The collaborative community art project Stir-Fry, which uses art to focus on how people resettle into new communities and cultures, will culminate its semester-long activities with a series of free public events from 5 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, April 27, at the Iowa City/Johnson County Senior Center Assembly Room, 28 South Linn St., Iowa City.

The goal of Stir-Fry is to tell stories of how people came to Iowa from different parts of the world through the visual arts. Throughout the semester, workshops have been held at the Iowa City/Johnson County Senior Center. Students from the University of Iowa as well as community artists volunteered to help participants from as far as Liberia, Togo, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Puerto Rico share their stories through mixed media, print making, stop motion animation, and other art forms.

Artwork from the project will be displayed at the senior center during an exhibition and reception from 5 to 6 p.m. April 27. Following will be a presentation by Abdelgabar Mohieldin on the ethno-linguistic and political history of Sudan, which will provide background for discussion of the Sudanese communities and their experiences in Iowa City. Mohieldin is an Arabic reporter for the Department of the General Assembly of the United Nations Headquarters.

Rounding out the evening's events will be a performance from the Sudanese Community Choir from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. The group's choral work is based on traditional and popular Sudanese songs accompanied by Sudanese and western instruments and dance.

The Stir-Fry project was created by two UI students and is sponsored by the UI Center for Human Rights in International Programs, the School of Art and Art History in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, CARTHA, (which means doer in Sanskrit), and the Iowa City/Johnson County Senior Center.

For more information or special accommodations to attend, contact Robin Armstrong at 563-506-4635 or stirfryproject@gmail.com.