What effect has the loss of the familiar architecture of migrants’ homes had on their sense of identity? Equally, what effect has settling in the new built environment had on their well-being?

This is a collaboration with with the Refugee Dream Center — a resettlement agency founded and run by refugees in Providence, Rhode Island. For two months, I was welcomed into the homes of two Syrian families through volunteering to teach them English. I also frequented the center, grew closer with the staff and occasionally joined in their programming. I invited them to draw maps from memory with me, of neighborhoods lived and loved.

I listened closely for clues on how they adapted to their new environment, and what traces of home they still carried. At the end of each day I took home the fragments of our conversations and reimagined them with my own brush.