An Evening in Support of Refugees
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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.
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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.