Drawn to Berlin: Comic Workshops in Refugee Shelters and Other Stories from a New Europe | 
pickThis nonfiction GN is a chronicle of Ali‘s time teaching art classes in Berlin refugee shelters. She draws many parallels to previous periods in Berlin‘s history, including the history of the Jewish population and the time spent under the Iron Curtain.
We see an inside portrayal of how Berlin handled the influx of refugees (mostly Syrian) in the mid 2010s, and the perspective of asylum seekers living in the shelters on life in the city. ⬇️⬇️
alisiakae I used to work in refugee resettlement. And lately, it has really bothered me to see the number of complaints locally from ReOpenNC folks about the most trivial of things. Some of those people really need to stop and think about what they are complaining about. Can‘t get a 💇🏻♀️ or 💅? Really not something worth endless whining about. 5y
alisiakae #booked2020 #genocide @Cinfhen @BarbaraTheBibliophage and #ReadingEurope2020 @BarbaraBB @Librarybelle #Germany 5y
alisiakae Also #LitsyAtoZ #LetterD #graphicnovel @BookishMarginalia and #aboutrefugees #nonfiction2020 @Riveted_Reader_Melissa (edited) 5y
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ravenlee I agree about the ridiculously trivial complaints. I had this vague hope that people might use this time to reevaluate priorities, maybe make themselves a little less high-maintenance...but no. Still holding on to the shallow, selfish values that got us to this crisis in the first place. (Not saying pampering/self-care is inherently shallow and selfish, but at the expense of health and safety it certainly is) 5y
alisiakae @ravenlee there‘s a difference between grieving & complaining. Maya‘s camps were cancelled last week. We acknowledge our privilege to even be able to send her to overnight camp, but it is something she looks forward to ever year, and having it taken away is a blow that needed some recovery time to sink in and accept. She‘s allowed that grief. But we don‘t complain about it constantly, because it‘s for the greater good the decision was made. 5y
alisiakae @ravenlee and I also hoped this would spur some greater consideration for others. And for some, it has! For others, definitely not. 5y
ravenlee Exactly! We‘re allowed to be upset about the loss of expected events (heck, I‘m upset because I have to cancel my dental appointment that was already rescheduled twice for COVID and I haven‘t had a checkup in over two years!) but not to demand that safety considerations for everyone‘s well-being be put aside for our personal convenience. 5y
Cinfhen Sounds like a good read 💚 5y
Librarybelle I had not heard of this; thanks - sounds like it is a good and important read! 5y
