About

Forty thousand foreign-born people live in Memphis. 

That’s nearly 6% of our city’s population. International Memphis sits at the intersection of culture and community to help you connect with this diverse segment of our city.

In 2016, International Memphis started as a small Facebook group. Now, it has over 800 members and is an active forum where international residents share information about things happening within their communities.

Do you have to be from another country to be a part of the International Memphis community? No way. You just need an interest in experiencing new cultures meeting people from around the globe.

International Memphis hosts and promotes events throughout the year, and partners with local institutions and organizations who want to recognize and highlight diverse cultures. Connect with us to to submit information, news, or events and help the international community in Memphis thrive.

Our Mission

BUILD COMMUNITY
Unify and activate the international community in Memphis to strengthen the social fabric of our city

HIGHLIGHT CULTURE
Encourage attendance at cultural events and be a resource for local organizations to diversify their programming

FOSTER CONNECTIONS
Maintain a directory of all things international in Memphis with way to engage with the diverse people and cultures of our city

• Co-directors: Raissa Borges and Nadine Assaf

• Communications Coordinator: Yancy Villa-Calvo

• Treasurer: Leonardo Vargas

• Digital Media Coordinator: Shahab Sadeghi

• Marketing Coordinator: Bienvenido Howard

• Events Coordinator: Queen Titile Keskessa

Our carefully assembled diverse advisory board of active and bright Memphians that will help drive it forward:

Suzy Mahjoub, David Quarles, Dan Price, Eddie Roe, Simanti Chatterjee, Sabine Langer, Daniel Bastardo, Vijay Surpuriya, and April Steele (not everyone is pictured)

Yasmine Omari is a Palestinian-American arts administrator, community organizer, photographer and panelist on topics of arts and culture.

" After years of extensive involvement with the Germantown International Festival (where international residents showcase their culture), I would see many ethnic groups in one room generously sharing their culture with others but the rest of the year these groups were scattered and rarely found in one place in Memphis. During the festival there is such a strong sense of community and cross-cultural exchange that I don’t see so often in Memphis. So I thought… wouldn’t it be great to connect and activate this community throughout the year!? I believe it is a necessity for our international residents to be more connected and in turn their needs will be met by the broader Memphis community.

I did some research after attending my first Germantown International Festival to find existing cultural organizations and started attending their events. All the events were open to the public but most only had people within their community attending. Some of these events were underfunded and could really use grant money from institutions such as TN Arts Commission and Arts Memphis (which most didn’t know about their grants). My next step was to help spread the word out about these cultural groups and their events so I created a Facebook group to have a place to share all of this. After returning from the Salzburg Global Seminar for Young Cultural Innovators in October 2017, I received a mini-grant through the program to develop a website for International Memphis. Now the information I have collected throughout the years will have a home on the web and I hope organizations and individuals can use it to their benefit. "
-Yasmine Omari