West Hartford teen creates project to highlight immigrant experiences
A picture can say a thousand words, and it can also tell a story that spans thousands of miles.
Nations of West Hartford is a project founded by 17-year-old Linna Knox that does just that. Knox created the initiative to tell the stories of immigrants who now call West Hartford home.
“I grew up in [Baghdad, Iraq], I lived in the Netherlands for 25 years, and then we relocated to West Hartford,” said Amal Zupeidy, a Nations of West Hartford participant.
Zupeidy came to Connecticut in March 2022 and has spent the last four years connecting with the culture while also sharing her own.
“And the message I want to send them, every one of us has our own story,” Zupeidy said.
Her story is one of many being shared as part of the Nations of West Hartford Project, a program of the Faxon Branch at the West Hartford Public Library. It launches on Friday.
“These different nations that they’ve all been a part of make up what we think of now as West Hartford,” Knox said.
Knox said she started the project because she found it necessary to make these stories accessible.
“I was volunteering here at the library, and I was helping people complete citizenship applications,” Knox said. “I was talking to a whole bunch of different people, and I would talk to them and just hear these stories that they had to tell, and I realized that there were so many things that people had gone through in different places.”
After connecting with people who immigrate from around the world at the library, Knox interviews them and transcribes their stories. That is what Nations of West Hartford is: a glimpse into the lives of people from different places in the world, and their journeys to now calling West Hartford home.
“There are a lot of people I’ve spoken to who talk about language and how language can both be a barrier and a vehicle, and I thought that was so interesting,” Knox said.
Knox helps with English classes at the library on Fridays.
“The first week I moved here, I came and followed the English class because when you move to another country, the most important thing is the language,” Zupeidy said. “I also joined a book club for immigrants, which changed my life, because via this group, I met women from different countries, more than 15 different countries.”
The pieces of her puzzle, which now include West Hartford, are available for everyone to see on Friday.
The project will display photos of the people Knox interviewed at the Faxon Branch of the West Hartford Library, with QR codes that link to their interview transcripts.
Knox has completed six interviews so far, and she said there’s still more to come.
“I think the main thing I’ve learned here is really to just listen because that’s how you find all of this out, and then when they’re talking, if there’s something they sort of bring up, maybe that’s a job, a passion, or one certain experience, I want to ask about that more,” Knox said.
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