Enjoy a play, support local food and build community this weekend

Johnson County welcomes the Iowa Valley Global Food Project with a fundraiser on Feb. 12 in the Old Capitol Senate Chambers at 2 p.m. The project will build community and increase access to local produce in Johnson County through gardening and education. The fundraiser will feature a production of Vang: A Drama About Recent Immigrant Farmers, by Iowa poet laureate Mary Swander.

The Iowa Valley Global Food Project is a coalition of Eastern Iowa community groups and nonprofits. The project was initiated by Ayman Sharif, who is now its president.

The project will break ground between mid-March and early April on 3.7 acres, joining Grow! Johnson County (another educational gardening project) at the former Johnson County Poor Farm on the far West edge of Iowa City.

The play being presented at the fundraiser takes its name, Vang, from the Hmong word for “garden” or “farm.” Pulitzer-winner Dennis Chamberlain’s striking portraits of the interviewees bring their words to life. Michael Ching of the Memphis Opera composed the score, and Kennedy Center award-winner Matt Foss helped develop the production.

Swander has done other plays about agriculture, one of which was performed for former Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and the USDA. For Vang, Swander sought out farmers that had come from four different continents. She collected the words of Dutch, Mexican, Hmong and Sudanese immigrants and layered them together, building a picture of strength and resilience. All of the play’s characters had an agricultural background before immigrating, and had made their way back to farming since their arrival in America.

“The rules of the game that I created for myself were that it would be a verbatim play, so it would be totally 100% nonfiction,” Swander said.

“It is very well connected to the project because it is about gardeners and groups or like immigrant individuals who are farmers in the first place. So this is something that, it is a collection of stories of farmers, of less fortunate people who are trying to find their way in life,” Sharif said.

“Now more than ever we have trouble accepting immigrants in this country, which is a land of immigrants, so I wanted people to see what a contribution that immigrants can make,” Swander said. “In my opinion, we just waste that talent by railroading them into meatpacking plants.”

Swander mentioned that Joseph, one of the interview subjects, was brought by the U.N. from a refugee camp in Ethiopia, with the understanding that he would go to school in the United States and then return to Sudan to set up food education centers. He has been unable to return to the war-torn country, which has been further complicated by the recent travel ban.

Swander said that one of her favorite audience reactions came at a production of Vang in Ottumwa, Iowa. A young woman — a veteran — told Swander how much she related to the characters’ feelings of being caught between two lands and cultures and unsure where home was. The young woman said she felt the same way when she returned to the U.S. from her service overseas. Human connections like these are the goal of the play, Swander said.

Sharif moved to Iowa City from United Arab Emirates, and made an effort to connect with his fellow Iowans when he arrived. He soon realized that to achieve true connection would require an effort by the community at large.

During his first spring in Iowa, Sharif had a plot in the community garden at Weatherby Park.

“I had the opportunity to meet a lot of people who were gardening next to me, exchange things, maybe some veggies, and ideas and thoughts as well,” he said.

Sharif said that food is a universal need that can bring people together. This inspired the birth of the Iowa Valley Global Food Project.

“I was thinking maybe we should just use the food itself as a vehicle, or something that can achieve this purpose or this cause of getting people well-represented, well-acting, well-interconnected with the larger society,” Sharif said.

Sharif said that when he came to Iowa, he also noticed that he had to make a more conscious effort to eat healthy food, and that growing food can help him make sure his family is eating well.

“Back in Sudan for example, food is really a big thing for people in a way that people will pay a lot of attention to what they are eating. This is not necessarily what is happening here,” Sharif said. “I think it is a very clear goal for Johnson County and for Iowa City to be able to produce food that is sustainable, food that is locally produced, food that we are 100% sure that is good food for us.”

Ordering tickets for the Feb. 12 fundraiser in advance is recommended, as space is limited.

Donations to reserve tickets are accepted on a sliding scale of $10-100, with the $100 donation guaranteeing a front-row seat.

Those who are interested in participating in the Iowa Valley Global Food Project are encouraged to find them on Facebook or contact the Center for Worker Justice.