Crossings|the Refugee Experience in America

In late December 2020 we interviewed Marieke Slovin Lewis and Sarah Reader Harris who spoke about their project lifting the stories of refugees and asylees into songs. Leveraging Sarah’s experience as a poet/author, Marieke’s musical training and foundations in participative storytelling, they met weekly with residents at Belgium’s largest refugee arrival center, Le Petit-Château. Prior to the pandemic, on Monday afternoons, a courtyard of the castle-like structure along the Canal de Bruxelles was filled with music and singing in as many as ten languages. Marieke and Sarah recount a 3+ year project as poet-songwriters in residence, a journey to nurture the voices and stories of refugees—from Story to Song.