Rep. Ilhlan Omar is a featured speaker at Faribault’s Know Your Neighbors event Saturday, Sept. 16. Omar is the first Somali-American to be elected to a legislature position in the United States. Know Your Neighbors is an annual event in Faribault, established in 2016, to celebrate diversity in the community. (Photo by Niti Gupta)
A man hands out job information to those in attendance at the 2016 Somali community event in Faribault. The event has since been developed into Know Your Neighbors and is intended to bring all of Faribault’s cultures together for celebration. (Daily News file photo)
Rep. Ilhlan Omar is a featured speaker at Faribault’s Know Your Neighbors event Saturday, Sept. 16. Omar is the first Somali-American to be elected to a legislature position in the United States. Know Your Neighbors is an annual event in Faribault, established in 2016, to celebrate diversity in the community. (Photo by Niti Gupta)
A man hands out job information to those in attendance at the 2016 Somali community event in Faribault. The event has since been developed into Know Your Neighbors and is intended to bring all of Faribault’s cultures together for celebration. (Daily News file photo)
Not often does a Faribault community event feature the current cover star of Time magazine. It’ll happen Saturday, as state Rep. Ilhlan Omar — the nation’s first ever Somali legislator — serves as a featured speaker at the Know Your Neighbors get-together.
The second annual Know Your Neighbors, hosted at Central Park, takes place 1-5 p.m. Saturday. Omar, one of 12 individual cover stars for Time Magazine’s “Firsts” edition, will speak on the the park stage, as will Victor Contreras, founder of Centro Campesino — an Owatonna-based nonprofit that works to improve the lives of Latino and migrant community members.
“The neighbors celebration is about coming together for the Somali community, the Latino community, the white community and everybody else,” said Cynthia Gonzales, a member of Communities Without Borders, which organized the event.
In 2016, an alternative version of Know Your Neighbors kicked off at Central Park. It was informal and referred to as a Somali community event. The get-together drew in a crowd of around 200 with little advertising, so Know Your Neighbors planners hope this year’s more organized festivity could double in attendance.
Rather than making the event Somali-specific, members of Community Without Borders — a group established late 2016 to help make Faribault a more welcoming community — looked to widen reach.
“We wanted to have speakers and events that would provide a good mix of different cultures,” Without Borders member Joy Watson said. “This year, we’ll mainly be working with Somali and Latino cultures, but we’re hoping to expand that even more in the future.”
In addition to Omar’s and Contreras’ speeches, dancers and a mobile show from the Somali Museum of Minnesota will be on site. An Aztec dance group from Northfield will also perform.
Proceedings will be family friendly with pinatas, bounce houses, henna tattoos and face painting available. And, of course, food will be served.
While the featured speakers and activities center around Somali and Latino cultures, the guest list is open to all. Organizers hope the event serves as a pathway for all facets of the Faribault community to positively interact.
“There have been many tragedies in this country, so this is a time to support each other, to highlight and enhance that there are good qualities in all cultures,” Gonzales said. “It’s important, because the demographics in Faribault are changing, so we want to be part of the community. We are here. We have businesses. We are in schools. We just want to build bridges.”
Reach Reporter Philip Weyhe at 507-333-3132 or follow him on Twitter @nfnphilweyhe.
