Mosaic

Johnston’s history as a Yankee farming town makes it hard for newcomers like Julius Kolawole to feel welcome farming the same soil. He’s doing it anyway.

In this episode of Mosaic, three generations of one family tell a history of Chinese migration, struggle, and the changing politics of identity that go into the creation and preservation of Chinese-American restaurants.

In this episode of Mosaic, we break fast with the Kinjawi family throughout the holy month of Ramadan to understand how living as Muslims in the US has allowed them to become both more Muslim and more American.

We pick up where we left off with the story of Pov Pech: he returns to Lowell after serving his sentence and tries out the straight and narrow life. But Pov’s past has already changed the course of his life and set him up on a path that, decades later, ends in deportation.

Pov Pech came to the US as a refugee and turned towards crime to solve his problems. He stole, fought, sold drugs, and even shot up a high school. Last summer, he was deported back to a country he barely knows, leaving his family and his American identity behind.

The coronavirus pandemic has been especially difficult for undocumented immigrants, like Mikayla’s parents. As a student at Brown University, Mikayla has spent the majority of 2020 trying to forge her own path through the Ivy League and a changing world all while dealing with the stress of her family back home.