In association with the Honors Tutorial College, Musician and scholar Julian Saporiti will share his work illuminating hidden Asian American immigrants and refugees and connecting them with what he has witnessed at the Mexican Border. In the light of unprecedented racial tensions and rising awareness, Saporiti brings a unique perspective on how to fight for social change through music and research and how to hold difficult conversations in times of great unease. 

Taking inspiration from his own family’s history living through the Vietnam War, as well as interviews with World War II Japanese Incarceration camp survivors and other stories of Asian American experience, Nashville born songwriter Julian Saporiti has transformed years of doctoral research at Brown University into an innovative project bridging a divide between art and scholarship. By turning archival study and fieldwork into a large repertoire of folk songs and visuals Saporiti has been able to engage audiences with difficult conversations through song and storytelling, performing with a revolving cast of collaborators everywhere from rural high schools and churches to New York City's Lincoln Center. In the spring of 2019, Saporiti expanded the project's scope, embarking on a trip to the Mexican border. Playing concerts for asylum seekers and aid workers in Laredo, Crystal City (former home of a WWII Internment Camp), and Dilley, TX (current home to the largest family detention center), the experience was jarring and formative.