An Evening in Support of Refugees

Last week, when I was in Minneapolis teaching a class at the University of Minnesota, I took a four hour drive up I-94 to Madison, Wisconsin to attend an evening of music benefiting Refugees International (RI).

On the evening of January 25, I arrived at the High Noon Saloon in Madison and was greeted by Jason Horowitz, a member of the headlining and hosting band, The Whiskey Farm. Jason introduced me to the three other acts performing that evening – Amber Sebastian, a talented local vocalist who not only performed but also sold jewelry at the event with proceeds going directly to RI, recording artist Ritt Deitz, and a wonderful group of acoustic folk rock musicians called the Emmylous.

During The Whiskey Farm’s set, their second offering was the song “You are Welcome Here.” This is the song they so kindly made available to us for an RI-The Whiskey Farm end-of-year collaboration. The partnership helped us to lift the voices and tell the stories of refugees and displaced people around the world. A link to the song and video appears below.

The event was a major success. Not only did we raise nearly $2,000 between ticket sales (and the sale of Amber’s jewelry), but it was a wonderful experience for me to spend an evening with people who volunteered their time and extraordinary talents to support refugees and displaced people. It was an evening that I will not soon forget.