And the brooks still worth reading. Thank you for your time and good nights been a good afternoon. I want to welcome you on the half of humanity tennessee to the southern festival of books. I want to particularly thank our key sponsors, Metro National art commission, and chrome content, tennessee art commission, vanderbilt university. This session is entitled dreaming america. We have a panel of three authors and three books and our first we will read some, but im going to reduce the authors first. I will begin with amra sabicelrayess. She grew up in bosnia. After surviving ethnic cleansing and more than 1100 days under the serbs military siege she immigrated to the United States in 1986. By december, 1999, she earned a ba from Brown University and later obtained to master degrees in a doctorate from Columbia University currently, shes a compass a professor eric on the egg working on understanding how and why societies fall apart and what role education plays a rebuilding decimated countrys. Shes published on education related issues and has lectured around the world to adult and adolescent audiences. Her student feedback, shes consistently praised as one of the most inspiring professors them encountered are throughout their career. And our secondguessed Stephanie Griest is a globetrotting author from south texas took her books include the Award Winning memoirs of across the block my life mask out, beijing and havana. And also mexican enough my life between the borderline and best selling guidebook, 100 places every woman should go. Shes also written for the New York Times, washington post, virginia quarterly review and edited best womens travel writing 2010. Her coverage of the texas mexico border 18 award for social justice reporting. A renowned public speaker, shes assistant professor of creative nonfiction at the university of North Carolina chapel hill. Sahar mustafah is the daughter of palestinian immigrants. Her first novel, the beauty of your face was named a New York Times book review editor choice, los angeles time united we read selection and one of Marie Claires magazine 2020 best fiction by women. Is currently long listed for the center for fiction 2021st novel prize in her short story collection was this winner of the 2016 willowbrook friction award. She was the recipient of the David Friedman award for best fiction. New city magazine recently named her one of 2020 with 50. She writes and teaches outside of chicago. First, we would like to hear from today Stephanie Griest from her book entitled how about it, stephanie . Dispatches from the us borderland. Hello and thank you for joining us. To give you some context for the exit i will read its a burke book that examines life in the us borderland both texas mexico border which is where im from and the new york Canadian Border in particular the mohawk collation nation. Im reading from a section called code 500 and that is the terminology used when an undocumented person is found on land who has not made it in their journey who has died along the way and as you probably know this is a major crisis happening along our southern border with the regions of the section of the southern border that are essentially becoming a graveyard for all of the people who are dying because of immigration policy. The six i actually happen to be in the Sheriffs Department of Brooks County texas when he received one of these phone calls. I went to assist on the body recovery. The undertaker arrived on scene and older man with a slender build turkey carries a white bed she and walks up to the limits the cover sets down his parcel, slides on a pair of blue rubber gloves. He searches her pockets, inches from the pit. Percy finds dollar bills pick he piles them. Next he pulls out a lg cell phone and white to clean. Renny his fingers along her brow line he checks to see if anything is tucked inside, an idea maybe, phone numbers, but theres nothing. Now comes flipping the women into the bag. Handfuls the bed sheet and lays it out beside her. Although, ultimately it must go beneath her. He rolls the women onto her side. That makes her scalp fall off. She has become a liquid, all of her is leaking and dripping. The undertaker touches the scalp and touches it puts it back in place. While the rest of us stand and stare he goes over to help pushing that she beneath her enrolling her back on top. She is small, probably quite a mall. They swaddle her in the she and stuff her into the black body bag. They fan out 30 feet and scan the brush for approximately half a minute before heading back to their truck. There is no evidence in the site. We leave behind only an empty water bottle. No words are spoken. No rights are given. Have to make sure theres no bodily fluid on me because it will stink, he explains. The undertaker struggling with the gurney. Together they prop it up and roll it into the back of the van. I went to say how fitting and applaud his professional grace, but before i can speak he tells him im a writer. He shakes his head. And a lot of people write stories, he said, nothing ever gets done. I hear this a lot. It never fails to shatter me. I usually ask brush it off with a smile, but theres something about standing in the woods with a three day dead woman that gives me the audacity to hope that maybe it will change this time. Although hope vapor rises before i can even articulated, theres a spark of hope that by virtue of being written about she may be remembered. This [inaudible] to be memorialized inside of a story and at the very least i will remember her as someone who hiked illegally and got annihilated for it. I will remember her. Is it wrong to pray this counts as something getting done . I wish to say this, i wish to say all of this and a great deal more, but there is time only for the people who smile before he removes to the drivers seat before he removes a pair of badly soiled gloves. He knows he will be back tomorrow. And i, i will not. Thank you. Thank you. Now, we will hear from amra sabicelrayess and she will read from her book cat i never named everyone. Im going to read from the cat i never named a true story of love, war and survival, my true story of a muslim girl who was born and raised in bosnia, but i was also born hated and ultimately survived the bosnian genocide early 1990s against all odds and with the help of a stray cats that i never named. Im going to read for you a brief opening to the cat i never named. It didnt spring on me all at once, instead like a cat he stalked me quietly. It might have been a rustle in the leaves, a glint of golden eye, but like a mouse i didnt believe it was there until it pounced, 1992 chapter one. My brain is willing to ride that train back home. The tracks push westward the setting sun gilding the hillside. Families, mothers, children in a comfortable [inaudible] im sleepy from a long day of tests and i will be lucky to get home by 1 00 a. M. Most nationalists, the tall hats, the men have beards and eyes are on anyone whos not serb. I saw them all over the streets sneering and shouting at anyone they thought might be muslim. Quoting his hateful speeches. Arent you afraid i would ask my cousin, its not a big deal she replied with an indifferent shrug. People feel like they can just say anything these days. But when the soldiers invade my train i fear that they will have far more than words for this alone teenage muslim girl. Notes hear from, and her book is entitled the beauty of your face. Hello can you hear me . Host you are muted right now. Im so sorry about that. Suspect that is alright. [laughter] you got a moment head start. I want to say so sorry about that. I thought those passages before me were beautiful. Thank you both for those. The beauty of your face begins when aye mail shooters enters an islamic American School right outside of chicago. The principal thanks that it is firecrackers went to shooting begins because the school is constantly harassed to this predominately white neighborhood. Then they quickly realizes that they are not firecrackers. So we are with back in time over the decades. The chapters are interspersed with the point of view of the shooter. Im going to read from 1976 when he is ten years old in chicago. And her sister has disappeared. 22 days past. Shes gone back to her husband with a promise to return in a few days. I came to the door to collector. He did not step inside awkwardly apologizing. I stop by in the evenings when hes home carrying pyrex dishes the wives have prepared. A few around the neighborhood also drop by bringing a famous eye so she is incapable of ruining coffee. Promote wire basket at the sink they pull mugs down that she washes when she comes home from school. On the women shake their head and suck their teeth. Every stir you safely to you. The best from visits with her mom there and they play outside with her mother watches bulls and glasses. And mama sits at the Kitchen Table sobbing. Where could she have gone . Her friends dark hair is cut in a short straight bob. Last summer she crashed her bike into an electric fence and a broken chain broke off the tip of her pinky. She begs her friends and let her touch the smooth scar tissue. Looks like someone bit off. Iversons, shes a longer allowed to ride her bike. That overheard her mother telling mama about it. See what happens when you give a girl too much freedom in this country . She loses a finger. Luckily had not changes mamas mind about writing her bike. She turns the knobs on her friends back digital pad and shrugs her shoulders, i dont know where she went. They take turns drawing on the pad. Rainbow and flowers disappear. She sketches a kitten with long whispered under whiskers but she wishes for a pet but mama refuses that any fourlegged creature in their home. They have a fish tank but the novelty is quickly worn off. She once to hold and cuddle, feeding indifferent dishes like any other choice shes expected to do around the apartment. I guess the police would have found her she was hiding, she speculates, laying her chin on her shoulder as she draws. Why would she be hiding, dummy . She does not intend to be cruel but once to escape any talk at least for a little while. She turns a knob on the pad, trying to join two arcs or join a heart but ends up looking like an uneven inverted triangle. The young detective working the case was at the apartment one evening, she offers the detective a chair in the kitche kitchen. He washes in the doorframe her parents bedroom, shes very young his slick braun hair parted on the side gives the appearance of a schoolboy, a homicide investigator. Detective harold jones, he shows her father his badge and tucks it back into pocket of his corduroy jacket. Someone phoned about a suspicious man in the old union stockyard. His eyes dart between her parents. We investigated pretty turns to them, go watch tv. They go to the front room and sit on the sofa bed. She listens hard catching parts of the detective sentences. We investigated and a body, these photographs, can you identify your, chair pushes back, mama slow moaning. Are you sure its not her . Any distinguishing marks . The moaning grows louder than shuffling slippers. The bathroom door slams shut, mamas vomiting becomes the only sound in the apartment. The detective stance gathering his photographs before he closes his folder she catches the image of an arm badly bruised and finger nails caked with dirt. I am sorry about all of this, you should take comfort in the fact that she is still out there, we will do our best to find her. The dead girl in the pictures turns out to be beyond coat lopez, 16 years old gone missing a day before. Genesis almost worse than her parents not being her battered and broken because it means more waiting, more not knowing. Enke. Host thank you all for those wonderful readings. I dont think that one can hear that and be unaffected. Now this time i want to make sure that everyone in the audience knows that you are able to ask questions. So they will be relayed to us and we will answer them for you. So, while you are thinking about your questions. I want to propose that in all three of these novels, or all three of these books they are not novels. Theres a current thread or there is common thread. In fact there are two the other one is hatred. How is the hatred that you see today in our country, different from or similar to hatred that you write about . And lets start with you. Spoon back you know my story is centered on islamic phobia and the hatred that exists because of bigotry in this country. So i felt inspired to write this after we realize killings of the americans in North Carolina that happened in 2015 was well referenced in the epigraphs of my book. Her husband and sister in cold blood by their white neighbor. So yes i am very much immersed in that hatred in this book. It was just really important for me. I start in the present. I think people might be a little hesitant to pick up this book because they imagine is going to be incredibly graphic. And then they realize okay were actually going on a journey of one young woman who before she comes facetoface with the shooter, we get to see what all of the micro aggressive behavior, all the bigotry that she is grown up with has shaped her. And this also shape this journey she takes. So i was really interested in not just presenting sort of the sensationalized events, i wanted to make sure that i was presenting, what hope is a new narrative in that respect, sort of dispelling some of the ideas and stereotypes surrounding the muslim communities. And yeah, i thought this was an amazing opportunity. It was quite ironic that it was going out in the world after trump entered into office, which now we see that the situation is even more desperate and critical in my opinion. Host thank you. Stephanie. Is a hatred underlying theme in your work . Guest i would say love is. [laughter] but ims searching out love but its increasingly difficult to find in terms of the political landscape. I catalog life between 2007 and 2017 thats the tenure project for me. So basically i was researching throughout the obama administration. It was pretty horrifying the many things i found. Everything from severe environmental injustices on both borders, cancer clusters around Oil Refineries and will take Cat Companies that are just entirely surrounding communities of color in particular indigenous communities. I was getting my reporting right when the act went into, was a realize it was 670 miles of concrete and steel wall were implemented, cutting throughout the border dividing at peoples homelands, making it impossible to cross as we have always crossed along the border. So many families have to live on one side half of on the other. Now going to visit what shouldve been a matter of crossing a bridge, were still crossing the same bridge but now it takes two hours instead of two minutes across the bridge. The border deaths is whats referred to. The situation was catatonic when i was during this reporting period now i actually handed in my book just a couple of weeks before the election. And wow, my god what his status happened since then. Now we have more than 6000 children separated from their parents. We dont over their parents are now. Kids are living in Detention Centers alone being cared for by other kids. The psychological impact of that, the cruelty of that is really, really breathtaking. So yes the inhumanity that one witnesses is really stark and the borderland. But theres still a lot of love that comes to the surface through the workup activist, the work of artists, to the work of faith keepers. So im always in the process of trying to seek out that. I do see hope among the residents its the policy, the political aspect of it is the opinion of hatred. What role does hatred play in your account of your years . This is an important question and i really appreciate you asking it. I think when readers in the United States see the official description of my book, the cat i never named, sunning of genocide in the stray cat who protected her family through it all, think the first inclination may be to think this is a story of the war that happened to someone else in a distant place in a different time. In a place or people hated each other for a very long time. And that is nothing like it could ever happen here in the United States. I think once they start reading the cat they never named they will begin to see that i was very much like them. I did not think the work at ever happen in my country. In the same way that most americans today think it cannot occur here in the u. S. I was a math and physics nerd. I was 16 i loved writing. I played volleyball i had great friends. And even started to love with a boy. And then an instant, it all changed. And i suddenly found myself in an entirely different world. The world that i never imagined before. My country was torn apart, women and girls i grew up with, raped. All because we as muslims stood in the way of a racially pure nation. Which the dominant ethnic group in my old country wanted to build. I think your audience members can draw the parallels between that context and what is happening in the United States today on their own. I could not go to school for years, for nearly four years. Which again many teens and parents can now relate to. And even though many specific stakeholders in what is happening in the United States are different, the sense of dramatic upheaval. The sense of fear, hatred, racism and uncertainty are exactly the same. So my book is not just a memoir, not just a book. It is also my call to action. To begin to counter hate through storytelling. Hatred is not exclusive to anyone nation, any one group or any one person. Im just going to share detail with you that a couple of days ago i received an emotional note from an american pilot who served in bosnia. He was deployed as part of nato efforts to end war in bosnia. And he said to me that he never cried forwarding the book as much as he did cry while reading the cat i never named. He recently retired and he said he was questioning what his purpose in life was. And the cat that never named volk to the emotion and realization that really his purpose in life was saving my life. And lives of people like me. And that was just one instance in American Foreign policy work humanitarian intervention did make a difference and save live lives. Stu and how do we overcome hatred in this country . Feel free, any one of you to answer that. Stephanie, how do we . Speech i think shared experiences an important step. Thats why think public schools, public transportation, public movies, festivals like this are so important. So i think that covid could be a very powerful, united shared experience. We share the idea rather than her own corporate level were concerned about what another safety and health. That is another reason why i always return to the artist of the community, the activists of the community. I feel they are working deeply to unite one another and to show exposed and celebrate what we have in common that we are all one people. And i think that Climate Change is going to show us that even more intensely. Encode but will show us that. These are tragedies reliving through but the optimist in me is hoping that can be a possible way that we can understand that we are indeed sharing the shade same experience. We are going to need everyone will need to unite in order to overcome these tremendous obstacles that are really rapidly hurdling our way. So a shared experience gives an opportunity to share stories. Shared stories gives an opportunity to see yourself in one another. To realize that we are one. C1 how do we combat that is llama phobia . Permit such a complicated question. I appreciate what stephanie is saying about the role of the artist. I think by writing you know, i turn into an active empathy. Someone has read my book as an engaging is an empathetic ask. But i do think that there is also a point to where fiction is only going to do so much. In this sort of responsibility and onus that is placed on writers of color. And then victims in the society is just her mendez. I guess i would say that the greater White Community also needs to make an effort, right . It needs to also be on places like this. Because part for sure. And i dont say that pessimistically. I definitely feel optimism to. But again that needs to be shared. I think about for example this idea of a simulation and what a field experiment and has been. And that is because it is like a one way venture. So you are expected to come into what is a colonized country. And you need to basically sever your native culture. Your religion. And other various parts of your identity. Its never, what you can bring that to and let celebrate that too, right . I really believe though, this is the optimism that fiction is definitely one way of extending the narrative. And again im so grateful to be in this space. But i think, i love what she says in her new book conditionals citizen, the whole point is that if you are bored in this country or if you are a person of color, you the constantly having to prove your patriotism. She talks about this idea of there being a guarding of innocence. Some people in this country continue to live and expects us to lead them out of. I would say education. Certainly we are all educators in some regard. Literature is always been this wonderful window and mirror, a metaphor we use. I just think we can obviously do better. That is going to come through recognizing our bigotry and educating our young people much younger. Not be in this mindset of they are too young to talk about race, theyre too young to talk about is llama phobia. Guess what, the kids really are our future. They are open too engaging if we just give them space and time. You wrote your book for young adults. I wonder how difficult that was since you had such a difficult subject matter to discuss . I would say that for me a simple response to really your question is that i was 16 when i was experiencing this visceral hatred. So seems to be obvious in writing and that voice. It was more than that, important to be honest with the subject. For instance take it was a couple of years ago that my thirdgrader, my younger daughter came home from school and asked me a question, mom what will happen to my older sister in may if you and dad are rounded up as muslims are immigrants . For her it wasnt really a choice to think about these issues. Or not. As someone who survived the genocide, who appreciated the opportunity of being able to come to the United States, i thought of one particular moment that really triggered my desire to write the story genuinely and honestly as i could. It was the moment when i was first entering the United States in 1996. I was 16 when the war started. I survive genocide, i lost members of my family. People in my life that i loved her stolen from me. There i was 20 with feud dollars in my pocket with broken english, broken heart terrified of men in uniform. I was afraid of all men in uniform because that meant to me killing or rape. And as i approach the immigration window, the immigration officer looked at my papers for a very long time. And after a while he reached out, i was trembling i was holding onto the counter window except venting to pass out and expected to go back to the country you came from. You dont belong here, we dont want to hear. How could they ever want someone like me . I had nothing to offer. And in that moment he reached out with his hand, solemnly trembling, ready to pass out, touched the fingertips of my hands, gave me the passport and said maam welcome too the United States of america. I am sorry for what you have survived. You are safe now. That moment makes me wannacry every single time i tell that story. Makes me wannacry. Because it presents the possibility of america that i want my children to grow up in. And i still believe. I am an external optimist. Im a genocide survivor lacroix m, i am here. I believe in the possibility of that america and our shared humanity. And the purpose of writing this story, regardless of how hard it was for me emotionally, as the cap i never named will make people, irrespective of their background, cry and want to be part of the one people, one nation, one humanity. Respective who they are with their backgrounds are parttime hopeful as everyone else, i think we have a lot of problems. I am deeply hopeful and helpful for my children. I hope that everyone who is listening to us, read each one of our stories. They have very important lessons to offer to young adults and adults. Stephanie, what is the best thing about america . What is our best rate . All speak in a moment as a traveler. Ive visited over 50 countries. I lived in moscow in the 90s, i was in beijing at the end of the millennium, ive lived in mexico. Ive traveled quite extensively in the former soviet union. So speaking from that Vantage Point of seeing countries on the frame, seeing countries during their difficult moments in their own history, from what i have appreciated about the United States is the opportunity for many people to become self actualized human being. Where there are so many obstacles for doing that in other nations. At least that was my impression when i was younger and travelin traveling. I do think all us have to stop and think. Thats part of the American Dream we have the opportunity to be a self actualized human being here. But it isnt an equal opportunity for us all as we certainly seen a last year very viscerally. As a professor all of my students are talking that we are having this awakening of a consciousness that is not been possible for black americans to become self actualized the same of people who are passing for whites and asian. And so i do feel it is more possible in the United States and a lot of other nations. Anyway, this is a tough question. [laughter] you have Natural Beauty also. That is true. I think it uncontroversial thing i can say. Thank you. So what gives you the most in the United States perspective think i echo what stephanie sai said. I just want to emphasize having lived in palestine i dont lie. Coming through Ohare International airport every time is such a relief with my american passport. Because it is pretty horrendous the occupation. Which continues there. I am grateful. And i think for me having been born here of taking that for granted until we had moved there for a bit. And then had the privilege to come back. And im definitely speaking from a lot of privilege. So i am grateful that america or this administration has always been open and accepting immigrants and refugees. Stephanie was saying its not always equitable and equal. But for me it symbolizes the future. So many people want to forget the past. We know though that can be very dangerous. That is another point. That has always been a great thing when we consider how much better we can be. So i am definitely hopeful. I think again young people are going to lead the way. Youth mentioned earlier that the welcome to our country, very often is a welcome, come on and if you can be just like us now. [laughter] how is that being torn down is an idea . I see it definitely just within my immediate community. So for all of the aggression and tragedy of islam a phobia, when you think about even the word is so horrific. We create this word to describe a hatred, an unreasonable fear of religion. Which just continues to blow my mind. But i am finding, special with my daughter to a Third Generation muslim helping and america they are again more ready to accept one anothers differences, to celebrate them. And thats not always about sameness as much as again here is what i am bringing to the experience of us living in the same country, the same world. There is just something so beautiful about that. We also see that in terms of sexuality and gender. So just as a teacher of 25 years, i cant tell you the marvelous things ive seen. And it has been amazing. So, i think diana its better. I think communities have sort of rallied around the cultures and the heritage. But some find that it comes as a consequence. I do think there is definitely is gone. Which leads me to it ask stephanie, youre right about those people who live in between along our borders. How does one live into cultures . How to live until two cultures . The aztecs actually had a word for this. I was kind of a schizophrenic situation which the havoc colonization forces. But simultaneously, secretly, covertly but is in effect. A lot of, its got a lot of people live in the borderlands seated themselves occupying this particular space over the years has become its own culture, its own fusion of a culture. Which is a beautiful culture. Set thats what i eat, thats what i speak thats the music i listen to, the literature i write. We have sort of creator own culture within. And you know, hopefully try to extract the best of each culture and creating something entirely new. So that is the best case scenario. I think that is the spirit in which people approach it. However its also incredibly challenging. Because just as the aztecs were having to contend with an occupying force, that is still the reality today. So one reason they gave one of the long lasting happen in texas a lot of us dont speak spanish very well. Thats because we were punished for speaking spanish. It was for seven years and Public Education we have a mouth wash out with soap for speaking spanish. The culture has been extracted and i guess trying to fuse it together. You spoke of a way to combat islamic phobia and other phobias of people, and shared experiences. I want to ask what shared experiences, the sides that first one with the immigration officer, what shared experiences have been good experiences for you . In this country. Ill start by saying for me, even coming to america was, in the way a choice ever as it was growing up a dream that i really thought the i was banned from dreaming. Was not present in my life as a possibility ever. And just to put it into context for you and your audiences, especially those who may not be familiar with the brutality of the war in bosnia and the bosnian genocide, was almost four years living in that was besieged and constantly bombed by the serb army with no access to food, electricity or normal schooling. I really felt for all those years, every day i was in a waiting line, waiting for my turn to be killed. And i would just go to bed hoping that i would not end up being late. That my death would be quick and results of an explosion. And then there was a point in the war when something beautiful happened to me. And i wont go into details of that. It is a detail thats obviously deliberately and extensively handled in the book. But in that moment i learned probably one of the most important lessons in my life. And that was that i really couldnt control the forces external to me. In the same way that teens and even adults could not control the pandemic, social unrest in seen a phobia that was mentioned with the rising or violence in our country. But what i did know is that i could control what was internal to me and what it is that i do. That was the moment when i decided to really focus on as an individual who was deeply hated on self empowerment. And then some wise self appreciation of things that i do. So i started learning. I taught myself english. I found an old dictionary that my father had when he was in college in the attic. And memorized every word in that dictionary. I worked on immunizing children during the war. I won National Math and physics competitions and ultimately help me get here. In those moments during that time from team from the International Refugees i received a wellknown american ngo. And they met one of my teachers who said to them, look, we are all going to die here. You cant save us. But at least save this one kid, save almost. I was asked to come and study in the u. S. I have to say that my initial reaction was laughter. I simply never imagine myself in this country. As an even remote possibility. I was convinced that i would die. So i gave the team my entire documentation, my transcripts, my birth certificates, all of the originals because i didnt think any of that mattered anymore. They came to new york city and they presented it at the board meeting. And they would be philanthropist who stood up who was a board member, his name is david who said is there one life i can save . And i ended up being that person. I admit being that life he saved. He was a jewish philanthropist. Aside from him i was helped by sisters from the college. It was the First College i enrolled i got to the United States. They knew i could barely speak english so they helped me at that time. I was also help by quakers in my early years here in the United States. So i choose to believe and that kind of american spirit. Despite all of this happening right now in this country. I do believe there is goodness and most of us. And if we can share our stories and of volk collective empathy, we can bring our nation and our people together. I think as you mentioned the arch and extent of failing. I choose to believe there is a possibility. Host youre not full is an intersection between two topics in america. Osama phobia and gun violence. What inspired you to put those two things together . Well, as i said earlier, it was inspired by that real life shooting. But i think having that is the principle of the school comes very natural for my background being a teacher. But the kind of violence that i typically dread is actually a young person bringing a gun to school. Feeling so disenfranchised by their community of peers. But that is a different kind of violence for sure. And fast book the gun violence just simply as a kind of violence because of bigotry it certainly going to speak to gun lobby and again just failed the policy in this country. And not just against muslim communities. But also going back to schools and for children. We just lost too many young people. And we have lost too Many American citizens who gather in spaces that i think our safe spaces. And end up becoming victims of the massacres because of our recklessness when it comes to gun control. So i think those two things are natural to talk about, to unravel in this book. And yeah, i think hopefully that answers the question. Stephanie, what role does gun violence play in the borderlands . And hows it different between the north and the south . The northern border of the southern border . Yes. So thank you so much for talk about gun violence in the United States. I use this opportunity to talk about gun violence in mexico. Which is extreme. Its primarily the trafficking of guns from the United States down into mexico. Mexico is very tight gun laws. But its very easy to buy guns in the United States. That is what is led to over 100,000 mexicans being murdered over drugs. Because the United States cannot control its own drug problem. So our ridiculously lack laws and buying guns is directly leading to tremendous violence in other parts of the americas. In the northern United States and in the mohawk nation as wel well, the guns are trafficked from the United States into canada. Canada has incredibly strict laws. Canada only had one major shooting is at a university in montreal i believe. Someone came in and had some antifeminist remarks and killed all them any particular classroom. As more than 25 years ago is quite a long time ago. And immediately canada made sweeping gun rules. The violence that is occurring so if there is gun violence in canada as a whole like trafficking and guns as well. So its important to see the united state is not going harming one another but also bringing violence into other countries as well. We need to be more responsible about this issue. Host we have an audience question. Henderson of eight Library Service specialists at the public library, she says that she is currently reading your book and she is so glad to hear even more of your story. She says i like to hear the language in my mind while reading in an effort to connect more with the characters in the place. I would like to ask if you could please pronounce for me the very central word and sort of name m aci, which means cat in the bosnia language for those who may not have read your book yet. Thank you for that question. In another question that i also get is why is the book called the cat i never named and there is a name in the story. It means kitty in bosnia. And just to provide some context, i encountered for the first time as refugees start coming into my city just before my hometown is besieged by the serb army. And maci refuses to leave my family. She follows me home. I have to be honest and very honest in the book as well. No one really wanted maci in my household. By mounded out hair on the furniture. My family did not have enough food for ourselves, let alone another living being. I was attacked by German Shepherd what i was young. And i did not like anything with clause. But mac i just did not care. She adopted herself. And becomes crucial character in the story. I will just share one detail, there is a moment when on the very first day of bombing, june 12 covid 1992 my brother and i decide as teens to be troublemakers. We leave the basement where we were locked up for a while to survive and be safe from the bombs. We go back to our house to see maci. We see a couple of friends who end up getting killed, blown up into pieces. My brother and i survive and we survived because of maci. So ill that would not of been written without maci. She plays a Critical Role in our physical safety and emotional and mental really throughout the entire war. We simply called maci. On they wanted to to the title of the book sometimes under these circumstances the desire to simply live day today one is to name a patch and only retrospectively after the war that i realized this living being that gave us so much love and hope during the war was never properly named . Thats one of the reasons why i honor her with being only the main characters in the book. Because that is the role she played in our lives during the war. Host how wonderful. I want to thank all of you for being our guests today. I am just totally smitten with each of the books. And for totally Different Reasons and h. Because they are not the same book. They are very, very different. But they certainly give us some insights into the immigrant experience in america. And they certainly give us hope. You have given us hope for becoming better americans. And for learning that all americans are real americans. We thank you, we think the southern festival. We thank our sponsors again. And we hope that we could all join each other next year in person. This is been a fabulous way to enjoy the festival since we could not be there in person