Brian Coyle Center was pleased to host the 2007 World Refugee Day in the Twin Cities on Wednesday, June 20, 2007. World Refugee Day is a day designated by the United Nations to raise awareness of the plight of refugees. More than 1,000 people enjoyed ethnic musicians, dance, food vendors, live bands, national speakers at the event which was held from 2-9 p.m. on the grounds in and around the Brian Coyle Center.

Performers at the event included Art Saves Us Dance Crew, Asian Media Access, Chastity Brown and the Sound, Wah Do, Drumbone, Fatala Express, Adam Hassan & Kemal Ibrahim, Hmong Cultural Center Dancers & Qeej Players, Cultural Society of Filipino Americans Dance Troupe, Hoang Anh Dance Group, Ibé Kaba, Karen Community of Minnesota Dancers, Laddavanh Insixiengmay, Lao Dance Group, New Primitives, Oromiya Youth Association Cultural Dancers, Rhythmic Gymnastics Center Russe, Sherif-Jeek, “A Lion’s Tale” Somali Folktale Group, Venture Crew and David Zander & Phuoc Tran.

The event began at 2 p.m. with an Immigrant Resource Fair offering information on topics such as education, health, employment and housing from more than 60 Twin Cities organizations.  The main program, which started at 6 p.m., included speeches from Gus Avenido, State Refugee Coordinator; Hugh Parmer, President of the American Refugee Committee and Octavio Ruiz, Representative for Congressman Keith Ellison.

Brian Coyle Center’s self-sufficiency coordinator, Amano Dube, was interviewed by Minnesota Public Radio about the event. Read the full article here: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/06/19/refugeeday.