Concert Explores Refugee Experience
This article originally appeared in the April 26 issue of Jewish Review
By Yaki Bergman
As a surviver of a family who lost members during the Holocaust, I decided to share with you the significance of the Portland Chamber Orchestra's coming May 13th concert and its relevancy to the reality we are all experiencing today, especially with the war in the Ukraine.
I was born to parents who found themselves living in Europe in the early 1930’s under daily fear of cultural, physical and mental abuse that left them with no option but to escape a homeland contaminated by a totalitarian and dictatorial reality. The outcome of this tortuous journey as refugees was the beginning of a new and free life in Israel.
This coming May, the Portland Chamber Orchestra will feature a gifted 18 year old virtuoso pianist and violinist, Michelle Bushkova, whose family of eminent musicians was forced to flee Russia for both being Jews and opposing the war in the Ukraine. Michelle's family, like my family, was forced into becoming refugees in search of a new home…a search which ended recently with the beginning of a new life in Israel.
The Portland Chamber Orchestra will host Michelle as both violin and piano soloist. She will perform the world premiere of a Violin Concerto dedicated to her and named for her by Belarus’ most prominent composer, Victor Copytsko, who is at this moment persona non grata in his country. His music is not allowed to be performed and his teaching as well as any way of making a living, is blocked by the authorities. Based on last week’s information from mutual friends, he is literally in a desperate state of starvation. The Portland Chamber Orchestra has stood in support of victims of oppression and against social injustice and discrimination, and is about to make an imperative statement in supporting the people of Ukraine and all who bravely defend justice and freedom of speech.
The PCO’s May 13th concert program, “From Darkness to Light”, will conclude with Michelle Bushkova as soloist in Mozart’s sunny and optimistic Piano Concerto No.23 in A Major, K.488.
There will be a 6:30 pre-concert panel discussion among three refugees: Dr. Baher Butti from Iraq, Tapiwa Kapurura from Zimbabwe, and Mariya Klimenko from Ukraine. Local photographer, Jim Lommasson, will display works from his award-winning exhibits and books documenting what people fleeing their homes take with them. Lommasson’s project, “What We Carried”, would itself be banned in an oppressive regime, but on May 13th we celebrate our freedom of artistic expression and the struggles of people going from darkness to light.
Meet our panelists and special guests
Dr. Baher Butti
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Dr. Baher Butti has many years of expertise in the mental health field as an administrator and hospital psychiatrist in Baghdad, Iraq. He became a refugee in 2007 after learning that he had been targeted for assassination for his activism. After arriving in Portland, Baher started working as mental health therapist in the Oregon Health & Science University Intercultural Psychiatry Program, then the Lutheran Community Services Northwest Multi- Cultural Counseling Center, and the Intercultural Counseling Clinic in Catholic Charities, serving as a case manager for refugees.
In addition, Baher engaged in community activities and organizing, becoming a member and later chairman of the board of the Center of Intercultural Organizing (CIO; now Unite Oregon). He is the founder of Iraqi Society of Oregon. He is a public speaker and writes extensively about the psychological traumas of refugees, and about multicultural issues. He is a member of the City of Portland New Portlanders Policy Commission, and a member of the City of Portland Public Involvement Advisory Committee.
Baher founded the Intercultural Wellness Center (2016-2919), promoting the psychosocial well-being of refugees and immigrants, and enhancing the formation of a multicultural identity, that is based on a comprehensive approach to bring healing, acculturation and community organizing under one conceptual and structural framework.
Tapiwa “TK” Kapurura
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Tapiwa “TK” Kapurura is an immigrant from Zimbabwe, Africa, where he went to law school and practiced British common law for five years. He moved to Oregon following dramatic economic and human rights policy changes occurred in Zimbabwe. He earned an additional law degree at Willamette University College of Law in Salem, and held positions as a Compliance Coordinator for Bank of America and Risk Assessor for Citigroup. He currently works as an Immigrant & Refugee Policy Advisor at the Multnomah County Department of County Human Services in Portland.
TK is a father of three young adults and enjoys advocating for immigrant and refugee causes. He wrote My USA Postcards To Africa (paperback) describing his experiences coming to the U.S. He says “Immigration is not a luxury” and that “any call for help should be urgently attended to because every living soul deserves stability and wholeness as they settle in to start a new life far away from the comfort of friends and family in home of origin.”
Mariya Klimenko
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Mariya Klimenko, a refugee from Ukraine, has worked with immigrants and refugee communities for over 20 years, both in Oregon and abroad. She was the Immigrant and Refugee Program Coordinator at the City of Portland and started Portland's first Immigrant and Refugee Welcoming Week. Currently, she works as a Senior Legislative Policy Analyst at the Oregon Department of Human Services.
Mariya continues to be involved with the Slavic community as a member of the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization Slavic Advisory board. She enjoys traveling and salsa dancing in her free time.
Jim Lommasson - photographer
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Jim Lommasson is a freelance photographer and author living in Portland, Oregon. Lommasson received the Dorothea Lange–Paul Taylor Prize from The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University for his first book, Shadow Boxers: Sweat, Sacrifice and The Will To Survive In American Boxing Gyms (Stone Creek Publications). In 2009 Oregon State University Press published Lommasson’s Oaks Park Pentimento. Lommasson's 2015 book Exit Wounds: Soldiers’ Stories – Life After Iraq and Afghanistan and traveling exhibition is about American Veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, and their lives after their return from war. The book includes Lommasson’s photographs, interviews and photographs by the participants. What We Carried: Fragments from the Cradle of Civilization, about Iraqi and Syrian refugees was published in 2016 by Blue Sky Books. Lommasson is a 2012-2016 Oregon Humanities Conversation Project Grant Recipient for his public discussion "Life after War: Photography and Oral Histories of Coming Home." Lommasson was awarded a Regional Arts and Culture Council Project Grant for his current project: What We Carried: Fragments from the Cradle of Civilization.
