Iraqi Refugee Theater Run Closes While Advocacy Efforts Press Forward

Intersections’ No Place Called Home New York run ended Oct. 31 after a final week of sold-out houses. The play—written by actress Kim Schultz with music by Amikalea Gaston—is a vivid depiction of one woman’s journey to the Middle East and her encounters with Iraqi refugees in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Their unique and painful experiences are brought to life in this one woman show, which explores their common struggle to overcome the devastating effects of the Iraq war.

In addition to selling over 600 tickets, the play received significant media coverage including a feature in The New York Times, reviews in The Star Ledger and Diplomacy and Power Politics, and coverage in The Huffington Post, Current TV and Hoboken Patch, among others. “Schultz gains our sympathies for a people who many people automatically suspect are our enemies,” wrote Peter Filichia of the Star Ledger. “That alone is no small achievement.”

Many of the performances included post-show talkbacks with various members of the veteran, refugee, media and NGO communities, including Bob Carey, vice president of resettlement and migration policy at the International Rescue Committee; Larry Winters, Vietnam veteran and author of The Making and Un-Making of A Marine; and Michael Otterman, author of Erasing Iraq: The Human Cost of Carnage and American Torture: From the Cold War to Abu Ghraib and Beyond.

No Place Called Home is an initiative of Intersections’ Iraqi Voices Amplification Project. During Fall 2009, Intersections led a project team on a three-week research trip to Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. The team met with NGOs, UN organizations, local governments and hundreds of Iraqi refugee families in the region. Dr. Shanee Stepakoff from the Center for Victims of Torture in Amman met with the team last fall and recently attended the performance in New York. “The play was powerful, and really transported me back to the experience of being with the Iraqi refugees in Jordan,” she said. “[Intersections is] doing wonderful and important work.”

Ibrahim, a resettled Iraqi refugee living in New York, also attended and said, “As a refugee myself, I gave up to the fact that no one can hold the complexity of this crisis. It’s so complicated and different. Yet I was wrong. I was captured from the first word until the end.”

While the run of the play has ended for the time being, Intersections has pushed ahead with an aggressive advocacy campaign to help influence policy makers who hold critical power in remedying the plight of this community. C. Eduardo Vargas, Director of Advocacy and Public Policy at Intersections, recently authored Meeting America’s Ethical Responsibilities and Future Security Needs: Assisting Iraq’s Displaced Population. This policy recommendation outlines the obstacles faced by Iraqi refugees including limited access to healthcare, employment, legal protection, education and local integration. To remedy these issues, Intersections has outlined how the United States can have a more prominent leadership role in the crisis while strengthening the capacity of civil society.

The recommendations were submitted by Vargas and Megan Hoelle, Director of Strategic Initiatives at Intersections, at a recent joint congressional hearing in Washington. The hearing was sponsored by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and hosted by Senator Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.) and Representative Alcee Hastings of Florida (D-Fla.). The Commission convened to review U.S. efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to Iraqi refugees and assess assistance strategies for U.S.-affiliated Iraqis who face incredible risk as the withdrawal of U.S. forces accelerates.

Outside of the Commission, these policy pieces have informed Intersections’ “Postcard to the President Campaign,” and advocacy letters that concerned individuals can forward to their representatives online.

“The need for action remains pressing,” said Hoelle. “On Sunday, as the curtain closed on No Place Called Home, 58 Iraqis were killed and another 75 wounded in a standoff at a Catholic church in Bagdad. Another 50 people were killed and 180 wounded in a wave of 14 explosions that rocked Baghdad. Iraqis continue to depend on humanitarian aid and resettlement, as well as advocacy efforts.”

Intersections thanks everyone who attended No Place Called Home and encourages all concerned individuals to take action today. Send a letter to policy makers through the project website or stop by the Intersections office to sign a postcard to President Obama. America has an ethical responsibility to the Iraqi people, whose lives have been devastated throughout the course of the Iraq war. By taking action today, you can make a difference in the lives of millions of lost voices in Iraq.