Did you ever feel like you didn't fit in? Feel like the odd guy out? It just might be you were the new kid in town. Or, maybe like Arif Choudhury, you grew up in one of the few Bangledeshi-Muslim immigrant families in Chicago, the only "brown-skinned boy" in the neighborhood. 

Getting to know one another is sometimes harder than we think. And yet, sometimes, even in the most difficult of situations, it can be as simple as listening. Listening to someone else's story. As Noa Baum writes in her memoir The Land Twice Promised, An Israeli Woman's Quest for Peace, when listening to another's story “you have a glimpse into their world, a glimpse that is larger and deeper than you would ever have had in a meeting or even a social interaction.”

On stage together for the first time, professional storytellers Arif Choudhury and Noa Baum will share with each other, as well as local audiences, glimpses into their worlds in their live performance In the Heart of the Other, A Muslim and Jew Sharing Their Stories. Hosted by URI's Northeast Tennessee Cooperation Circle, and made possible by generous community support, performances are free for both students and the public.

Performance Schedule

"In the Heart of the Other, A Muslim and Jew Sharing Stories"

Thursday, Sept. 14

3:30 PM - ETSU Martha Culp Auditorium,  412 Seehorn Road, Johnson City

7:30 PM - International Storytelling Center, 116 W. Main, Jonesborough

Friday, Sept. 15

3:30 PM - Tusculum College Auditorium, 60 Shiloh Road, Greenville

7:30 PM - Holston Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, 136 Bob Jobe Road, Johnson City

All Performances FREE - Limited Seating