The Times Record
Tuesday October 9, 2018
On Tuesday, Oct. 9 at 6:30 p.m., Patten Free Library in Bath will host Portland resident Abdi Nor Iftin for a book talk and signing of “Call Me American: A Memoir.”
As a child in Somalia Iftin learned English by listening to American pop artists like Michael Jackson and watching films starring action heroes like Arnold Schwarzenegger. When the radical Islamist group al-Shabaab rose to power in 2006, Iftin used his language skills to post secret dispatches to National Public Radio and on the internet. As life in Somalia grew more dangerous, Iftin fled to Kenya as a refugee before entering the U.S. Parts of his story were first heard on the BBC World Service and This American Life.
Now a resident of Maine and on the path to citizenship, will be studying political science at the University of Southern Maine