What makes up the immigrant experience? What are its contours, challenges and realities? And what gets lost, altered, or edited in the transition between leaving one’s birth country and arriving in a new one? The John Adams Institute presented an evening that weaved arts and academics, traversed national boundaries, and crossed oceans, in partnership with the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies, the Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam, Polish Culture NL, the Embassy of the Polish Republic and Buda Staging Performance Foundation.

This ‘evening in two parts’ on April 24rd, 2023, included a performance of Polish playwright Slawomir Mrozek’s play 'The Emigrants'. We were then joined by Dr. Nancy Foner of CUNY for a discussion of her latest book, 'One Quarter of the Nation: Immigration and the Transformation of America'.

(Graphics: BasiaOntwerpt.nl)