Facing History is excited to present its first community event in Chattanooga featuring author and concert pianist Mona Golabek. Golabek is an internationally acclaimed concert pianist, the host of a syndicated classical music radio show, and the author of The Children of Willesden Lane, the story of her mother's rescue from Nazi-occupied Austria on a Kindertransport and her teenage years as a refugee. Through a powerful musical and narrative performance, Ms. Golabek will relate her family history and address Facing History themes of identity, participation, courage, and resilience.

While much of the press portrays Islam as a monolithic tradition, James Carroll's talk, "Islam: Threat of Gift?," will explore the perception of Islam and its complex relationship with Judaism and Christianity. A response by Asma Afsaruddin, Associate Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Notre Dame and Chairwoman of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, will follow.

This event presents a reading and discussion with Rick Hollander, editor of Every Day Lasts a Year: A Jewish Family's Correspondence from Poland. He will recount his family's poignant experiences before and during the Holocaust as revealed through letters found after his parents' deaths.

Marjorie Agosin, recipient of the United Nations Leadership Award for Human Rights was raised in Santiago, Chile until the 1973 coup. She is the author of poetry and prose about human rights, memory, and Jewish identity. Her work exemplifies the power of language to effect change and give voice.

This event will provide an examination of two Facing History resources that explore the critical role that race has played in U.S. history as it relates to immigration policy: Race and Membership in American History: The Eugenics Movement and Becoming American: The Chinese Experience.

Sonia Nazario will discuss her book Enrique’s Journey, based on her Pulitzer Prize-winning series from the Los Angeles Times. This true story of a Honduran boy's dangerous odyssey to rejoin his mother in the U.S. has the potential to reshape our conversations about immigration.

NPR's Weekend Edition host and author Scott Simon will share insights and stories from his reporting on immigration in the U.S. and abroad. Along with student artists from the photography exhibit "The Way We See It: L.A. Teens on Immigration," Simon will help attendees consider what it means to "become American" in the 21th century.

Divided We Fall is the first feature-length independent documentary about hate violence in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. Filmmaker Valarie Kaur documented stories in the Sikh, Muslim, and Arab American communities. Over the next five years, Kaur's journey unfolded into a larger exploration of "who counts as American." In 2005, Sharat Raju and his film crew joined Valarie as she retraced her steps across the country, revisiting her original interviewees and other scholars, lawyers, and legislators about race, religion, and security in post-9/11 America. The screening is free and open to the public. It will include a showing of the film and comments by Dr. Jaideep Singh, co-founder of the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Assistant Professor in Department of Ethnic Studies, CSUEB, and Ranjit Singh Sabharwal Chair in Sikh and Punjabi Studies and by Neha Singh, Western Region Director of the Sikh Coalition, Fremont. A question-answer period with panelists will end the program

Bill Moyers's documentary, Becoming American: The Chinese Experience, explores the challenges faced by Chinese Americans from the 1800s to the present and raises questions about the tensions between race, democracy, and citizenship. Participants view excerpts and explore parallels between the Chinese experience and those of other newcomers to the U.S.—what it means to "become American" today.