Paper short abstract:

Reflecting on work with newcomer women, it is the silences between the stories that seem most powerful. What did the women chose to silence and what do they make vocal? How do my own expectations and silences influence the stories? Even in an effort to amplify their voices, the silences resound.

Paper long abstract:

Reflecting back through the years since I first began documenting refugee and immigrant women's stories of migration and resettlement, it is the silences between the stories that now seem most powerful. What did the women chose to silence and what do they make vocal? In what ways did my own expectations and silences influence those stories? We have been working together for 18 years gathering their narratives and sharing them with the general public in a variety of ways; exhibitions, theater productions, and even a cookbook. It has been a collaborative process in which my own presence has been as facilitator. This paper will reflect on the silences so apparent during the fieldwork process as well as the co-curatorial process of designing public events: what stories were not told; how and why have those silences shifted over time? Even in an effort to amplify the voices of those who are silenced, the silences resound in those spaces. I will also explore the nature of the silenced stories and what they say about our work with refugees and immigrants. How can understanding enlighten that work? Whether grounded in fear, pain, or pride, the silences contribute to what Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie calls the "single story" of the immigrant. This is as true of my own position as folklorist or silent facilitator as it is of the choices the women make. My own silences as well as my expectations are implicated in the process.