Description/purpose of the event
The Human Rights and Humanitarian Policy Concentration at SIPA, in collaboration with HRE USA, the Human Rights Working Group, and ARTE, invites you to join us for a panel conversation on immigration and detention in the United States.
Immigration policy and mass incarceration represent today one of the main sites of human rights abuses and violations in the US. The criminalization of displaced peoples, in its turn, is part of a broader context of securitization of borders worldwide, a notion that contributes to and strengthens regimens of surveillance and detention advanced by States. The bodies targeted by this trend are gendered and racialized, as black and brown populations from the Global South try to access Europe and the US. The resistance to repressive and regressive policy occurs in many forms, from rights advocacy to political art.
With that in mind, the panel seeks to bring together community-based artists and organizers, academics, immigration advocates and attorneys to discuss insights and intersections between their work. The discussion will also explore the ways in which community art can be mobilized as a form of resistance, and the event will allow attendees to support policy advocacy and engage in community art.
Guiding questions for the panel:
1. How do the themes of criminalization of migration and displacement fit on the broader discussion of mass incarceration?
2. In what ways/contexts can art be used as a form of resistance when it comes to immigration and detention
Program:
Engaging Art......................................................... 5:30-6:30 pm
Food provided by Eat OffBeat
● Live art activity led by Marissa Gutierrez-Vicardo, Director of ARTE, and the SIPA Students of Color Association
● Curated art exhibit, organized by Pastor Isaac Scott
Panel Discussion................................................... 6:30-7:30 pm
● Opening Remarks by Marissa Gutierrez-Vicardo
● Pastor Isaac Scott, Program Director, The Confined Arts and Justice-in-Education Scholar
● Professor Geraldine Downey, Director of the Columbia University Center for Justice
● Angy Rivera, Co-Executive Director at New York State Youth Leadership Council
● Ximena Ospina, Trans activist and founder of the undocumented student group at Columbia University
● Tsion Gurmu, Legal Director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), Founder and Director of the Queer Black immigrant project (QBip),
● Moderated by: Khalil A. Cumberbatch, Chief Strategist, New Yorkers United for Justice
Take Action! and Reception................................ 7:30-8:30 pm
Wine and treats!
● Letter petitions to the US Civil Rights Commission on the Status of Immigrant Treatment in Detention Centers (Human Rights Working Group/Migration Working Group)
● HRHP Podcast subscription (HRHP/HRWG)
