Two separate events focusing on immigration and the Somalian community in Columbus will take place this week.

“The Letter: An American Town and the Somali Invasion” will be screened at 7 p.m. May 10 at the Wexner Center for the Arts. A photography exhibition by Abdi Roble about the Columbus Somali community will open May 19 at the Riffe Gallery.

“The Letter” is about a new Somali community in Lewiston, Maine, that is thrown into turmoil when a letter from the town’s mayor surfaces, asking the Somali community to refrain from inviting family member to town.

“We believe that the issues raised in ‘The Letter’ are very relevant to the Columbus community in light of the fact that Columbus has the second largest Somali population in the U.S.,” said Liz Alcalde, marketing manager for the Wexner Center in an e-mail message. “We want to bring together students and the community to talk openly about issues that impact not only the university, but Columbus and the world.”

After the film, there will be a discussion panel on race, ethnicity, cultural adaptation, cultural acceptance and other issues related to immigration in Columbus.

The Wexner Center is expecting a large group because of the topic and the panel of discussion, said Karen Simonian, spokeswoman for the Wexner Center.

One of the panelists will be Roble, a photojournalist and Somali immigrant who has documented the Somali community in Columbus for the past two-and-a-half years.

“The main idea of the project is to document the Somali community before assimilation takes place,” Roble said. “The second reason is to educate the hosting community and the third is to bring international attention to what is happening back in Somali.”

Roble’s work covers a broad scope of the Somali community from families that have lived a few weeks in the United States to those that have made Columbus their home for many years. These established family members work, go to school, own businesses, get married and have families of their own.

“We want to tell our own story,” Roble said. “It is my responsibility as a photographer to tell our own story.”

After the exhibition, Roble said his work will travel to Minneapolis.

“There are some people not receptive to (the) Somali community in Columbus, but in large (part) the community (has) been welcome,” said Tariq Mohamed, another panelist and career consultant for Jewish Family Services. “There are companies like The Limited, U.S. Postal Service and many others that provided work opportunities to many Somalis.”

The language barrier is a significant challenge for Somali youth in Columbus looking to adjust to American culture while maintaining their own Somali culture, Mohamed said.