Author Mohsin Hamid
featured at benefit for International Rescue Committee: Refugee Crisis Center
Stage
Mohsin
Hamid,
a native of Pakistan was the featured speaker Saturday for a benefit for the
International Rescue Committee at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in
Baltimore.
Ivy
Bookshop hosted the program in partnership with Redeemer Church. The
beneficiary of the combined effort was the IRC. Its laudable mission is to work
in the area of “refugee rescue and resettlement.”
For
tonight’s literary happening, there was a $28 per person admission charge, (or
per couple), which included a copy of the book. The Ivy donated 100 percent of
the net book sales to the IRC.
Ivy’s
co-owner, Ann Berlin, was also on the program. She said in reference to the
worldwide refugee crisis, “What’s going on right now is not OK.” She introduced
Hamid.
Ann
Berlin (Left) and Judith Krummeck
As
the fates would have it, Hamid’s latest novel, his fourth, “Exit West,” is on
this week’s front cover of the New York Times’ book review. The reviewer, Viet
Thanh Nguyen called it an “imaginative inventive novel.” He added that Hamid is
also “a graceful writer who does not shy away from contentious politics and
urgent, world matters – and we need so many more of these writers.”
Redeemer’s
rector, Rev. David J. Ware provided the welcoming remarks. Incidentally, just
about every seat in the church was filled for the event. There was also a brief
Q&A session moderated by Eduard Berlin, co-owner of Ivy after Hamid’s
comments.
In
between readings from his novel, Hamid commented on his background and the
current refugee crisis. Besides, Pakistan, he has lived in London, New York and
California.
Hamid
called his novel a “book about migration,” which contains an “optimistic
gesture” for the future. In answer to a question, he said, that in light of the
current crisis, “I always carry my passport with me!”
Mohsin
Hamid
This
response cracked up the audience.
Another
speaker, Ruben Chandrasekar, Executive Director of the Baltimore branch of the
IRC, brought the audience up to date on the workings of his agency. He labeled
President Donald Trump’s Muslim Ban #2, both “cruel and immoral.”
The
IRC operates in 39 countries and 28 U.S. cities, including Baltimore. It was
founded in 1933, in NYC. Since 1999, the IRC has helped about 15,000 refugees
to settle across the state of Maryland.
(Meanwhile,
on the national legal front, Maryland’s activist Attorney General, Brian E.
Frosh, has joined in a lawsuit, with other states, challenging the President’s
Muslim Ban #2. He denounced it as “illegal, unconstitutional and un-American.”)
Filling
out the program was Judith
Krummeck,
who has been the popular “evening drive time host, since 1998,” for the
classical WBJC, 91.5FM radio station. A native of South Africa, she shared her
experience as “an immigrant.”
Krummeck
said her people had been in South Africa for “five generations, going back to
1815.” They had migrated from England. It was her “choice” to leave Capetown,
South Africa, but she deeply sympathized with those who are currently being “forced
out” of their homeland.
Krummeck
is also an actress, educator and author. Her latest book, “Beyond the Baobab,” is
a collection of essays about her immigrant experience. To learn more about the
talented Ms. Krummeck, check out https://judithkrummeck.com.
Let
me end with this note:
Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives."
Eugene Victor Debs
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