Scholar Performance
Tessa was featured with her chamber group on the national radio program 'From the Top'.
Scholars Around the World
Two JKCF Scholars organize a 15-day study tour to Bolivia to explore the country’s political economy, peoples and rural development
Amir Husak
"For someone who has twice had to learn the language of a new nation, engagement with an art form that communicates across cultures, classes, political boundaries and other borders, real and imagined, is no small discovery."
- Alumni of: 2006 Graduate Scholarship Program
- Resides: Brooklyn, NY
- Hometown: BIhac, Bosnia & Herzegovina
- Age: 37
- Community College: n/a
- Four-year College or University: Wayne State University
- Graduate School: The New School
- Academic/Career Pursuits: Arts / Music / Performance, Education / Academia, Film, Film, New Media
- Other Interests: Foreign Languages / International Study, Volunteer Work, Musician, Activist for Historic Preservation
Biography
Amir Husak was 17 and finishing high school in a farming hamlet in Bosnia-Herzegovina when his mother sent him and a sister to join their father in Germany, refugees from the bloody war then erupting. Six years later, with Germany poised to expel Bosnian refugees, he visited his sister in Detroit and began a second life as a refugee. Ironically, he found the city's decay "to be shockingly inspiring and eye-opening" and its "extreme social divisions to be a spellbinding example of cultural clashes and modern misconceptions."
He returned to school, to focus and strategize. He had a band in Bosnia and started another in Detroit. In Germany, he studied audio engineering and worked on commercial productions. At Wayne State, he began to experiment with film and video and won plaudits for documentaries and public service advertisements. One professor said it was rare to find such a combination of technical competence, intellectual inquisitiveness and aesthetic creativity.
Amir approaches The New School in New York with confidence and a solid foundation for learning more. He wants his work to "mediate between cultures, put a spotlight on important social issues and initiate public discourse." He also hopes to keep connected with young filmmakers in the Balkans, to help them reach their goals as his way to "contribute to the healing process."
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Natalie Manley
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