Barkhad Abdirahman

Originally born in the city of Galkayo a city located in the northcentral region of Somalia Barkhad lived most of his life in the CedarRiverside neighborhood in the south side of Minneapolis Emerging from a predominantly lowincome East African immigrant community Barkhad was actively exposed to an environment that is rich and abundant in many forms of arts across a spectrum of many cultures The CedarRiverside neighborhood houses the highest concentration of Somalis The Somali Diasporas manifestation in the arts of poetry has given them the name the nation of poets A Stray an independent film shot in the heart of CedarRiverside starting Barkhad himself gives viewers a glimpse of his actual background His film credits range from his role in Captain Philips a 2013 Sony production A Stray a 2016 production to his recently Oscar nominated film Watu Wote All of us