Playwright shares how Somali migration changed her life

FARMINGTON — Maine writer and performer Cheryl Hamilton will bring her one-woman show, “Checkered Floors,” to the Emery Community Arts Center at the University of Maine at Farmington on Wednesday, Feb. 1.

The 7:30 p.m. performance is open to the public with requests for donations at the door.

“Checkered Floors” is about a recent college graduate who returns to Maine amid the arrival of 1,500 Somali migrants. The story revolves around the hilarity and horrors of her homecoming as she works to help her new neighbors make homes of their own.

Filled with heart and humor, Hamilton’s play is a window into her personal experience of how the Somali migration to Maine changed her life. It

The drama workshopped at the Emerging Artist Theater’s “One Woman Standing” festival in New York City and premiered in 2008 at a World Refugee Day celebration in Baltimore.

Since then, “Checkered Floors” has been performed at colleges, conferences and community theaters across the country. It made its Maine premier in Portland in 2010 and its hometown premier in Lewiston in 2011.

Hamilton began her career in the refugee field in Maine during the 2002 Somali migration and has dedicated herself to supporting refugee integration. She worked as national coordinator for RefugeeWorks at Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service in Baltimore and the Center for Preventing Hate in Portland. She manages communications for the international organization RefugePoint in Boston.

“Checkered Floors” includes subject matter not appropriate for children.

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