Panel Discussion Examines Immigrants’ Search for ‘American Promise’

Montgomery Community Media will present “The American Promise: Immigration in Montgomery County,” a panel discussion hosted by author and journalist Steve Roberts.

The event is April 10 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at MCM’s Studio A at 7548 Standish Place, Rockville.

The panel features Frank Islam, an Indian-born serial entrepreneur and author; Ola Sage, a Montgomery County Business Hall of Fame inductee and Nigerian-born tech-wizard; and Reemberto Rodriguez, the Cuban-born director of the Silver Spring Regional Center and unofficial “mayor” of Silver Spring.

Roberts is author of “From Every End of This Earth: 13 Families and the New Lives They Made in America.” His career includes 25 years at The New York Times.

The panel will be talking about the experiences of immigrant Americans and the challenges of building successful lives and businesses in realizing “The American Promise.”

This conversation will be live-streamed at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 10, on MCMLive.org and broadcast subsequently on Channels 19, 21, 995 and 1055 on Comcast, Verizon and RCN.

The public can receive free tickets starting April 3 at https://tinyurl.com/MCMBigRead.

“The American Promise: Immigration in Montgomery County” is a program of NEA Big Read Montgomery, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts Big Read, in partnership with Arts Midwest.

NEA Big Read Montgomery is a partnership between MCM, Montgomery County Public Libraries, Friends of the Library, Montgomery County, the Gaithersburg Book Festival and Montgomery History.

Participating in the NEA Big Read program “broadens our understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book,” according to the National Endowment for the Arts grant.

A team of representatives from MCM, MCPL, Friends of the Library, the Gaithersburg Book Festival and Montgomery History selected the novel, “The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears,” by MacArthur Fellow Dinaw Mengestu, as a tribute to the Montgomery County’s diverse community.

Key to the book is the immigrant experience, including the traumas of war, the pain of exile and what it looks like to make a new home in an unfamiliar place.

NEA Big Read Montgomery is a springboard to create a community-wide understanding of the Montgomery experience, with events, book discussion groups, short stories and conversations, as well as developing and sharing a collection of oral histories of our new American neighbors.

For more information about the many activities related to NEA Big Read Montgomery, please visit https://tinyurl.com/BigReadMontgomery.

About Staff Writer

View all posts by Staff Writer