Throughout the month of October 2004, Greensboro residents explored to topic of immigrants and refugees in our community through informal book groups meetings, panel discussions, films, dramatic presentations and dance. Activities culminated with a visit from author of this year's title, Mary Pipher, who visited Greensboro and spoke with four different audiences. Although the project has ended for this year, it is hoped that the seeds of cross-cultural understanding will continue to grow and unite us further as a community. Opportunities abound. An excellent starting point for exploration of Global Greensboro is the Glenwood Library.

The book for this year's 2004 project is The Middle of Everywhere: Helping Refugees Enter the American Community by Mary Pipher. The book describes the cultural collisions that occurred in Lincoln, Nebraska when refugees from more than 52 countries were settled there. In many ways, the book could have been written about Greensboro. The number of immigrants and refugees living in Greensboro and Guilford County has risen dramatically in the past decade. We are now home to more than:

• 20,000 Latinos
• 8,500 Southeast Asians
• 12,000 Africans
• and thousands of other nationalities

Kick Off Flyer

This project is presented by the Friends of the Greensboro Public Library, the Human Relations Commission and the Commission on the Status of Women.

• Guilford College for sponsorship of Mary Pipher’s visit to Greensboro Oct. 26-28, 2004.
• United Arts Council funded the reader’s theater production.
• The Cemala and Tannenbaum-Sternberger Foundations for major funding for the overall project.
• The Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro for the development and publishing of a booklet for students in literacy and English as a Second Language classes.
• The News & Record for publicity worth thousands of dollars.
• The Adelman Family Fund for purchase of multiple copies of the book
• Replacements Ltd. for the production of a video that will be aired on Cable 8 in October.
• The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation for an evaluation process that will allow us to measure the effectiveness of the project.
• The Weaver Foundation

The Friends of the Greensboro Public Library, under President Willie Taylor, planned the project in collaboration with the Human Relations Commission, the Commission on the Status of Women, FaithAction International House, Jewish Family Services, Lutheran Family Services, the African Services Coalition, the UNCG Center for New North Carolinians, the National Conference for Community and Justice, and the Multicultural Advisory Coalition.