Dear friends,
Every volume of Stranger’s Guide takes you to a new location and covers a wide range of topics specific to that place. But we also have certain themes that we return to again and again, stories too often marginalized in more traditional outlets.
Such is the case of migration stories. Whether fleeing violence or searching for economic opportunity, millions of people around the world cross borders in the hopes of a better life. These experiences vary tremendously, each highly specific, and yet too often, they’re painted with a broad brush—or worse yet, brushed off entirely.
At Stranger’s Guide we believe every place has elements to celebrate and elements to grapple with; we also believe the experiences of migrants and refugees reflect significant truths about a location. We’re devoting the month of June to highlighting the stories of migration we’ve published in our guides. This month across our website, newsletter and social media channels, you’ll encounter immigrants in their own words, powerful photo essays documenting daily life and more:
-Venezuelans crossing the Colombia border
-Immigrants deported from the US to Mexico City
-Syrian refugees rebuilding their lives abroad
-Immigrants to Scandinavia who have arrived over the last 20 years
-Trans refugees working and performing in Houston
As we approach World Refugee Day on June 20, we hope these stories will give each of us pause to consider and contemplate the lives of immigrants, refugees and migrants who set off for a new home.
Many thanks,
Kira and Abby
Cofounders, Stranger’s Guide
Contributor
Abby Rapoport is the publisher and co-founder of Stranger's Guide. Abby spent the first portion of her career as a political reporter, covering Texas politics for the Texas Tribune, the Texas Observer and then The American Prospect. Her work has also appeared in Glamour, The National Journal and The New Republic. Prior to founding Stranger's Guide, she served as Acting Publisher for the Texas Observer and currently chairs the Texas Democracy Foundation.
Kira Brunner Don is the Editor-in-Chief and co-founder of Stranger’s Guide. She worked as a magazine editor in New York for seventeen years and as a journalist in Eastern Europe and the Balkans. She studied philosophy at The New School’s Graduate Faculty and worked at a think tank at Columbia University before joining Lapham’s Quarterly, where she was Executive Editor for eight years. She has received two National Magazine Awards for General Excellence in her role as Editor-in-Chief of Stranger’s Guide and one National Magazine Award in Photography for her photo curation. In 2022 she was named the FOLIO: Eddie and Ozzie Award’s Editor of the Year. She is co-editor of the book The New Killing Fields: Massacre and the Politics of Intervention and was the co-founder of the Oakland Book Festival. She lives in Oakland, California with her two children.
