LEWISTON – Dance, food and stories will be the centerpieces of a celebration honoring refugees Friday at the Lewiston Public Library and Kennedy Park.

World Refugee Day Maine 2008 is being sponsored by the state, the cities of Portland and Lewiston, Catholic Charities Maine and Maine businesses and nonprofit agencies.

The event will begin at 3 p.m. in the Lewiston Public Library with dance performances and local refugees recounting how they fled war and came to Maine. Interpreters speaking Somali, Somali Maay Maay, Arabic and French will be on hand.

Khadra Jama, a junior at the University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College, will be the featured keynote speaker. Originally from Somalia, Jama is double-majoring in leadership and organizational studies and social and behavioral sciences. She works for the Office of Community Service at USM L-A and part-time in outreach relief at New Beginnings, a nonprofit agency that serves youths who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

The event will move to Kennedy Park later that afternoon. The plan calls for a festival with display tables offering free ethnic foods and ethnic music and dance from the Acholi, Rwandese, Cambodian and Somali communities. Festivities continue until 7 p.m.

The park festivities will move indoor to the Lewiston Multi-Purpose Center, 145 Birch St., in case of rain.