the streets A
S t r e e t
P h o t o g r a p h y
issue six
M a g a z i n e
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TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S 4 Editor’s Letter
PERSPECTIVES Photographer Series 8 blctxt contxt 19 David Ahn
28 Victoria Stoeva 40 Hosea Johnson
INTERSECTIONS Conversations with strangers (and sometimes friends) 52 Coffee Community
66 Neighbor to the World
62 A New Life Editor and Creative Director: Meredith M Howard Creative and Digital Assistant: Eva Howard Special thanks to Elise Howard, Kristen Green, Kitti Murray, Karen Guess, and Malek Adams Front cover photo: David Ahn Back cover photo: Meredith M Howard Contributors: blctxt contxt, David Ahn, Victoria Stoeva, Hosea Johnson, and Kristen Green Contact THE STREETS: info@thestreetsmag.com www.thestreetsmag.com Follow us on Instagram @thestreetsmagazine All work is copyrighted to the photographer, artist, or author. No part of this magazine may be used without permission of THE STREETS. THE STREETS
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EDITOR’S LET TER I love to see the sparkle in someone’s eyes when they are using their gifts – when they are doing something that comes naturally and doing it well. And I am fascinated by our different gifts. One person may be great at making everyone feel welcome and another person may be great at focusing for hours on a computer. Often other people value your gifts even more than you do because you think your gifts are so normal. I chose the cover photo (which is a self portrait that David Ahn uses as his profile picture) because we are turning the focus back on ourselves with this Issue’s theme of “Gifts.” A great example of someone downplaying amazing gifts is Kitti Murray, who started Refuge Coffee Co. (Read Kristen Green’s interview with her on page 52.) I asked her what gifts have helped her start and run Refuge, and here is her response – “I’d have to say the best thing (and some days, the only thing) I bring to the table is the ability to bring people together. I’m a synergist more than a visionary. What that means is that the talent and drive it took to start Refuge and keep it going belongs to everyone else on our team! I just brought them here.” Pretty humble for what she has accomplished. So, I asked our mutual friend Karen (also interviewed in this Issue on page 66), what Kitti’s gifts are – “Her number one talent is the talent of hospitality. She was a pastor’s wife for years and learned how to care for people well. She is also naturally gifted at making people feel welcome. She has a sunny personality and has an eye for the underdog. She’s one of those people that knows just how to offer love in a tangible way at the right moment. She also has a creative eye that can see the story in something and tell it well. I think that makes her a good PR person for Refuge and a good spokesperson for the refugee.”
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Editor’s Letter Wow. She’s all about people – bringing them together, lifting them up, supporting them, and advocating for them. Kitti talks about her gifts with words like “the only thing” and “I just” when her contributions are huge! So I encourage you to find your gifts and put them to good use. Whether it’s the gift of encouragement and noticing the art in each person like Anthony aka blctxt (page 8) or the gift of creative experimentation like David (page 19) or finding beauty in the everyday and making quiet moments look gorgeous like Victoria (page 28) or seeing both the celebrity and the man on the street as beautiful like Hosea (page 40 but you’ll have to visit his website for the celebrities) or possessing enough bravery to escape a dangerous country and start a new life like Malek (page 62) or the amazing ability to accomplish more than anyone else in a day while thinking deeply on multiple issues like Karen (page 66),
you have gifts, too! Find a way to inject them into what you are currently doing. Or find a path that will make the most of them. Because when you are using your gifts, we are all blessed. – Meredith
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Photograph by Meredith M Howard
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blctxt contxt Photographer
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blctxt contxt How did you get into photography? High school is when I got my first camera. It was a really cool film Minolta given to me by a family friend/mentor photographer. He knew I had an interest in photography because I’d pick his brain about it every time I saw him. At the time I was deeply into Gordon Parks’ legacy and Nitin Vadukul’s photos in The Source magazine so I aimed to be a mixture of the two. Pardon me, I was super young.
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blctxt contxt Do you take all of your pictures on your iPhone? Why? Necessity is the mother of invention! The iPhone photography started out when I got back into exploring the medium. Getting a DSLR wasn’t an option, so I had to make my photos look sexy. My future plans are to grow with DSLR’s though.
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blctxt contxt How do you feel and what is going through your head when you are taking photographs of people on MARTA? It seems like it could get uncomfortable if they have a negative reaction and then you are stuck on the train together. Documentation is important and my camera is my time machine. If my SpideySenses lead me to a moment, I’m universally obligated to shoot. I’m not here to exploit. I’m here to document a dope moment. If the moment does build from discomfort to confrontation, I’ll handle it with class and bring them to understanding.
“If my Spidey-Senses lead me to a moment, I’m universally obligated to shoot.” How would you describe Atlanta? Atlanta is a beautiful place where anyone can make their dreams a reality. I do wish that working class folk could afford to actually live in the city because our contributions to Atlanta’s culture are paramount.
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Who or what inspires you artistically? Motion really inspires me. Capturing anything in motion is a true thrill. Stylistically I’m a student of Roy DeCarava, Nitin Vadukul, Gordon Parks and Jamel Shabazz to name a few.
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blctxt contxt
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“Art is truly inside us all.”
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blctxt contxt I love the tagline on your Instagram account – “Photos of the working class who may not see the art in themselves or their environment.”What prompted you to pursue this particular subject? Art is truly inside us all. I want both the subjects of my photographs and people who view them to recognize, respect and get inspired by said art.
Follow bltxt contxt on Instagram @blctxt
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PERSPECTIVES 18 Photograph by David Ahn
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David ahn Photographer
David Ahn How did you get into photography? As a creative by heart, I’ve always appreciated photography from afar; and as a marketer by trade, I’ve dabbled with different visual styles for fun. Then, one day last summer I got really bored and wanted to pick up a new hobby to learn and challenge myself with. I decided to borrow our company camera at SalesLoft and instantly fell in love with the art and science of photography.
“In places like NYC, the city changes you. But in places like ATL, you can change the city.”
I love your recent tweet – “In places like NYC, the city changes you. But in places like ATL, you can change the city.” How long have you lived in Atlanta and can you describe the city a little more from your perspective? I am one of the rare natives of Atlanta. Having lived here my whole life, I’ve seen the city change in so many positive ways – both physically and philosophically. What I love most about Atlanta is that there are different pockets of culture depending on where you go and what you enjoy, and anyone can find an area that they could consider as “home.”
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David Ahn
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David Ahn
A lot of your photographs look digitally manipulated – very sharp, high clarity, saturated (and sometimes unnatural) colors. How did this become your style? I’m still finding a visual style to call my own, but I’ve definitely been inspired by the creatives in our city. I love the dark and moody tones that Fourofour.co founder Bhargava Chiluveru channels, and the colorful (almost animated style) that Atlanta Urban Photo Walkers founder Lauren Holley visualizes. However, I think it’s important to make your own mark and imprint on your work, so I am constantly experimenting with different editing techniques.
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David Ahn What parts of your personality and/or background help you in photography? My background and years of experience as a marketer have helped me quickly adapt to doing photography. Having only worked in the startup scene since graduating college, I’ve had to wear many different hats and be a one-man marketing machine at times. This forced me to learn how to do a little bit of everything to get by with our limited resources – such as editing images to fit into newsletters or manipulating graphics to adjust for different formats and sizes of social media platforms. I have always been a quick learner, a perfectionist, and tech savvy by nature, so photography has come naturally to me.
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David Ahn What do you want to do next with your photography? I have been immersing myself in all different types of photography to gain experience, but I also know that my passion is street and portrait photography. The former is a lot easier to do as I can just grab my camera and go. I would like to do a lot more portrait work, although that is a challenge trying to coordinate shoots with a full-time 9 to 5. Other than that, I am still seeking new ways to get creative with my photography while putting my stamp on it so that people can see a photograph of mine and immediately recognize it as my work.
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Follow David Ahn on Instagram @dav1dahn and on Twitter @Dav1dAhn
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Victoria Stoeva Photographer
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Where do you live? I live in Varna, Bulgaria – a small country in Eastern Europe. What do you like about where you live and what would you like to change? My favorite thing about the place I live should be the sea. My city is actually the sea capital of my country, and the possibility to go and watch the sea whenever you feel like it is just priceless. The thing I would change is the attitude of the people sometimes. I wish we respected each other more, smiled more, and just took the time in this busy daily routine to stop, even for a minute, and appreciate these little things that make you smile like the color of the sky while the sun is setting. I believe these little things will make us happier – or at least they make me happier. 30
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“I wish we respected each other more, smiled more, and just took the time in this busy daily routine to stop, even for a minute, and appreciate the little things that make you smile.. �
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Victoria Stoeva How did you get into photography? Since I was little, I was interested in arts – mainly fine arts and painting at the time. But, in the end, all kinds of art are connected. I always enjoyed playing with the camera and taking pictures. One day, a friend of the family sold us his old film camera Minolta, and since then I was fascinated by photography.
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Victoria Stoeva What is your favorite thing to photograph? I love photographing people, my friends, strangers, lifestyle, nature – everything that attracts me in some way. I love documenting the vibes of the places I have visited. Almost every photograph here is taken in a different country in Europe while I have been traveling. These photos are very precious to me.
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Victoria Stoeva Who or what inspires you artistically? All kinds of different things inspire me – body movements, how the sunset is reflecting on the walls in my room, tree shadows, color combinations, blooming trees, flowers, reflections, water. I am attracted by light and I love playing with it. I am inspired by people who are passionate about what they do. I am inspired by good people.
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Victoria Stoeva What do you think your gifts are? This is an interesting question. Honestly, I have never been comfortable saying that I have a certain gift, but I do think every person has this thing that make him unique. Every person has the gift to see the world like nobody else. I see the world in light and color.
Over the years, I have been influenced not only to notice but to look for the light and the colors that surround me. I think I have the ability to find the beautiful side of things and to show them. If I have any gift, this should be it.
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Victoria Stoeva How does your personality help you in photography? My personality helps my photography to be mine and not someone else’s. This is a statement that every artist can make. And this is the most beautiful part of practicing any form of art – to express yourself and what you have inside of you. Personally, I am a sensitive and emotional person, and this sensitivity helps me, I believe, to portrait the things I chose to photograph in a sensitive, emotional, poetic and beautiful way.
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Victoria Stoeva
“Every person has the gift to see the world like nobody else.”
Go to Victoria’s website www.victoriastoevaphotography.com to see all of her beautiful portraits and follow her on Instagram @victoriastoevaphotos THE STREETS 39
Hosea Johnson Photographer
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Hosea Johnson Where do you live and how would you describe your city? I live in New York City. A beautiful place full of really concerned people. How did you get into photography? I always had an idea I wanted to be a photographer. I had my first camera by seven – a Mickey Mouse camera. I have vague memories of me with that camera and a Ronald McDonald doll roaming the La Clair Courts housing projects in Chicago. Dad bought me a 35mm in about 7th grade. About the same time, I started developing and printing in the basement of our house. (We had moved out of the projects by then.) I did not get into yearbook photography but ran a club called “The Shutter Bugs” in high school. We all made great images. I got a Yashica 120 Mat camera in high school. I went to SIU Carbondale and loved to do 4x5 camera portraits of people and landscapes back then. I’ve been thinking of dusting off the old 4x5 camera. I graduated in 1986, worked in Chicago for a few years then in New York by the late 80’s. Holding a traditional camera in public always kept me from doing “street photography”. The cell phone helps me blend in and that may be the reason I’m doing so much of it now.
Hosea Johnson What about your background or personality helps you in street photography? When I was young, I always thought things would always be there. Now that I’m older, I know they won’t be. I kind of think everyone is beautiful. I started teaching kids to document their environment with appreciation and it grew to me doing it. I like showing people what I see. When I was teaching autistic kids, I would just keep telling them – “Show me what you like” – and they made beautiful pictures.
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Hosea Johnson
“I kind of think everyone is beautiful.”
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Hosea Johnson
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Hosea Johnson
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Hosea Johnson
What inspires you artistically? Beauty, light, color, contrast, philosophy, Buddhism, chanting, art, music, movies, trees, young kids popping wheelies on motorcycles, babies, study, flowers, architecture, nature, water.
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Hosea Johnson
Go look at Hosea’s amazing portraits on his website at www.hoseajohnson.com and follow him on Instagram @hoseajohnson THE STREETS
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I N T E R S E
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INTERSECTIONS
E C T I O N S
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coffee community When Kitti Murray opened a coffee shop staffed by refugees in a truck parked in the lot of an old garage in Clarkston, Georgia, she didn’t just start a business. She created a path for our newest residents and a gathering place for the whole community. It’s not fancy, but it’s one of the warmest places you will ever visit. This interview was conducted by Kristen Green in September 2015 for ATL 1X1. The interview has been reprinted here with permission. The photographs included in this article for THE STREETS were taken by Meredith M Howard. How did you decide to pick up and move and become a part of the community instead of helping from afar? We were living in an apartment for three years. Our children started having children, and we realized we were probably going to have a lot of grandkids. So we realized that apartment living wasn’t going to last much longer. We knew we needed to buy a house.
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Coffee Community My husband was planning to teach a class at a seminary on Biblical social justice. He is a “why” kind of guy. If he has a strong why, he can do anything. He began to think – “I just want us to live in a community where we can make a difference.” What we know about community development is that you don’t do it by yourself. We wanted to be somewhere that there were other people with that same mindset. We made a decision that we would go live wherever the widows, aliens and orphans lived. We’d find a place that was like that, and it would be in Atlanta because we knew we needed to be in Atlanta. Neither of us knew where that was. We looked at each other and said – “Ok, we’re in. So where is it?” We didn’t know.
“We made a decision that we would go live wherever the widows, aliens and orphans lived.” The next week I went out to lunch with a good friend* that I don’t see that often. We had both worked with World Relief with families here. We both had experience in Clarkston. They had thought about buying a house here to be kind of a host place for people who came to do work here. So I asked her if that had happened. She said, “Oh, no. It fell through, but we bought a neighborhood.” It sounds like a bigger deal than it is, but they bought a foreclosed development. They had three houses that were mostly built, and they said would you like to buy one of our houses? And we did. That’s how we ended up here. It’s the kind of place we wanted to be. I don’t know why we didn’t think of it in the first place. *This “good friend” happens to be Meredith Howard’s good friend as well. Read the interview with this friend on page 66. THE STREETS
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Coffee Community
Out of that, how did Refuge Coffee Co. come to be? I don’t know. I wish I knew. When we moved here my husband and I both had jobs. We both had involvements. So when we moved here we thought we might join a group and do something, but we were going to sit back and observe for a while first. But we immediately met neighbors and got to know people and got to see up close what the needs are – also, how beautiful the different cultures are. We didn’t really have plans. We didn’t think we would have plans.
“So when we moved here we
thought we might join a group... but we were going to sit back and observe for a while...” 54
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Coffee Community I noticed that when we would pray for our neighbors that one of the big things we’d pray about was jobs. The job situation is really tough here. The jobless rate is double the national average. But that doesn’t even reflect it very well, because the jobs that most refugees do get, no matter how qualified they are in their own countries, are really bad jobs. The job situation – we would just pray about that and pray about that. But we’re not in the business world, and I never thought we’d have anything to do with helping with it. The other thing was there’s lots of little monoethnic restaurants and coffee shops, and they’re great...But there’s no multiethnic gathering place. There’s no coffee shop. And I’m a coffee shop lover. That’s where we have meetings. That’s where I go to get work done. I just love that third environment. There’s nothing here. I just kept thinking that if I talk to the right people someone will think it’s a great idea and open
“Some young hipster, zealous person will do it.” up a coffee shop. I thought –
Kitti is pictured below in middle wearing sunglasses.
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Coffee Community
One day my husband and I were having a prayer meeting at our house. He said, “Why don’t you tell everybody your idea.” And everyone just went – I was like,
“You have to do it!” “Oh no, not me.”
And the thing is that it hasn’t been me. The thing that has made it happen is from the beginning there have been people who have spoken wisdom into and also come on board to help. Caleb is our director of operations. There is no way we could do it without him. We have a director of job training. These are things I have no idea how to do. What I do know how to do is gather people around an idea. 56
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Coffee Community Can you share stories of impact that you’ve seen since moving to Clarkston, building relationships with refugees and now opening Refuge Coffee Co.? Number one – the impact has been on my life. I think we think of people from other countries where almost everybody has a really horrible story – we think of them as victims, poor, inadequate. And none of those things are true. They are some of the richest, most giving, gracious people I’ve ever met in my life. It’s not a poor, underserved community where we’re the great saviors. That’s not true at all. Diversity is not a value in other places around the world. So to see people from different countries, that are enemies on their continent, become friends here is really beautiful.
“Diversity is not a value in other THE STREETS 57 places around the world.”
Coffee Community Amina is a good friend of mine. She’s one of the first people we ever met. She is Somalian. She watched her entire family get slaughtered in front of her – 10 children, her husband, everybody. She was left for dead, and a Red Cross aid worker came and discovered she had a pulse. There’s the typical refugee journey, and she ended up here. She is one of the most giving people I’ve ever known. She’ll contact me, and she’ll have something for me to do. But it’s for somebody else, never for her. She really cares for people.
“She watched her entire family get slaughtered in front of her...People that have survived some horrendous things, and yet they are really interested in helping other people.” I see that a lot here. People that have survived some horrendous things, and yet they are really interested in helping other people. She’s phenomenal. She’s one of the reasons that Refuge Coffee Co. exists. I took her to Dancing Goats in Decatur, and she said, “We’ll never have anything like this in Clarkston.” She wasn’t complaining. She was just observing. It was one of those moments where I was like – “I’ll be darned. Yes, we will.”
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How has your time and experiences in Clarkston shaped your view of helping people in need? Because like you said, they’re not people in need. They are people with stories who are very capable. They’re just in a new environment. I think as Americans in the West, we have so much privilege and are able to jump in and act fast. One of the first things I did when I came to Clarkston was put out a plea on Facebook. I’m a writer, so I can tell the story really well. All these people would respond, and I would just take stuff to people. Because they needed it. It wasn’t the best way to go about things. It would make all of us feel good, but it would immediately set up this donor/recipient relationship. It wouldn’t be a friendship anymore. THE STREETS
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Refugees Welcome Here
What excites you most about Clarkston and the future of Refuge Coffee? It’s easy to have a traffic pattern that never puts you in touch with people who are different than you. That doesn’t mean that if you live in the suburbs that your head is in the sand, but it is easy for your head to be in the sand when you don’t see people that are different. I love that this community is full of people that are very intentional about why they live here, how they spend their time, who they spend it with. I love that. I feel like that really has impacted this community in a neat way.
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Coffee Community I love the people who have these stories that have escaped. I see them turning a corner and building a life here and contributing to us. I would love to see businesses like Refuge Coffee Co. crop up more – successful, fun businesses that bring Atlanta here.
Refuge Coffee Co. is located at 4170 E Ponce de Leon Avenue Clarkston, Georgia. Find out more info at www.refugecoffeeco.com.
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A NEW LIFE
Malek works at Refuge Coffee Co. While I was there enjoying a cup of tea (yes, they serve more items than just coffee), I asked him a few questions. – Meredith M Howard When did you come to the United States? I came in August 2016, so I have been here for almost eight months. The process took about one and a half years. I was in Jordan, so it wasn’t super bad for me. The situation in Syria was awful. Awful for all of us. So, I had to run out of Syria to Jordan, and I stayed in Jordan three and a half years. When you ran out of Syria, what was that like? I just left everything behind. Everything. 62
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A New Life How did you get to Jordan and then to the U.S.? I had to bribe someone to get me to Jordan. After one and a half years in Jordan, they called us and told us we were approved to come to the United States. We were super excited. We came here, and the life is better than in my country. And better than in Jordan. The situation in Jordan is not good for the refugees. Do you miss anything about home? Yes, absolutely! I miss my friends and my family over there. Do you think your family will try to come here? It’s impossible to come here from Syria. You cannot go out from Syria to the neighboring countries. It’s impossible for them to get into the United States. How do your friends and family describe the conditions now in Syria? There is no living wage for low and middle income, and it’s a dangerous place to leave. For your friends and family back in Syria, what can be done to help them? Help them to find safe exit and make the procedure of coming to the U.S. easier for them.
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A New Life What is your life like here in Clarkston? It’s a pretty nice city. It’s the most diverse city in the world, and I like it. Do you think you will work at Refuge Coffee Company for a while? My work here will be for a year in a training program, so after the one year maybe I will have my own business. What kind of business do you want to start? A food business – catering and vending. Specifically Syrian food. My mom is the chef, and we are working to make our business happen. I am learning right now how to run the business.
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A New Life What are your favorite dishes? My best dish to eat is mahashi which is zucchini and eggplant stuffed with seasoned rice. My mom likes making Baba Ghannough. What is the name of your business and how can people find you? The name is Suryana Cuisine, and people can find us through my Facebook page Malek Mba. Right now, I’m studying the business plan and I’m going to start school for business. What have you learned from training and working at Refuge Coffee Company? Because I am interested in business and Refuge Coffee is providing a job training class, they are focusing on having us prepared for the next step.
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neighbor to the world My friend Karen Guess had a nice suburban life in Norcross, Georgia when she and her family decided to move to Clarkston in order to be neighbors (and friends) to the world. (Thousands of refugees have been resettled in Clarkston over the past 25 years.) In April 2012, Karen wrote some thoughts in her blog about friendship in her new town – So many people think of the world in terms of “us” and “them.” “If my spoiled rotted child (“us”) could just see the poverty and hardship that poor teenager endures (“them”), my child would suddenly become grateful.” Maybe. Probably not for very long, though, unless they encounter something so precious and so valuable…friendship…with that other person. With “them.” So that, the “us” and the “them” gets so blurred that WE become friends.
In April of 2017, we sat at Refuge Coffee Co. and talked about her story while a constant stream of friends and neighbors stopped by our table to say “Hi”. – Meredith M Howard 66 INTERSECTIONS
Neighbor to the World When did the idea of moving to Clarkston first come to you? It first came about five and a half years ago. We had already been connected to the community for a year and a half with a family from Eritrea.
Where is Eritrea? It’s on the East coast of Africa. It’s a small country that broke away from Ethiopia in the early 90’s. Since then, they’ve had the same guy in charge, and he’s a dictator. They call it the North Korea of Africa. They don’t have any rights. They all have to do mandatory military service – potentially for their entire lives. They just closed the last public university. If you ever look on a refugee roster of countries, Eritrea is always five or six on the list. People leave in droves.
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What were you doing with the family from Eritrea? We were what they call a “Good Neighbor” team. The resettlement agencies like to have people come alongside newly resettled families. We worked with World Relief. So, basically we committed to friendship with them. They asked us to see them at least twice a month for six months. So, we did, and we obviously became friends. So, back to your idea to move to Clarkston. How did that come about? It was a slow growing idea. It had not really occurred to us until we spent the weekend here with our church. Being here we felt like it was a call. That’s kind of a strong word, but we felt like the Lord was opening up this idea of being an ambassador and trying to connect the two worlds that we had been in. So, we started talking about moving and looking into it. 68
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Neighbor to the World What were your feelings about moving here? I was excited. I think my apprehension was mostly around our kids and how they would do and settle because we were keeping them at Wesleyan. We had a lot of anticipation – in a good way. Because of the fact that we bought a neighborhood (it’s a long story), we were forced in a good way to get connected to a lot of different people in the city. So by the time we moved, it really already felt like home. I remember going to breakfast with Doug and talking about whether we could accomplish what we thought would be great to do – every newly arriving family would have someone to host them. That’s so far from what’s ended up happening. It just makes me laugh when I think about it because it’s not realistic. But it was good to have a goal.
“Oh, we’re moving to be neighbors. We’re not moving to solve anything.” So what do you do with the community now? Before we moved, we really had an “Aha!” moment. We realized, “Oh, we’re moving to be neighbors. We’re not moving to solve anything.” It was a Holy Spirit inspired paradigm shift. Because when we start to feel overwhelmed or don’t know what to do, that’s when we come back to – “We’re here to be neighbors.” And that can look like busy seasons of super connection and that can look like not seeing your neighbor for a couple of weeks.
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Neighbor to the World
Some of Karen’s neighbors
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Neighbor to the World And the beauty of Clarkston is obviously the diversity but also it’s a small community. Like this morning, I’ve seen all of these friends. [She gestures to the people sitting at tables around us.] They all live here and walked up here. It’s different than most places in Atlanta where you don’t really run into your neighbors. But you do here. It makes it easier to be a neighbor if you know who they are and see them all the time.
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Neighbor to the World You’ve written in your blog about conversations since the election.* What is the most recent feeling around Clarkston about the situation regarding the travel ban? There is a ton of passion around refugee resettlement and a healthy understanding of what that means. So, it was very sad to recognize how an issue can be so misunderstood. There was a ton of passion, but I feel like the community has returned to its hard-working normal self. There are a lot of refugees here who work 60 hours a week at minimum wage jobs to support their family. Everyone’s kind of back to work. The new executive order that Trump signed about “America first” – that’s going to be fought. But at the end of the day, the President is the only one who can decide how many refugees come in each year. It’s gone unnoticed, but the fact is he cut it almost in half. The most vulnerable communities – the refugees – have the least access to remediation. There probably won’t be anybody else coming for the rest of the year because they’ve all come.** It’s especially hard on families. Families oftentimes don’t come in groups. They come two or three at a time. It slows things down for people. We know a young man that was in the family we adopted who came with his aunt and uncle when he was 14. He is 21 now. His dad fled from Eritrea to Israel and finally has refugee status and is coming next weekend. *You can read Karen’s thoughts in her blog HERE and HERE. **According to an article in the The New York Times, President Trump’s executive order reduced the annual number of refugees allowed into the U.S. from 110,000 to 50,000. Federal judges ruled against that order and “the State Department this week [May 26, 2017] quietly lifted the department’s restriction on the number of refugees allowed to enter the United States.” Groups now expect 70,000 refugees to enter the U.S. this year.
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Neighbor to the World What are the main organizations that work with refugees? There are five resettlement agencies working in Clarkston. They have a social worker who is their primary case worker who helps them get their kids enrolled in school, get medical checks, and find housing. Then each of the agencies have employment specialists on staff to help them find jobs, but their goal is to just get them employed. Akmed is a refugee from Syria, and he’s a pharmacist. Leon used to teach school. A lot of people who come here have education and degrees and careers, but they end up working in the chicken processing plants. It’s really rough work and often really cold.
“A lot of people who come here have education and degrees and careers, but they end up working in the chicken processing plants.” There are initiatives in the community around employment. Cafe Clarkston has job training courses, helps people with resumes, and connects people with different businesses. There’s something called The Lantern Project where you can enroll in a night class to train in higher skilled construction type jobs. Refuge Coffee Company does job training for their employees to equip them to enter the job market. So, there are some programs, but there need to be more.
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Neighbor to the World And the thing is, for the most part, refugees come ready to work. They’re not thinking they want to be wards of the State. They want to be independent, because most of them came from some form of independence that just got compromised. So it’s best if you can intercept the cycle of poverty on the front end. It would be awesome if there were more opportunities for better paying jobs. But in America you kind of have to go to college, and it’s a little hard to bridge that gap.
“It’s best if you can intercept the cycle of poverty on the front end.”
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Neighbor to the World There’s another family from Eritrea and the dad has been here for seven years and his wife and daughter have only been here for a year. He worked for that long to hire a mercenary to get them out. He was a Physics teacher in Eritrea, and his wife owned a store. Now he drives a taxi and his wife works at the farmer’s market. But his oldest daughter just applied to Agnes Scott College and got in. Half of her tuition will be covered in honors scholarships and the other half in grants and loans. So, just trying to bridge the gap into the system – even if it’s just for the children – is a big deal. And it’s hard to do. I’ve helped her fill out her FAFSA and help her apply for financial aid. It’s hard enough being a native English speaker to do all of that. There’s been a team of us on this for six months, and I don’t even know that we’re completely finished. We’re going on Tuesday to meet with the financial aid people, and I’m terrified they’re going to tell me that I’ve messed something up. If I don’t know how to do this then how is she supposed to figure it out. [Update: She got her scholarships and aid!] You have been involved with Refuge Coffee Company [see interview on page 52]. Do you know the status of the garage property where Refuge is located? There’s a group of investors that would like to buy this property for a socially minded development. But so far their offer has not aligned with what the bank wants.
[Update: Refuge Coffee Company has 60 days to raise
$360,000 in order to purchase the property from the bank. You can watch a happy video featuring Kitty, Malek, and others and find out more about their campaign HERE.]
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So, do you think you will stay here in Clarkston? Yeah, I do. We love it. It’s quirky, but I don’t know why we’d move.
When I went to take photos of Clarkston for this article, I met a woman from Eritrea named Elsa who invited us into her restaurant for traditional coffee. It was delicious.
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