Courage Together: An Evening of Arts and Culture Honoring Refugees and Displaced People

Designed to build understanding and empathy for the refugee journey, this workshop combines a Refugee Loss Simulation with firsthand storytelling from two refugee storytellers.

The simulation models the decisions and constraints people face when forced to flee their homes: participants begin by identifying the people, belongings, and community connections they would want to take with them, then move through a series of rounds in which they must give up some of those choices—first by personal decision, then by chance, and finally by decisions outside their control. Either before or after the simulation, two refugee storytellers share their personal experiences of displacement and resettlement. The session concludes with a facilitated discussion inviting participants to reflect on what they prioritized, how it felt to lose those choices, and what the combined experience of simulation and storytelling reveals about the realities of forced migration.   

Facilitators:

• Noah Klose is Director of Community Outreach at Homes Not Borders, where he leads volunteer engagement and oversees programs including AmeriCorps partnerships and the Food Assistance for Refugees initiative. A DC native, Noah has worked in refugee resettlement and volunteer management since 2018 in both Phoenix and the Greater Washington region. He is a graduate of Earlham College and served with AmeriCorps, including FEMA Corps deployments to Puerto Rico following Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Since joining Homes Not Borders in 2021, he has recruited and led volunteers for more than 2,000 home setups supporting newly arrived refugee families across Maryland, Virginia, and DC. 

• Amy Hoang Wrona is Artistic Director of Homes Not Borders’ Storytelling Initiative, working with refugee storytellers to develop and share their stories in community spaces, schools, and public events in partnership with The Moth.She also serves as Director of Development, where she leads development strategy and oversees fundraising, grants, and donor engagement to support refugees, asylum seekers, and Special Immigrant Visa holders in the Washington, DC area. Amy brings more than 20 years of experience in business development and strategy across nonprofit and federal contracting sectors, including leadership roles in government consulting and proposal development. A former refugee herself, she is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and is committed to supporting refugee communities as they rebuild their lives in the United States. 

Homes Not Borders is a Washington, DC–area nonprofit that supports refugees, asylum seekers, and Special Immigrant Visa holders as they resettle and rebuild their lives in the United States. Its programs combine direct support and economic opportunity, including food assistance for refugees affected by recent SNAP benefit losses and workforce development initiatives that connect commercially trained sewists with paid contract sewing work. HNB also partners with The Moth to train refugee and forced-migration storytellers in the art of storytelling, and feature their stories at an annual live show as well as in schools, houses of worship, and other civic and community spaces while compensating them for their performances. Through this work, HNB amplifies lived experience and deepens public understanding of the refugee experience in the United States.

Arts for Global Development, Inc. will facilitate WeaveTales, a collaborative weaving experience where threads, beads, and fabric are added to a communal structure, gradually forming a tapestry of shared story and collective vision.

Small personal materials brought from home (such as scrap fabric, yarn, ribbons, buttons, or recycled objects) are welcomed and incorporated, each leaving a unique mark in the evolving artwork. Together, these contributions create a shared expression of connection, memory, and imagination. The final piece will become part of Refugees International’s permanent art collection.