People gathered Sunday night in Cook Recital Hall in the MSU College of Music to listen to music and to hear the stories of people who have experienced displacement because of conflicts around the world, such as the Syrian Civil War.
The person who organized the event is president of the MSU chapter of the Refugee Outreach Kalamazoo, or ROK, psychology senior Sydney Conroy.
Conroy founded the MSU chapter of ROK after talking with the founder of ROK, Emily Worline, within two weeks of founding the non-profit organization.
“I remember sitting in coffee shops with her just this past May forming this organization and figuring out how we could best serve the community we have around us,” Conroy said via email.
Conroy said she wanted to start an MSU chapter of ROK to get more involved with the people who have experienced displacement.
“I feel like it’s the biggest humanitarian crisis for our generation,” Conroy said. “It’s like the Rwandan genocide.”
“I was just amazed by her willingness and want to get involved before we had really done anything yet,” Worline said. “She’s just an amazing person.”
Conroy said her passion for helping out this specific community came from a study abroad trip in Italy last year, when she first came into contact with refugees from the Congo.
"I think it helped me want to get involved in this being in a new culture in a new place," Conroy said. "For the first time (I) didn't feel like I fit in or was the majority."
Worline said Conroy came to her about the idea “Tales About Home.”
“I said, 'Sydney, that sounds absolutely amazing,'” Worline said.
Conroy said the idea for “Tales About Home” came from a MSU ROK meeting discussion about ways to get the MSU community more involved in the situation of displacement.
A member of the group, music education senior Jacob Fortman, had experience with setting up concerts and wanted to set up a story-telling type concert for ROK, Conroy said via email.
“We decided this could be the perfect platform to engage students as well as members of the community with stories of displacement in a humanizing and respectful way,” Conroy said via email.
However, Conroy said they did encounter some difficulties such as recruiting musicians to perform and finding people who have experienced displacement.
“We let the story-tellers seek us out after advertising the concert because these stories tend to be heavy and vulnerable,” Conroy said via email. “We never wanted anyone to feel as if they had to share anything they weren't comfortable with.”
Conroy said what she wanted to gain from the concert was to show people that no issue is too far away from home.
“It is easy to distance yourself from an issue that seems far away or feel as though it doesn't affect you,” Conroy said via email. “But our goal in using music as a medium is to allow people to feel connected in the natural way music does.”
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
