Author: mwietecha

This short documentary was produced by Maureen Wietecha, ICOA's spring 2017 intern. It provides an overview of ICOA work and features interviews with Raza Rumi, our current writer in residence, as well as three of our board members, Barbara Adams, David Guaspari, and Kate Klein.

This article was originally published on Ithaca.com.  Catholic Charities of Tompkins/Tioga has announced the first family to come to Tompkins County through the agency’s refugee resettlement program is scheduled to arrive later this month. “After months of preparation, Catholic Charities of Tompkins/Tioga (CCTT) was approved by the U.S. State Department last October as a Refugee [...]

Thank you to everyone who attended the Cornell Middle Eastern Music Ensemble Concert at Cinemapolis on Thursday, February 9th. This event had an outstanding turnout. We sold 99 tickets, and as the theater only sat 87 people, we had to bring in extra chairs! Thanks to this large audience, we raised about $1200 to go towards [...]

 ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1 EDITION OF THE ITHACA TIMES. WRITTEN BY LISA LAFFEND.  Freedom of speech is a crucial part of the United States’ foundation.  As citizens, we use and abuse it daily.  “Here in America, we sort of take it for granted,” says Joseph Prusch, the director of the Cornell University [...]

Our resident writer, Raza Rumi, wrote an op-ed for the New York Times on January 20, 2017. Read it below or on the New York Times website  Since Jan. 4, at least five bloggers and activists have disappeared in Pakistan. Perhaps the best known is Salman Haider, a poet and academic who has been a vocal opponent of religious [...]