19th amendment, the [inaudible] serves as a destination for discovery and inquiry and to introduce our audience to new narratives and themes in american history. We cant wait to see you again when the library opens to engage in new conversations about womens history, equality, democracy and the right to vote. [background sounds] good afternoon. My names nathan, and on behalf of humanities tennessee, i want to welcome you to the 32nd annual southern festival of books. Humanities tennessee would also like to say a special thank you to their key sponsors, the Metro National arts commission, the ingram group, tennessee arts commission, Vanderbilt University and parnas us books. Before we get started, i want to share a bit about our session. Theres these are unique times, and the book festivals also unique this year. So we we really appreciate everyone being here, and humanities tennessee carrying on with the event. If youd like to purchase a book, please use the parnas saws book link, and helps us financially. There will be 15 minutes of questions towards the end, so please post those in stream yard. Our author today is Jordan Ritter conn, he is a staff writer for the ringer. He previously worked at the espn magazine. He has one for the new york times, sports illustrated, hes a twotime finalist for the livingston award, and husband e work has been cited or recognized by the new yorker, the atlantic, the new york times, the wall street journal and slate. Hes a graduate of Lee University and the ucberkeley graduate school of journalism. He currently lives in nashville. Jordans here with us today to discuss his new book, the road from rack a ca raqqa, a story of brotherhood and belonging. With jordan today is one of the brothers, riyadh, who im going to let jordan introduce. So, jordan, riyadh, welcome. Thanks so much, nathan. Yeah, im thrilled to be here as a nashville january and a tennessean, an event that i love to attend every single year, and its been a dream to be a part of it. So even under these circumstances and these strange times, its a real honor to be a part of this. And i could not be more thrilled to be here with riyadh. Riyadh is the chef and owner at cafe raqqa in hendersonville, tennessee. It is a restaurant that has been received more accolades than i could possibly count, its been voted sumner countys favorite restaurant many, many years. And he is one of the most fascinating men, one of the most fascinating people ive ever known. He is someone who i met and wanted to, wanted to write a book about, about him and his family. Riyadh, thanks so much for being here. And, yeah, im going to talk about this book and about your story, and then well hope flu get a chance to hopefully get a chance to talk together in a bit. So ill start by kind of telling the story of how riyadh and i met. You know, in 2015 i was working for espn, the magazine, and, you know, few job there was my job there was often times to find stories where sports kind of intersected with the rest of the world. One of the great things about writing about sports sometimes is the fact that sports intersects with absolutely everything else. So when youre writing about sports, you can find yourself writing about race or religion or politics or gender or business or crime or anything. And at this point in time i found myself writing about the intersection between sports and syrias civil war which was and remains ongoing. And i had been sent over to southern turkey, to the syria turkey border to do some interviews with members of a soccer team who had been displaced by the war. And these were people whose, many of their homes had been destroyed, many of them had been soldiers in the war fighting against the reitem of bashar al assad. Many of them had, all of them had been uprooted in one way or another and now found themselves trying to piece together a new life in turkey. And my job was to tell their story. And i went over there and spent a few weeks reporting that piece, and then i came back to my home in nashville. And while i was here, i needed some help. I needed someone who could sit with me and place some phone calls to the other side of the world where we could interview some of these, some of these young men, some of these soccer players. And i dont speak arabic. These guys who i was interviewing for the most part dont speak much english, and so i needed one who was familiar with the conflict in syria and someone who spoke the syrian dialect of arabic. Is so through, you know, my wife was, is connected to the, at the time, the president of the Islamic Center of nashville, and i asked him, hey, do you know anyone who can help me out with this. And he just said to me, yes, of course. I know exactly a man. Just get in your car, drive up to hendersonville, go to this restaurant called cafe raqqa, walk in, introduce yourself to the chef, and hell give you everything you need and i thought, okay. That sounds great, ill give that a shot. But i was also a little bit confused because, you know, i had just spent several weeks reporting in this part of the world and and talking to people, some of whom had been in the city of raqqa, syria, and raqqa was at that moment in time famous as the hub of isis, the do facto capital, they called it. , of their selfdescribed caliphate. It was a city in the desert that had been relatively small and unknown for many, many years and now was known on the world stage as this home to this terror group. And i just found myself wondering what in the world is a restaurant doing in hendersonville, tennessee, named after raqqa, syria . And i but i wanted to find out. And i needed help with the story. So i walked into the restaurant, and i did exactly as he told me. I introduced myself to the chef who is riyadh, and he took me to the back, and we sat and we called my source and talked to him for a long period of time. And then afterwards we talked with each other. And, you know, as i heard him tell his own story, there was a part of me that thought, oh, wow. This is the story i really want to be telling. Now, i was deeply invested in the story that had sent me to that part of the world. I was deeply invested in the story about the soccer team. But the wehrey idea spoke about way riyadh spoke about his journey to america as an immigrant and about his familys journey and the questions that they were weighing at this time as they kind of debated their own future made me drawn to in a way that im not sure id ever been drawn to a story before. Wow. I wanted to sit with him to hear about his life, to travel with him, to meet his family, to learn their stories. And to piece it together. And, you know, that was just the beginning. That was in, at this point, late or early 2016. Riyadh and i spoke again intermittently over the next year or so and then began speaking more in earnest after the 2016 election. And that ultimately led me to point of asking him what id basically wanting to ask him from the first time i met him which was can i write a book about his family. And now four years later, here we are. And this book, the road from raqqa, its riyadhs story, and its a story of his younger brother bashar. As well as other members of hair a family, but it really revolves around those those two, those two characters, those two brothers. And, you know, theyre incredibly fascinating in different ways. You know, riyadh came to america because he fell in love with the idea of this country. A student he was a student at the university of awe lend poe aleppo, and he took a class called American Government that transfixed him, that called him to fall in love with our system and make him want to come here and find out more about it. Honestly, with the hopes that he could then return to syria and institute a similar system there. He was this brother driven by a sense of restlessness, a desire to wander, to explore and idealism. And so riyadhs story is a story of leaving home as a young man in search of, you know, chasing a certain kind of dream. The book tells the story of the ways this which that dream was complicated over the years and, you know with, perhaps, hopefully riyadh will get a chance to speak a bit about where he sees that dream today. But that is his story, the story of this kind of fraught relationship with the home of his birth and raqqa in syria and his new home. I say new, hes billion an american citizen for been an american citizen for more than two decades at this point. But this other place where he has now built a home. And then his younger brother bashar has a very different story. In some ways, bashar chose the life that riyadh left behind. Riyadh had an opportunity to be a judge when he left syria. Bashar remained there and built a legal career and was on the precipice of becoming a judge in 2013 as the country spiraled deeper into war. And bashars story is a story of choosing stability, of choosing to remain in a place where a family is rooted and then finding this, that that can be, you know, this sense of home that you have can be disrupted in profound and violent ways. Of you know, bashars story really reinvolves around revolves around wrestling with the question of whether to live or to stay as syria fell deeper and deeper into civil war. And so much of the book reinvolves around kind of both of them revolves around both of them wrestling with these questions within themselves and also wrestling with kind of their relationship with each other and the things that each of them wanted for the other. Riyadh, a lot of the book centers around riyadhs journey in 2013 to try to convince bashar and the rest of his family to leave and to escape the war anding hopefully, to be resettled in the United States. And the resistance that he meets because of the love that they feel for that city and for that home that theyve built. And the book is, or while its very much about each of these brothers, it is also very much about their city. Its very much about raqqa and the city that no one really knew much of anything about for a very long time, a city that people in other parts of syria kind of looked down on and made fun of as almost a backwater for a very long time that was made famous by the emergence of this terror group. This book tries to tell the story of that city in a way that does some, hopefully does justice to the rich history there and the rich culture there and the deep, deep love that both riyadh and bashar have for raqqa. And so im going to, im going to read just a quick excerpt. This is the prologue to the book that, you know, this is the part of the book that riyadh and i went over this so many times to make sure we had every detail right, and i know its a part that means a lot to him, and its a part that kind of sets up so much of the story to come. They used to tell a story in the desert about an 18th century warrior named okay rah heym who ibrahim. Fighting on horseback and camel for the ottoman empire. The empires leaders rewarded him with a gift. It wasnt much, just a swath of land in the do desert tucked inside the elbow of the euphrates river. Some of the land bare and desolate, some of it green and alive. Only ibrahim didnt care much for land. He was a warrior, not a settler. So he left the land untouched and continued to wage battle. Uninterested in any place where he could not find a fight. Ibrahim had a son and a grandson, also nomadic warriors. When they would tell this story centuries later, the boys and girls of the desert would speculate that the boy did not like to fight because if he liked to fight, then he he would have continued roaming in search of violence. But instead, he came to the land that had now been passed down to him, and he wondered if perhaps he should stay there, if perhaps he should build a life. He found a spot that he liked. Dangerous tribes inhabited the lands western and eastern edges, but here in the center was a river and an ancient wall, long ago abandoned, and the river and wall together formed something of a cocoon. And so he decided that here he would be safe. Here he would stay. He put up a tent and decided to make coffee. He took a stone rod and used it like a mort tar and pestle to mash the beans. When they were fully ground, he [inaudible] a breeze wafted in from the you crates carrying the smell of coffee to small and scattered tribes. They took the smell as an invitation. One by one, members of each tribe came to taja and joined him. Together they sipped. Taja asked them to stay. Settle here, he said, and lets work together, share our resources to build a community. To convince them, he offered pieces of his land. Some said yes, and more tribes came. At the years passed, he gave away more pieces of his land until there were 12 subtribes in total, and together they decided the sliver of land just north of their settlement would be divided among every male descendant of every original founder for as long as their city stood. A city, yes. Thats what it was now. With homes and markets and mosques and a school. They called it raqqa. It would stab for centuries stand for century es here on this plot of land passed down for generations, and its people would remain closeknit, cloisteredded as they were and uninterested in the outside world. Yet they would always great visitors with extravagant welcome, providing warm beds and hearty meals and fresh coffee. Taja had a son jailed jordan, and jordan had a son named [inaudible] who had a son named mohamed who had several sons, the oldest two he named riyadh and bashar. And riyadh and bashar grew up learning the stories of the an is access to haves and of their city, and they saw themselves as carrying on the tradition. And then one day new warriors arrived, and the people of the city looked overhead to see them, and airplanes sent by leaders in the damascus or moscow or washington, d. C. , and those warriors dropped bombs, and those bombs pounded the city until it was barely anything more than what taja had found so many years ago, and riyadh and bashar wondered what makes a city when its people have fled or died . What makes a family when brothers and sisters are sent to scatter across the world . And now i want to invite riyadh to speak. Riyadh, that part, you know, as i mentioned, you and i went over it so many times. You called me in the middle of the night when you were visiting family in another part of the world just to make sure that i had some details right. What is it about that story, the story of the founding of the city, that feels so critical to you . It make me choke. [laughter] its the foundation. My roots. If i want to go back to the city, i find my ancestors. And what it becomes to have to go back to that moment when [inaudible] decide hes going to go coffee which is at that time a sign of peace calling. Mostly people go either by sound or fire, but if you smoke coffee, that mean you are safe. That mean somebody is opening their home for you, and thats exactly what he start. He start by inviting people to join him. That is very important to me. Importance of this is really shaped up everything i livedded through in my life and to the smallest details i do. I always thought we have obligation to do better not only for ourself, for any place we go to. And to add to any community we participate in. And i thought thats when i say i better have much obligation to learn an american system of, hopefully, reform the syrian system. I thought my problem or my obligation bigger than my tribe at this point after i learned there is much bigger tribe for syria. I thought this was what i needed to do. I have obligation. For me, it was an obligation. It was a dream, it was an id idealistic voyage. But nonetheless, it was for a higher calling. Yeah. And another thing that i found myself wanting do to ask you because you and i have spent so much time sitting and talking with each other including since the book calm out. We still see each other all the time and talk, talk a lot. But something that i dont know if weve fully talked about that i find myself curious sitting here now is what has it been like having your story out in the world in such detail . You know, we, as we kind of talked to get your story down on paper, i asked you to talk about some pretty vulnerable things, some difficult things, some rough experiences, some traumatic experiences. And i would imagine that telling those stories to one person is one thing, but knowing that theyre out there for anyone to read and encounter is something altogether different. And im curious what its been like for you, you know, having those pieces of yourself kind of laid bare like that at this point. Well, some kind of certain anxiety when you make yourself vulnerable, you open up to anybody to read it. And you really dont know how is this story going to land in peoples mind and heart and emotion, how are they going to receive it. The section of the story not as much worried me, but i was worried about wrong impression. Thats the only thing i was worried about. Few things about my people might misunderstood part of the culture which is probably you try to do something good. I was afraid some reason might get offended. That was one thing that worried me. The other thing [inaudible] by telling this story. But the most moment after the book was published is i receive a [inaudible] and i share it with you. And he he told me, he said so bashar left [inaudible] in the story, and he has he rowic traveling, and he faced so many dangers, and it took a big toll on him and his family in so many ways. But not to get more detail to it, but nonetheless, it was an an extremely tearjerker, if you want to call it. So he called me one day, and he kind of the best he can read, he doesnt, like, english is second language to him, and he struggles with it. But he call and he said i want to just tell you something. First, i want to thank you and jordan for doing this. Second, when i left raqqa city, my mother and my wife and my kids and i looked behind to a land that our ancestors started and built. I naught we lost i thought we lost everything. This is it. Like, we built and then we lost [inaudible] so he lost everything. And he said when i read that book the first few pages of it, it feels like we got it all back. And for me, thats more than anything else i could describe what this book did and how im hoping people just look at it in the light of a different stereotype to [inaudible] was forced to leave their home because their home happened to be in an area of conflict. Not their own, just that their destiny and fate to be in that location where too many powers are fighting over. Theres so many people displaced, none of their own, none of their fault. Theyre just happy to happeno be there. There are casual few of clashes casual few of clashes of powers. Thats what i like people to look at this book from. As far as bashars story, this is a real story the of a man who does not wanted to leave. He was forced. I did want to leave. It was a choice for me. Its a powerful story. I read the book, and im curious, riyad and even, jordan, if you know could you tell us whats going on with the family . How, how is the alkasem family in i know theyre all over the world, so im curious what kind of update can you give us . I can give you some. Im concerned for their safety because some are in syria certainly. Five brothers and two sisters. And all the brothers were all went to college. Graduated from college. Im a lawyer, bashar was nominated for Supreme Court judge in syria at the time before the civil war started. I have two doctors, brothers and a businessman. And one of my sisters, English Literature graduate, the other is doing a ph. D. In civil engineering. So none of that was good enough for them to come to the United States, believe it or not. I wonder what qualifications for anybody to come. I want them to be part of this country, i want them to be giving to this country too and be part of it and just live in peace. Yeah, but they are all safe. My mothers still alive with one of my brothers, living with him. She wants to go back home more than anything else. Were trying to december courage her as much as we can discourage. She can go anytime, she can. Extremely dangerous place, raqqa city, now. Its been classified by the United Nations as 80 uninhabitable city. Theres no water, no running water, theres no plumbing, no electricity. And theres mines everywhere you walk. A lot of my friends i grew up with every few days i will hear somebody getting killed by walking the street. Most people cannot afford to leave too. Thats another bad side of this city. Well, as we move into the last part of our session with q and a, if anyone joining us online has a question, please post it via Facebook Live or youtube or here in stream yard, and well share those. I have another question. You talked a little about your brotherinlaw or your brother and sisterinlaw and their tearjerking journey. But there was some humor in the story during that journey, and it was really personal to your sisterinlaw, and i was curious, jordan and riyad, how much interaction dud you guys have with the other family members when you were writing this book . Because thats a really personal story that a really funny moment, a very human thing. And if you want to tell what it is, thats fine, but, yeah, how much did the rest of the family contribute to this . Jordan might be able to, because he talked, he really enjoyed that part of the story. So go ahead, jordan. Jordan, youre on mute, yeah. Sorry about that. So aisha is riyals sisterinlaw, bashars wife, and she is, shes an incredible woman. She, it was in talking, so riyad and i went to germany where their family, bashar is and aisha and their kids now live. While there, you know, were there to this book is about riyad and bashar, so were there to spend a lot of time with bashar, but bashar is extremely reserved, and he will open up, but its you have to kind of be patient and take your time and, you know, there were times that he was just holding back perhaps a bit. So i dont know how i would have written bashars parts of the book without her voice. She was just such a captivating storyteller, and so much of the book is told through her experience, and she you know, the moment youre referring to is i think its a problem to spoil it. So, bashar and their children followed what became a kind of well trod path of refugees out of to syria. Front syria into turkey, remanning in turkey before realizing that there was nothing for them there, and unable to back to syria, then making the choice to try to go to europe which was at the time admitting a great deal of refugees. And in order to get to europe they needed to cross the sea, at the aegean sea to get to greece and its a harrowing trip. So many moments that were terrifying. So many moments where they could have died. And where the threat of physical danger was very, very real. And there are also these moments that kind of reminded them of the goodness in the world. And andness in other people and sometimes just humor. A moment on the boat where isha and her children are sitting in he center of the raft, small rubber motorized raft, the same raft you saw in the news, showing refugees on their way into greece. And theyre out there in the middle of the night, it is just deathly cold, they are shivererring, theyre terrified, they can barely see anything except for what is lit up by the moon, and they dont know if theyre going live or die. , and right in front of them there is this couple who is just going back and forth, just absolutely letting each other have it, ripping each others heads off but who gets the better seat. And the wife desperately wants to be on the inside, the husband doesnt want the wife to be on the inside. She said that should be my seat and she talk but sitting there in this moment, watching this couple and being just like a show, like they were getting to just watch this kind of interpersonal drama play out in front of them. And everyone on the raft just starts looking at each other and cracking up laughing. And she said something but how she believed that was almost like a gift from god to them, that moment of just humor and levitt and a reminder of the fact that is a terrifying as their world was in that moment, it could still by pretty absurdly hilarious, too. So, all that to say having her tell those kind of stories, whether they be the humorus ones or the much more harrowing ones was really critical to the book. Excellent. We do have a question from one of our online viewers. And were at about we have about seven or eight more minutes before we need to start wrapping up. This question for you from deb bram the question is what made you want to come to the u. S. And have you been satisfied with your experience here . Well, as jordan talked about in the beginning, i always want to go somewhere out of syria, learn a different system, different lifestyle, and i took a course in my last year of college call American Government, and i study a little bit more the american system and i like the fact this democratic system has something called checks and balances, and i am the book in the book i describe about some of the crime is being happen and the Syrian Government in his clan at the time, the syrian president , were involved in it to a certain degree, and there was no accountability, and i thought that was great idea for me it was something we needed and i think every power in the world needs somebody to check on it. Thats my reason to come here to the United States. Am i satisfied . I dont think its fair to say i wasnt satisfied. I was looking for utopia, and its not fair to think i didnt find it here so this country is bad. I think you and i are all the same. Thats what i found traveling and living in different culturals and learning different language and different traditions. I think what makes any country great is its people and the ideas they follow. Think any society in the world can be a Great Society if they have the right ideal and those in the book so many examples in my first enwhy first came to United States and met people who are absolutely wonderful, and remind me of my ancestors the way they welcome strangers and help them out. Riyadh, another question for you. When this sorry, jordan. This one from mary. She says i was surprised to learn or your legal battleground. I had assumed you were a trained chef. Cafe raqqa serves the best middle eastern food in middle tennesseey. When did you learn to cook . I learned to cook in my life when i wrote my book. I have to stay home. And didnt have tv. My tv is the woman in the neighborhood come, congregate at our house, Drinking Coffee and gossip this will i get sick of it after two episodes of that i depends not to hear that so i asked my mother, give me something to do, and i started cutting vegetable and i said i cannot do anything. Either watch the streets or help prepare for a male for the for a meal for the day. Thats my first tripping for cooking cooking and i really learned cooking because i thought cooking longed to my culture to my roots and its type of science and history. And i start talk about points behind it. Thats how i start into the cooking thing. After i decide to open a business and i know i took the stuff i i said ill feed the people the food i ate growing up. I know how to cook it. But i did a little bit extra in it by perfecting it and bring it to a perfection, trying to bring clear and good and healthy pictures to what i am here in the United States, and i remember my father just was so many times when him and i were walking, he said i dont care what you do, just be the best at what you do, and that really rings in my head. All the time. Opportunity matter what you do, just did the best, whatever you want to do in your life, just be the best. So i always try to reach that. I have a followup question to that. In the story it talks about a gentleman who took you aside before you left, and showed you some secrets of what he knew and what he had learned and been taught pull out how to cook. About how to cook. Did that guy do this for everybody . Did he know youve needed dismiss did you see it that way and how much of what he taught you do you still use today. I think im using his recipe verbatim. Its like again i dent have much i had instincts of remembering things and when he took me on the side, in this story was a conflict. The book doesnt talk much but my father went know uncle and said you either give this man his right chair or im going to rule against you. Its other tribal ruling and that man chose my father to be the judge and my father in his position in the tribe, he is capable to render his judgment and hell make sure to be enforced, too. So at that point that man found it its very unreal from my father to sided will have. He was a stranger, not from the city. Not related to us. Put he was absolutely wrongly done. At that point he found out he wants to give my father something valuable, but he is not a wealthy man. I was leaving etch he thought thats something i could share with you. In syria probably you could find in every city one or two masters and maybe in two hand you can count them in the whole country and he is one of them. You an iron chef of syria. He is that. His can co laid in the business so he told me, dont take it as a business you want to open. Its just the knowledge for you he told me, and, yes, i use his falafel and hummus like he showed me, never teachate from it. We have time for onemer question, so that works out perfectly. This question is for jordan, and it is from julie. She says ive read many of your ors and the world needs journalists like you today more than ever. Are you going to return to your journalist roots or too you have another book project in mind . Thats very kind. Thank you, julie. The answer is, yes to all of it. Yes to both. I love the rhythm of my work is typically i write a i read a story about once a month when im in the rhythm of writing stories at the ringer, and i love the rhythm of that work. I love following my curiositi going where it feels like theres a story thats that needs to be told and i might be in a position to tell well. Its a thing that makes me feel alive and i love deeply and want to very much want to continue doing that. Then i feel so grateful to have people at the ringer who empower me to do that work. And i also want to write more books. Writing this book was the the most satisfy, most rewarding experience of my professional life. One ive me most rewarding experiences of my life, period, and i want that again. I want to be able to think that deeply into stories and i see the who as interrelated. This book is different than a piece of straight news reporting for sure, and it is maybe in some ways even a little bit different from a piece of feature journalism, riad and bashar were involved in ways of shaping the story as a journalist you dont do, so i did do some things a little different with this book. I still feel it as an extension of the journalistic work ive done at the ringer and at other places, and i love it all, and very much want to continue doing out of it every day i get to do this for a living is i day i consider myself just unbelievably lucky and blessed. Well, we appreciate you writing this book, and joining us today. Ryad thank you for sharing your story with jordan and the rest of the world and pass on our thanks and best wishes to your family when you talk to them all over the world, where they are. So i want to thank everybody who joined us online today, and if you enjoyed this session and would like to support the festival financially there will be a donate button in the chat section, so those donations are greatly appreciated. If you want to by a copy of road from raqqa, tood do it at the link thank you to jordan and riyad and have a great day. Thank you. Im very excited for our panelists today its going be a lavely conversation. Im going run through the introduction first of each panelist, and then we will hear from