Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman's Quest to Make a Difference

UMBC is excited to host Warren St. John, author of Outcasts United, the text selected for our 2011 New Student Book Experience.

The publisher notes:

Outcasts United is the story of a refugee soccer team, a remarkable woman coach and a small southern town turned upside down by the process of refugee resettlement.

In the 1990s, that town, Clarkston, Georgia, became a resettlement center for refugees from war zones in Liberia, Congo, Sudan, Iraq and Afghanistan. The town also became home to Luma Mufleh, an American-educated Jordanian woman who founded a youth soccer team to help keep Clarkston’s boys off the streets. These boys named themselves the Fugees -- short for refugees.

Outcasts United follows a pivotal season in the life of the Fugees, their families and their charismatic coach as they struggle to build new lives in a fading town overwhelmed by change. Theirs is a story about resilience, the power of one person to make a difference and the daunting challenge of creating community in a place where people seem to have little in common.

This free, public talk is co-sponsored by UMBC's Office of Undergraduate Education, Office of Institutional Advancement, the Dresher Center for the Humanities, and the Division of Student Affairs.