,” explains Charlottesville IRC Executive Director Harriet Kuhr. “It was very much an emergency response.”
The government is currently working to close all the military base refugee camps by February 15, says Kuhr. More than 80 percent of the refugees the IRC agreed to resettle in Charlottesville are here, but the organization expects a few more to arrive in the coming months.
“Now [the government] is having people come in an even flow each week, not just to Charlottesville but everywhere, so we can manage them more properly,” says Kuhr. “These people have been in those facilities since July and August, so they’re ready to move on.”
According to Charlottesville IRC Executive Director Harriet Kuhr, the organization had very little time to prepare for the Afghan refugees who arrived in the city. “It was very much an emergency response,” she says. Photo: Eze Amos
Because staff had no time to explore housing options, the IRC is temporarily housing the refugees in local hotels, where they are provided with food, clothes, and other necessities.
“It’s been very, very challenging with the amount of people arriving one after the other. We had all of our staff turn to just immediate reception needs,” says Kuhr. “Now we’re focusing on going back and catching up on all of the other services they need.”
Due to Charlottesville’s affordable housing crisis, finding permanent housing for the refugees in or near the city has been difficult. The IRC is currently working to form housing partnerships with area faith groups, neighborhood associations, and other community organizations, as well as in surrounding communities like Waynesboro and Lynchburg. After helping to find suitable housing for an individual family, partners will fundraise to help cover the family’s housing costs and assist with resettlement for six months.
Though the IRC does not permit homestays, residents who have a house or apartment they are not currently living in can contact the IRC to see if a refugee family could stay there. One Afghan family moved into a downtown Airbnb this week, after owner Debra Weiss volunteered to have refugees live there temporarily.
Around one-third of the refugees are school-aged children, says Kuhr. Since they have been living in hotels, the kids have not been enrolled in school yet.
“We were a little wary to enroll kids in school. If a month or two later they got an apartment that was in a different county or jurisdiction, we would have to pull them out and move them to other schools,” says Kuhr. “But at this point we’ve realized we can’t wait any longer, so we are just starting to enroll kids.”
As for the adults, most are still waiting to receive their social security cards, employment authorization, and other important documents they need to resettle.
“Things we would normally do locally were done for them at a national level, with 10,000 people applying all at once,” says Kuhr. “We’re hoping that kind of stuff is going to start coming in soon…but because of how they arrived, and the emergency nature of it, there’s just a lot of challenges.”
Until more refugees are moved into permanent housing, the IRC is no longer accepting in-kind donations. However, the agency is in huge need of financial donations to cover hotel bills, as well as gift cards to local stores—especially Walmart.
“[At Walmart], they can buy food, clothes for their kids, toiletries,” says Kuhr. “It allows the family the choice to get what they want and what is most important to them.”
To volunteer to help with Afghan resettlement efforts, email sponsor.va@rescue.org.
The Census Bureau is looking to hire hundreds of census takers in Charlottesville and Albemarle County.
With a new decade comes a new census. Starting March 12, every household across the country will receive a letter in the mail, explaining how to respond to the 2020 census by phone, mail, or—for the first time ever—online.
Census data is used to redraw legislative districts, determining the amount of seats each state is allotted in the House of Representatives, as well as to appropriately distribute more than $675 billion in government funding to communities across the country.
“The census is tied to everything, from health care to housing to social services,” says Kathy O’Connell, who works for the division of the census that oversees Virginia. “It’s extremely important that we have a good count of who lives in a particular place.”
To catch those who don’t respond on their own, the bureau also employs census takers to go door to door and record responses in person. And it is looking to hire hundreds right here in Charlottesville.
“We need large numbers,” says O’Connell, “We are [especially] interested in candidates with language abilities.”
To encourage more people to apply, the bureau has raised the pay for census workers to $22 an hour in Charlottesville and $21.50 in Albemarle County. Other perks include paid training, weekly paychecks, mileage reimbursement, and flexible hours.
Some populations are underrepresented in the data, particularly young people and immigrant communities. Our local Complete Count Committee includes a subcommittee focused on ensuring that refugees and immigrants are aware of the census, as well as identifying and addressing what prevents these populations from participating, such as limited English proficiency and mistrust of the government, says committee co-chair Caitlin Reinhard.
To subvert the many misconceptions surrounding the census, the subcommittee is emphasizing to local communities that the census is confidential, and that “it will have a huge impact on the resources and representation available [to them] over the next 10 years,” Reinhard says.
The Census Bureau is also partnering with a variety of local organizations to increase its outreach. Here in Charlottesville, the International Rescue Committee has created postcards and posters in 10 different languages about the census, along with other informational materials.
“It’s hugely important—now more than ever—that their voices are heard,” says Reinhard, who is also the resettlement manager for the IRC, “and that they are counted as people who make up this great country, whether or not they’re citizens.” (The Trump administration’s attempt to add a question about citizenship status was struck down by the Supreme Court.)
Lakshmi Fjord, a visiting scholar at UVA’s Department of Anthropology, has witnessed the consequences of inadequate census data firsthand. As Dominion Energy worked to build a natural gas compressor station in the historically African American community of Union Hill, the company used broad data from the 2010 census to claim that the area was sparsely populated and predominantly white.
However, by conducting a door-to-door count of the population, Fjord showed that Union Hill has a greater population density than all other parts of the county, with 83 percent minority residents—meaning the compressor would disproportionately (and illegally) affect African Americans. (The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals repealed Dominion’s permit last month.)
“It’s well known that in particularly rural, and maybe everywhere in African American communities, there is far less chance people will open their door to census takers…[so] we trusted elders from the community to go door-to-door,” Fjord says. “This is also an important thing for the census. You cannot just hire eager young people to go around because there’s just not a sense of who they are.”
For this reason, O’Connell strongly encourages residents who are from the local community and know it well to apply to be census takers. Applications are available now at 2020census.gov.
Each Tuesday at New Roots Farm, a group of IRC volunteers works together to cultivate
a community garden that supports refugee food security. Recent heavy rains have taken a hard toll on the farm.
Photo by Eze Amos
A crowning achievement for the International Rescue Committee in Charlottesville has been the New Roots urban farm, the more than eight-acre stretch of land abutting Azalea Park that has served as a resource for many refugees who have resettled in the Charlottesville community in recent years.
But the heavy rains that plagued Charlottesville in late May took a particularly hard toll on the farm, when the entire property was submerged beneath three feet of rushing water from the adjacent Moore’s Creek. Brooke Ray, senior manager of food and agriculture programs at IRC Charlottesville, says the floods resulted in significant damage, including destroyed fences, ruined equipment and lost crops.
“The 20 different families that rely on this farm for food use this [crop yield] to pretty significantly supplement their family’s vegetables for the summer,” Ray says. “We’ve been working with Blue Ridge Area Food Bank to supplement their lost crops with emergency food drops of fresh produce until they’re able to make the next harvest.”
And while the flood represented a devastating loss for those who counted on their crops both for sustenance and income—some grow to sell at their Michie Market farm stand as well as to local restaurants—the Charlottesville community was quick to come to the rescue, Ray says.
“The really awesome part is that within a week, a number of farms and community members and nurseries had come together and replaced a lot of what was lost,” she says.
Local artist Ken Horn, a community activist and New Roots supporter, quickly organized a CrowdRise fundraiser and, together with direct donations, the IRC has already raised $44,000, just $6,000 shy of its goal.
“So when Tracey Love from Hill & Holler asked if I wanted to do some kind of fundraiser, we ended up turning it into an incentive event for people who give $100 or more to the CrowdRise campaign,” Ray says about the July 30 dinner from 5-8pm at New Roots Farm on Old Lynchburg Road. “That way we can get people who love Hill & Holler out there who didn’t know about New Roots. People can see the farm, see what we do—and Tracey helped to pull together an incredible list of sponsors for the party.”
Hill & Holler, a roving farm dinner event company owned by Love, has garnered a stellar reputation for farm-based food events in the region that feature locally sourced products.
“While I wasn’t able to help rebuild the farm, we could put together an appreciation party to incentivize people to give to the campaign,” Love says. “We’d throw the party, and donors could have a good time, meet the refugee families and see the rebuilding process on the farm itself.”
Love says the party is fully sponsored by local businesses, including Ivy Inn and Orzo Kitchen & Wine Bar, two restaurants that were already buying produce from New Roots. Monticello Wine Tour & Coach Co. will shuttle guests between the parking area and the farm. Reason Beer is donating brews and Blenheim Vineyards, where Love works, will contribute wine. Other sponsors include Bellair Farm, Paisley & Jade, A Pimento Catering and JBE Communications.
All donations to the CrowdRise campaign go directly to the New Roots farm rescue, and not toward the party.
Ray says the rebuilding effort has been gratifying. “We lost probably 80 percent of our crops for the spring and summer, but with the donations for replanting, they’ve refilled the garden. It’s actually looking pretty amazing,” she says. “The farmers have started their harvest although we lost probably a month at market.”
Ray says they are continuing to hold farm work days during which community members are invited to help re-fence, replant and clean up. The farm, which opened in 2014, plays host to families from Bhutan, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Kenya, India, Burma, Syria and Turkey, Ray says.
“We grow farm stand favorites people would be familiar with, like tomatoes, peppers and eggplants, but also a lot of specialty crops popular amongst our shoppers with international culinary traditions such as amaranth, bitter melon, pumpkin shoots and dent corn.”
And while the bountiful produce is a huge positive for the IRC refugees, the sense of community is even more important, she says.
“One of the coolest parts of the New Roots project is seeing people who have been here longer support newcomers to the program,” Ray says.
GenR: Charlottesville launch party Thursday, March 2
This organization’s inaugural fundraiser supports the International Rescue Committee’s work in helping refugees resettle here and rebuild their lives. $35-75; 6:30-9pm. Old Metropolitan Hall, 101 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. rescue.org/event/genr-charlottesville-launch-party
FAMILY
ArtFest in the West Friday, March 3
This “magical medieval” fundraiserfor arts education showcases Western Albemarle High and Henley Middle schools’ jazz bands, student art, WAHS orchestra and more. Includes silent and live auction. 6-9pm.Western Albemarle High School cafeteria, 5941 Rockfish Gap Tpke., Crozet. artsinwesterned.org/artFest.html
FOOD & DRINK
Spring Oyster Fest Saturday, March 4, and Sunday, March 5
Enjoy oysters from Rappahannock Oyster Company, live music, Virginia wine and food including fried chicken and chowder, along with aseasonal menu from executive chefRyan Collins. $5-15, noon-4pm. Early Mountain Vineyards, 6109 Wolftown-Hood Rd., Madison. early mountain.com/events
HEALTH & WELLNESS
Sixth annual Haven 8K Saturday, March 4
Part of the C-VILLE-athon Race Series, this 8K run/4K walk starts and finishes on the Downtown Mall and winds through scenic neighborhoods. Proceeds benefit The Haven, a shelter that serves 85 homeless and poor people each day. $25-40. 8am. Start at the Sprint Pavilion, Downtown Mall. thehaven.org/haven8k
Ahmad Alboni, Ola Mansour and their three children came to Charlottesville through the International Rescue Committee last summer. After fleeing from Syria, they lived as refugees in Jordan. Family members who were supposed to join them in America this week have been affected by President Trump’s travel ban.
Photo by Eze Amos
Since 1998, the International Rescue Committee has welcomed nearly 4,000 refugees to Charlottesville from more than 32 countries. Ola Mansour is one of them.
“Charlottesville is safe,” says Mansour, who in June 2016 relocated to Charlottesville from Jordan with her husband and three children. Three years prior, they had fled to the Middle Eastern country bordering Syria from Damascus, its capital and their home. “[There is] no life in Syria because there is war,” she says. “Every day is scary. People die, children die. Everything is difficult.”
Mansour and her husband, Ahmad Alboni, were expecting Alboni’s parents to join them in Charlottesville this week, but those plans were halted with President Donald Trump’s January 27 executive order barring refugees from seven predominantly Muslim countries—“Now everything is stopped and they can’t come,” Mansour says. “We are very sad.”
Though the ban was temporarily lifted February 3, at press time Mansour said she was unsure if her in-laws would be permitted to travel to America.
In Syria, Mansour was an engineer and her husband was an accountant. Now they study at Piedmont Virginia Community College and continue to work steady jobs, Mansour at UVA Medical Center. About their local support system, she says, “We love everyone in Charlottesville and they love us.”
Since the travel ban was initiated, IRC volunteer coordinator Diana Cole Connolly says she has received more than 50 volunteer applications and nearly 200 since the presidential election.
“We typically get about two dozen applications in a given month,” she says, adding that, at press time, the IRC had also raised $6,490 from 71 donors since January 27. For people who want to support the IRC and refugees in the community, she suggests calling local and state representatives to say they support the committee’s work and giving cash donations to the IRC.
“We’re going to continue accepting volunteer applications, but, realistically, it may be several months before we’re able to process them,” she says, especially if the IRC won’t be receiving any refugee families for a prolonged period.
Executive Director Harriet Kuhr says the ban is “sort of like slamming the door on refugees. This is a betrayal of who we are as a nation. America has a history of welcoming immigrants who are escaping war and crisis and need a safe place to resettle and rebuild their lives.”
Kuhr was one of many speakers, including Gold Star father Khizr Khan and Pam Northam, wife of Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam, at Mayor Mike Signer’s heavily attended January 31 rally to declare Charlottesville a “capital of the resistance.” The mayor said he’d met with a dozen local refugees the previous weekend and listened to “the fear, the confusion, the anxiety” caused by Trump’s order. “They are hearing the message America doesn’t want them,” said Signer.
Several groups have stepped up in an effort to negate that feeling.
Legal Aid Justice Center, which is based in Charlottesville, led the charge against the president’s executive order on immigration that stranded many arriving into the United States. It represented two Yemeni brothers, Tareq and Ammar Aziz, who arrived at Dulles International Airport early January 28 with immigration visas, only to be handcuffed and, according to a suit, coerced into signing documents waiving their rights to permanent resident status.
The 21- and 19-year-old brothers were shipped back to Ethiopia, where their flight originated, while Legal Aid obtained a temporary restraining order barring such actions. Virginia joined the suit January 31, and the Azizes were reunited with their U.S. citizen father February 6.
Legal Aid raised more than $36,000 in a week using CrowdJustice, a new website that allows donations to specific cases, such as this one.
“This is our American launch,” says Kip Wainscott, who is helping bring the British-based platform to the U.S. “It’s our first case. We moved up our launch.”
The platform, he says, “is a new approach to accessing justice.”
And while a spokesperson for the University of Virginia has announced that more than 60 students and faculty could be affected by the travel ban, President Teresa Sullivan, Executive Vice President and Provost Tom Katsouleas and several student groups have joined forces to protect them.
University police may ask students for their immigration status during the course of an investigation when that information is relevant, says UVA spokesperson Anthony de Bruyn, but “such a request is very rare at UVA, where the vast majority of identification requests are addressed by an individual providing to the officer his or her university-issued ID or driver’s license.”
Attiya Latif, a third-year student and chair of the Minority Rights Coalition, says her group helped organize the January 28 protest against Trump’s executive order at UVA that drew hundreds of students and community members.
“We are not going to be deterred from our work that we do on a daily basis,” she says. “And we are not going to let fear or despair stop us. …To anyone who’s feeling afraid or isolated, there’s always a way to keep fighting and to keep making a difference.”
Richard Spencer, president of the National Policy Institute, evoked a little too much Nazi imagery for some of his fellow Hoos at a November 19 conference.
Photo NPI website
These days, Richard Spencer, class of 2001, is being voted least popular by his former classmates at UVA and his Dallas prep school, St. Mark’s.
Spencer, who says he coined the term “alt-right” and is president of the white nationalist National Policy Institute, has raised the ire of some UVA alums. A group called Hoos Against Richard Spencer is raising money to benefit the International Rescue Committee, which settles refugees.
“The effort was inspired by St. Mark’s fundraiser,” says Jessica Wolpert, class of 2002.
“I think the most egregious thing is that he’s a racist spouting hate,” she says. “The National Policy Institute is a white supremacist group trying to get in the mainstream.”
After the election, video emerged of Spencer at an NPI conference shouting, “Hail Trump! Hail our people! Hail our victory!” with some in the crowd raising their arms in Nazi salutes.
“We felt ashamed,” says Wolpert. “We wanted to show we’re more welcoming to people than Richard Spencer. We wanted to show that UVA has a more positive face. It’s not the face of racism.”
As of December 5, the group had raised $2,655 of its $10,000 goal.
At press time, Spencer had not responded to a Facebook message. His Twitter account has been suspended.
UVA alum Richard Spencer visits Texas A&M. staff photo
Update December 7: Spencer is in the news again, sparking protests December 6 at Texas A&M. Hundreds lined up to denounce his appearance in College Station, where he was invited by a former student who rented space, not the university. The school said his views are “in direct conflict with our core values.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center calls Richard Spencer “an academic racist.” Staff photo
A sketch by Bishnu Maya Tamang from Bhutan is part of the “World Art Exhibit” on display at downtown’s Central Library (second floor) now through the end of the year. Image courtesy of the artist
Rarely do so many Americans feel divided, separated and isolated from one another as they have during this political season. Our inability to communicate and connect with one another as countrymen feels like an affront. For the thousands of refugees who flee violence, persecution, human trafficking or torture in their native countries in crisis, then arrive for resettlement in the U.S. every year, cultural isolation is a way of life. That’s where the International Rescue Committee comes in.
“They’re doing a wonderful job of bringing people from these war-torn areas to safety,” says Susan Patrick, a volunteer at the Charlottesville chapter of the IRC. “I think it’s a miracle people have this service.”
Every year, the IRC partners with the United Nations to help refugees rebuild their lives: to find affordable housing, enroll children in schools, participate in job-readiness training and receive medical care and mentorship. Patrick, who “went to the IRC because I was curious,” wound up teaching English to a Bhutanese man and his neighbor.
“I wanted to help someone improve his reaction to being away from his homeland, to being driven out and then coming to a new place where it’s very uncomfortable,” she says. After two and a half years, she believes he’s happier, better able to express himself and more acclimated to living in America.
Patrick, who worked for 30 years as an art teacher in Nelson County public schools, decided to take her support of refugee self-expression one step further.
“I wanted to get art into this idea, too,” she says. “When I taught, I felt like I was passing on the enjoyment of art and the importance of communicating through visual images. When I retired, that stopped.” Now she sees a chance for cross-cultural connection.
By displaying work that gives refugees space for self-expression, “[locals] would have an opportunity for a more intimate introduction to individuals who are new in the community, rather than just hearing about them, or seeing them on the Downtown Mall or at work,” says Patrick. “It would give them a real insight into something that they care about.”
She reached out to IRC volunteers for recommendations of potential artists, leading Patrick to create three workshops. The first was for a Girl Scout troop of refugees who were “very eager to draw images of their homes and farms. Some drew costumes. Some drew family. One girl drew a mosque that her father and brothers went to.”
A group of adults gathered at the apartment where they learn English from Zakira Beasley, another IRC volunteer. “Between us, we communicated this idea of people drawing from their memories, and they were very eager to do it.” The third group met at the IRC office, where Jim Gordon helped her communicate the idea to the English class he was substituting. Once again, Patrick says, people were very interested in drawing pictures of what they remembered.
She knew this project mattered because of how intensely they concentrated on their art-making. “I’ve seen that in the classroom, where it will get very, very quiet because everyone is so focused on doing the work.”
In total, the project generated 33 drawings by artists from eight different countries. Tom Otis from Fastframe volunteered to mat and frame the works for free, and for the next several months, the exhibit will travel through galleries across town.
Nearly all the pieces show happy scenes of houses, mosques, temples, animals or families. “These are things all of us can identify with, those of us who haven’t been refugees and those who have,” Patrick says.
Two drawings stand out, though. Drawn by a husband and wife from Syria, both depict the home they left behind. Hers is a pretty drawing of their house. “It looks like a big house, and it’s very attractive,” Patrick says. His drawing shows the same house—with a hand grenade drawn in the middle of the picture. “There are two bodies in the bottom of the picture,” says Patrick. “He told me that those were his parents. They died in the explosion.” The picture is made more disturbing by its normalcy. Only after you study it for a moment do you notice soft pink lines radiating outward from a central element, the shockwaves of a bomb.
“You sit with these people, and they laugh, and they thank you, and they bless you,” Patrick says. “They’re just so sweet. They smile easily. This man who drew his house after the bomb was really happy to draw this picture.
“I can’t imagine. I get so angry just being in traffic that’s too slow. It’s so embarrassing. When I’m with these people, they humble me.”
As an artist, Patrick says she feels a connection to all the pieces. But what about her goal to help locals get to know refugees through their visuals?
“One person drew a vegetable cart that was being pulled by oxen, and there was a dog barking,” she says. “He couldn’t tell me the words to explain that, but he did it with his drawing.”
Art may transport us to other worlds, but sometimes it’s the best way to connect us right here.
Parvin Jamalraza and her husband, Yadollah. Photo by Eze Amos
The Charlottesville area has always been shaped by immigrants, and we have a long tradition of recognizing them for it. French-born Claudius Crozet, who served as an engineer in Napoleon’s army, constructed the first railroad from Charlottesville to Richmond in 1851. He then blasted a railway tunnel straight through Rockfish Gap, missing perfect alignment from the Nelson to Augusta sides by only four inches. Today, the town of Crozet is named in his honor.
More recently, Dave Matthews is well-known for having immigrated to the U.S. from his native South Africa. In 1994, then-mayor David Toscano officially declared September 27 to be Dave Matthews Band Day.
At the 2016 Democratic National Convention, local attorney Khizr Khan and his wife, Ghazala, famously reframed the presidential campaign by explaining how one of the sons of this immigrant family, Humayun, died a hero’s death in an American Army uniform. A surviving son, Shaharyar, owns a biotech firm in Charlottesville and has published important medical research.
But what about some of the unsung immigrants who help make Charlottesville the city that it is? We patronize their businesses, listen to their music and greet them on the street, but it is easy to miss out on their personal stories. From a downtown tailor to a UVA cancer researcher, here’s a look at some of the immigrants who continue to make Charlottesville a great place to live and work.
Parvin Jamalraza and her husband, Yadollah. Photo by Eze Amos
Parvin and Yadollah Jamalraza
Parvin Jamalraza’s downtown tailoring shop, Yady’s Alterations, looks like a mash-up of two centuries. An antique sewing machine stands beside the counter, powered by a foot treadle rather than electricity. This isn’t here to provide atmosphere. It is loaded with a bobbin of thread and ready for action. More modern electric machines stand behind it.
“Here we repair or [make] alternations. Back home, we were making clothes,” says Jamalraza. In her native Iran she grew up with the sewing skills that have become rare among most Americans. With our disposable consumer culture and SOL requirements that have pushed out home economics, Jamalraza and her husband, Yadollah, provide services to the public that few Americans are now able to.
“It was not life easy there [Iran],” says Jamalraza. “My kids growing up, they don’t have much opportunity to go to school, to get knowledge. That was why we decided to leave home.”
Twelve years ago, the family was granted refugee status and arrived in America, where the International Rescue Committee helped them settle in Charlottesville.
“When we got off the airplane at the airport there was a lady who knew us, waving, from the IRC,” says Jamalraza. “They helped us and got a home for us. …it was not easy to talk because we didn’t know a word of English. They helped with many things. Talking English a little bit. We knew alphabet English because we went to school, but speaking it is different!”
The IRC was instrumental in helping the Jamalrazas navigate life in Charlottesville.
“They helped us get anything that we needed,” Jamalraza says. “They tried to find a job for my husband. …I got two good teachers to help me with my English.
After two years of working for other businesses, the couple decided to open their own alteration and tailoring shop. The permits, taxes and other paperwork at first seemed too much to deal with. But Charlottesville City officials made it easy for them.
“At first, we thought, ‘We can’t do that,’” says Jamalraza. “And my husband went to the City Hall and they help us.”
In the beginning they did a lot of advertising. But they have long since stopped.
“People like my work and they tell each other, that’s why I don’t need any advertising [now],” says Jamalraza. “I’m really happy about that. People trust me. My husband is very good with the leather and I am good with the clothes.”
The couple both believe that disposable consumerism is becoming a problem around the world. Objects that could be repaired are thrown away and entirely replaced, wasting resources.
“Right now technology is getting a little bit lazy for people,” says Jamalraza. “That’s why young people don’t go to learn how to make things. …Still I see people and I try to tell people, ‘Yeah, you can fix that!’ We don’t like to say no. …When I see a face happy, it makes my day like that.”
WTJU DJ Robin Tomlin first came to America from England 30 years ago to follow an indigenous style of music heard only in Washington, D.C.—go-go music. He hosts “The Soulful Situation” every Monday, which features soul and funk musicians and producers. Photo by Eze Amos
Robin Tomlin
Anyone who listens to Robin Tomlin’s radio show, “The Soulful Situation,” on WTJU every Monday at noon knows that he is deeply knowledgeable and passionate about soul and funk music. What you probably don’t know is that he crossed an ocean because of American music and never went back.
“I came to America 30 years ago because I was really obsessed with an indigenous style of music heard only in Washington, D.C.,” says the local disc jockey in his middle-class London accent. “This was go-go music.”
The English-born Tomlin quickly became immersed in the music of D.C., Virginia and the American South. He never went home again. Today he hosts his long-running radio show on WTJU under an alias, The Rum Cove.
Tomlin grew up in Surrey, about 30 miles outside of London, and was born at just the right time to experience British punk rock at its peak.
“I come from a classically trained background,” Tomlin says. “My father made oboes, bassoons and clarinets in the Baroque style. My mother was a fine viola player, [and a] violinist and cellist. I played French horn and piano growing up…by the time I turned 15 the punk explosion had just happened. Soon after my 15th birthday I saw my first show, which was the Dead Boys and The Damned in late ’77. …I became obsessed with rebellion and live punk-rock music and new wave and I saw so many bands. Two or three nights a week I was climbing out of the bedroom—I was just desperate to see live music.”
As the punk scene died down, Tomlin went to his first James Brown concert in 1980 in Brighton, England. “I’ve loved rhythm and blues ever since,” he says.
“I saw [go-go band] Trouble Funk in London two weeks before I came to America,” says Tomlin. “And as soon as I got to America I made it my business to see as many go-go acts as I possibly could. Also rap. Run DMC, LL Cool J and Public Enemy.”
Go-go is notorious for not translating well to recordings. Like a skillful dancehall DJ, go-go bands move seamlessly from one song into the next without any breaks between. Bands play nonstop into the wee hours of the morning. To keep listening to go-go, Tomlin had to be in the actual nightclubs with the bands right in front of him.
“Seeing the shows in D.C. was hairy,” he says. “Those were violent shows. …I was so fresh off of the banana boat that I didn’t know you couldn’t go there. I was the only white guy there. But I made a sort of deal to myself that when I went to these go-go shows I’d go to the DJ before the show and say, ‘Give a shout-out to the alien Englishman in the house!’ So people would see me and know I wasn’t American so they wouldn’t dislike me so much because white Americans were not welcome. But an Englishman, that was different.”
Tomlin would later marry an American woman whose Ph.D. program brought the couple to Charlottesville, where they had two children (they have since divorced).
“The Soulful Situation” started airing on WTJU in 2000. Tomlin’s show goes beyond just playing old soul and funk records. He tracks down obscure singers, musicians and producers from the history of black music for interviews. Often he drives far and wide across the South to find these people in person. In some cases, his interviews are the only record of their personal histories. There was nothing else on the radio that came close to doing this when Tomlin started.
“I call it vintage rhythm and blues,” he says. “I try to expand people’s view of how wide the world of rhythm and blues, soul and funk is. I’ve interviewed a lot of artists, and it’s a pleasure and an honor to do it.”
Tomlin has now seen and tasted more of America than some Americans have.
“The English have a certain way we like to eat, but really I love Southern cuisine,” he says. “Country ham and two eggs over medium. …I love Virginia cuisine and Gulf Coast cuisine like jambalaya…barbecue, I’m addicted to. I’m in love with the South. The South is the heart and soul of America. There’s something about the South that just grabs you and won’t let go, even though in some places it’s ruined. The poverty in Alabama is just unbelievable to me, but I still love it. …to understand the blues and gospel and rhythm and blues; the landscape and the culture and the food, it’s all part of it. You’re missing out if you don’t get the whole thing.”
Caterer Tony Polanco, originally from the Dominican Republic, currently employs more than 40 people. In January he was awarded the Chuck Lewis Passion Award from the Forward/Adelante Business Alliance. Photo by Eze Amos
Tony Polanco
Tony Polanco might have lived Charlottesville’s most quintessentially American immigrant journey: from Little League pitcher, to starting over after 9/11 and now being the owner of a successful business that employs more than 40 people.
Born in the Dominican Republic, Polanco grew up playing the national pastime shared between the United States and much of the Latino world: baseball.
“We played a lot of baseball outside,” Polanco says. “Our toy was, ‘Play outside in the neighborhood,’ in a colony of ruins. We had equipment, we had bats, we had gloves, in the small stadium we had by the Catholic church.”
As a child, Polanco experienced what Dominicans refer to as “The 12 Years” between 1966 and 1978, when they were ruled by a dictator, Joaquín Balaguer, whose reign was marked by the jailing of political opponents and the shuttering of critical newspapers. Balaguer lost power for eight years but returned to the presidency in 1986, later losing power again for a time but then returning until 1996. The threat of falling back into authoritarianism pushed many Dominicans to leave for the U.S., Polanco says.
“I came because of the political situation,” he says. “My family decided, my brothers and sisters, [we] moved to the United States to be safe. I came with a visa on a plane to New York. …always you need to have some privileges to get a visa. To show some economic promise.”
Polanco’s psychology degree from Universidad Interamericana (a major university in the Dominican Republic) seemed like it would be an asset in his new home. In addition, he had 10 years of experience as a practicing psychologist. But it didn’t work out that way.
“When I come to the United States, that was the first thing I tried to do,” says Polanco. “My certification doesn’t have any value in the United States so I started working in family businesses, bakeries and restaurants.”
The experienced psychologist started all over again at the bottom in New York City, building a new career in food service. But that didn’t last after 9/11.
“After 2001 I was working [in food service] at a big company that declared bankruptcy in January 2002,” says Polanco. “…The center of finance for the company was in the Twin Towers. We lost the financial support for the company and the company closed.”
In the wake of 9/11, Polanco wanted to get out of New York.
“I decided I needed to find some place with less pressure to live and to grow,” he says. “I had friends here who I had visited for two, three years on vacation in Charlottesville. And I think that was a great decision for me to come to Charlottesville.”
After working in food service and hotel management for years in Charlottesville, Polanco bought a restaurant on 29 North in 2005 and renamed it the Caribbean Malecon. That didn’t work out as well as he had hoped, but his catering business that went full-time in 2012 has fared much better.
“I have around 47 people working for me,” Polanco says. “I have African-American people working for me. Hispanic people from Mexico, Colombia, Salvador, Argentina. And I have white American guys working for me, too. I think my business is a beautiful representation of the United Nations.”
In January, the Forward/Adelante Business Alliance presented Polanco with the Chuck Lewis Passion Award (named after local entrepreneur Chuck Lewis, who built the Downtown Mall’s York Place, among other businesses).
Polanco has been a leader since his 2002 arrival with the Charlottesville Salsa Club, which brings together people from many of the area’s ethnic communities (including white Americans) for weekly dance events.
Moving to Charlottesville from New York brought some major changes for the Dominican-American.
“One difference from New York is a community so integrated here,” says Polanco. “You don’t have neighborhoods for white people, black people or Hispanic people. …You live in the place you can pay and that’s it. …In New York, you live in the community you are part of. You live in a Hispanic neighborhood and that’s it. …I lived in New York in the Dominican neighborhood. In Charlottesville, you can live whatever place you can pay. This is like the best picture of America you can find.”
“We are a great community in Charlottesville,” says Polanco, “and I think we, the Latino people in Charlottesville, make this community better and make this community look like America, like the new America. The immigrants come here not just to build houses and be maids in houses, but to make America better. There is no one color that is America. Charlottesville is a great representation.”
Third-year UVA graduate student Mouadh Benamar has always been drawn to translational research, in which basic science discoveries are applied to prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease. The Algerian-born Benamar became a U.S. citizen in 2013, at the July 4 naturalization ceremony at Monticello. Photo by Eze Amos
Mouadh Benamar
Mouadh Benamar, a third-year graduate student at UVA, just published his first important research paper as co-author of a study that investigated how a new anti-melanoma drug fights cancer by knocking out a protein that the cancer cells need to reproduce.
“For the paper, when I first started the program at UVA we were told not to use the words ‘cure’ and ‘cancer’ in the same sentence,” says Benamar. “Yet we kept getting funding to pursue exactly that. I don’t see [this study] as a significant contribution, but it’s an investigation into how this drug works.”
Benamar speaks nearly perfect English, which is surprising for someone who didn’t move to the U.S. from his native Algeria until he was 17.
His mother is a doctor and his father is an agricultural researcher.
“I grew up in a science kind of a family,” says Benamar. “One of my hobbies as a child that may actually have influenced my future choices is that I used to collect biographies of random scientists and researchers. The idea of actually coming up with something new, indulging in the unknown and making it your known is something I was always fascinated by as a child.”
One of Benamar’s favorite biographies was of Avicenna, the 10th century Persian philosopher and scientist. Avicenna was arguably the greatest mind of the Islamic golden age, and his medical texts were used for teaching well into the 1600s.
“What is fascinating about him is that since he was a child, he was a prodigy,” says Benamar. “There were so many barriers but he moved forward. And his book was a big part of the world for centuries. …These are the kinds of things that tell you that you can truly aspire to be the person whom the world will need in 100 years. That definitely had an effect on me as a researcher.”
Benamar has been working in the area of medicine known as translational research. Translational researchers take the more basic science done by other scientists and look for ways to apply it to prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease.
“Research has always been my goal,” says Benamar. “Especially translational research where my work had direct implications and benefits to patients. …A big breakthrough in cancer is always a big goal for anyone in the field. In cancer you are competing against cells that are part of your own body.”
Benamar became a U.S. citizen in 2013 at the annual July 4 naturalization ceremony at Monticello. Charlottesville’s favorite immigrant, Dave Matthews, delivered the keynote address.
As a Muslim immigrant working to save lives in America, Benamar has been protected in Charlottesville from the discrimination that many immigrants and Muslims experience elsewhere in the U.S.
“I would say that the whole community, students, faculty, friends, made me feel like [Charlottesville] is my home,” Benamar says. “I totally forgot the word ‘immigrant’ until you called to ask for this interview! The entire community has been very welcoming and very accepting. Even before I was naturalized.
“Even though I’ve personally never faced a single act of personal discrimination, looking at the political climate, it’s hard not to notice when a leading presidential candidate sees you as a potential threat,” Benamar says. “When you see a number of leading political figures [saying that you are a threat], when an irrational fear of you is seen as commonsense. I originally saw this as a form of dark entertainment. But I don’t see it like that any longer. …that’s why I’m proud to live in a city that truly lives up to its founding fathers.”
Immigration reform
More than 3,000 refugees have been resettled in the Charlottesville area since the International Rescue Committee opened a local office here in 1998. The nationalities of the refugees have changed, but the mission hasn’t. Bosnians in the 1990s and early 2000s. Meskhetian Turks from Russia. Then Afghans, Iraqis, Bhutanese. Iranians, Congolese, Colombians and a few Ethiopians. More recently, Syrians.
According to the United Nations, a refugee is someone who “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.”
Charlottesville is a particularly hospitable place for IRC resettlement, according to Harriet Kuhr, executive director of the Charlottesville office of the IRC.
“It’s a welcoming community,” says Kuhr. “There’s available rental housing. The employment situation is very good. Charlottesville has an unemployment rate that is lower than the state average, which is lower than the national average. Good schools, good access to health care. The most important thing is a welcoming community.”
Most of the refugees who arrive in Charlottesville have, at best, a suitcase full of belongings. They
are starting their lives completely over. IRC is tasked with setting them up for success in an economy
and language that is all new.
“In our resettlement program as people initially come we’re providing case management, employment assistance. Helping people find jobs,” says Kuhr. “Accessing medical care. Making sure the kids get into school properly. We have on-site ESL classes for people when they first come. That gets people right on their feet at the beginning.”
IRC also provides interpreters for schools, social services, courts and UVA’s Medical Center.
Other services include an agriculture and gardening program. “We have a lot of families, more than 50, who have their own garden plots,” says Kuhr.
Success stories include graduates of UVA and an Afghan woman who recently graduated from the University of Richmond. Many of Charlottesville’s former IRC clients have not only mastered English but have started successful local businesses employing both native-born Americans and other immigrants. A number of Bosnians and Afghans have started restaurants. Many of the Meskhetian Turks from Russia gravitated toward auto repair.
IRC has depended on donations and volunteers throughout its history in Charlottesville.
“We get a lot of support but obviously money’s always nice,” says Kuhr. “We have a lot of donated items that people bring to us. We have a lot of volunteers; interns that work in our office but
also volunteers who work directly with families. Among the things that people give us are cars,
which we really like.”
The American IRC traces its origins to the 1930s when a group of European intellectuals, including Albert Einstein, formed a committee to help European refugees who were fleeing the Nazi government and had become trapped in Vichy, France. Once the United States entered World War II, the IRC began receiving federal funding. In 1945 it began to transform into a sophisticated organization providing health care, children’s centers and resettlement assistance for refugees from around the world.
In today’s politically charged atmosphere surrounding refugees in America, Kuhr has seen some misunderstandings.
“The misconception I’ve seen floating around recently is that everyone is a Syrian,” Kuhr says. “People that know us know that this isn’t true.
Or that we are only resettling Muslims. And that we only help people for a few months. We only help people financially for a few months, but we’re able to work with families on services for three to five years, depending on what they need. We’re very focused
on that initial settlement but we’re there as needed for advice and counseling for a couple years after
they come.”
This story was updated at 9am September 29 to reflect the correct name of the organization that resettled the Jamalrazas.
Farah Ibrahim came to Charlottesville in 2008 with her infant daughter as a refugee from Iraq. She is currently a caseworker with the IRC and is a U.S. citizen. Submitted photo
In the week since terrorists waged the largest attack in Paris since World War II, sympathy to the French has been pretty much universal. To Syrians fleeing slaughter in their country, not so much.
On the evening of November 20, two Syrian refugees flew into Charlottesville after Kansas Governor Sam Brownback uninvited them.
“That’s so sad and so unnecessary,” says Charlottesville International Rescue Committee Executive Director Harriet Kuhr. “States technically can’t bar people from their borders because it’s a federal program, but they can delay services. They can make them unwelcome.”
Reaction in Virginia captures the gulf in how this country is handling the idea of Syrian refugees. On November 17, 5th District Congressman Robert Hurt issued a statement of support for the French—and of concerns about admitting refugees.
“Given that our screening process is not nearly as adequate nor effective as it should be, it is imperative that we stop the intake of Syrian refugees at this time,” says Hurt. Two days later, the House voted to add requirements that the heads of U.S. security and intelligence agencies certify that refugees are not a threat.
By the end of the week, 27 Republican governors sent a letter to Obama asking him to suspend resettlement of the 10,000 Syrians he wanted to admit, citing vetting concerns.
Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe did not join the governors who want to slam the door on refugees, and his office issued a statement that says, “Every refugee who is settled in the U.S. undergoes intensive security screening, and the governor has asked Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security Brian J. Moran to ensure that every proper precaution is taken to keep Virginians safe.”
“Only three states where IRC has offices are still accepting Syrian refugees,” says Kuhr, listing Virginia, California and Washington.
While Roanoke Mayor David Bowers suggested that the internment of Japanese-American citizens during World War II was a reason to suspend incoming Syrian refugees, Mayor Satyendra Huja issued a statement November 19 reaffirming an October 5 City Council proclamation that Charlottesville is a “welcoming city.”
He said, “In light of disconcerting developments here in Virginia and around the country regarding Syrian refugees, I reaffirm the principles and commitments of the October 5 declaration, which was passed unanimously. I am joined in this statement by our two new City Councilors-elect, Wes Bellamy and Mike Signer.”
His statement has drawn criticism.
“My problem here is one of governance,” says former Jefferson Area Tea Party head Carole Thorpe. “Mayor Huja said it was passed unanimously.” Two days after City Councilor Kristin Szakos read the proclamation in October, Vice Mayor Dede Smith said on the “Schilling Show” on WINA she knew nothing about the proclamation before the council meeting, although she supported it. Councilor Bob Fenwick says he supports it, as well.
It turns out City Council doesn’t really vote on proclamations, according to Huja. “City Council supported it,” he says. And for Thorpe’s calling out his statement that it was passed unanimously, says Huja, “What difference does it make?”
“I think I’ve caught the mayor being disingenuous,” says Thorpe, who adds that proclamations can be used as political tools, and that one delves into international matters. “I don’t agree with proclamations, and that particular one I have issues with,” she says.
Charlottesville has had an International Rescue Committee office since 1998, and during that time it’s resettled around 3,000 people, according to Kuhr. “Refugees are the most carefully vetted immigrants that come here,” she says. They go through a one- to two-year process with security checks, health checks and in-person interviews with Homeland Security, she says, adding that the flood of refugees happening in Europe is not happening here.
And they have to be certified by the United Nations. “They have to have a well-founded claim of persecution to be certified a refugee,” says Kuhr. And people coming from Syria and Iraq have multiple background checks, she says.
“The part that boggles my mind is people thinking these are terrorists,” says Kuhr. “These people are victims of terrorists. They’re fleeing ISIS.” Syria has 4 million citizens who have fled the country, and another 6 million who are displaced inside Syria, where civil war has raged since 2011, and ISIS declared Raqqa its capital.
“That’s a huge displacement, 10 million people not living in their own homes,” says Kuhr. “People don’t do that for fun.”
She says there are much easier ways for terrorists to enter the country than the refugee program. “Every day there are people coming as tourists with no vetting at all,” says Kuhr.
Last week, before the two latest Syrians arrived, Virginia had 25 Syrians in the state, including a family of six that came to Charlottesville in August, says Kuhr. Nationwide, there are around 2,000 Syrians, a number the Obama administration wanted to up to 10,000 following the disturbing image in September of a dead Syrian baby washed up on a Turkish beach.
The message that Americans have to do something to help has turned into, “We’re endangering Americans,” says Kuhr.
She seeks to reassure terrified Americans. “We resettle more refugees than any other country,” says Kuhr. “We have the experience to do it safely.”
