Art, Media and Immigration Topic of Symposium

The Amer­i­can Stud­ies and Chi­cana and Chi­cano Stud­ies hosts day-long sym­po­sium, “Every­day Prac­tices of Pop­u­lar Power: Art, Media and Immi­gra­tion,” Fri­day, Nov. 9, to con­vene “artivists,” stu­dents, edu­ca­tors and com­mu­nity mem­bers to dis­cuss recent works by artists and media mak­ers that address immi­gra­tion issues in the United States.

In recent years, a new gen­er­a­tion of immi­grant artists and, in par­tic­u­lar, youth activists have used a vari­ety of art and media forms to orga­nize and inspire young peo­ple most affected by harsh immi­gra­tion leg­is­la­tion. They cre­ate col­lec­tive spaces for youth empow­er­ment thereby strength­en­ing local and national networks.

All those at the sym­po­sium will fore­front human rights and human dig­nity in the pub­lic dis­cus­sions involv­ing immi­grant rights and immi­gra­tion legislation.

Draw­ing on asso­ci­a­tions and affil­i­a­tions with other social move­ment groups, transna­tional youth are form­ing spe­cific alliances and net­works to pro­mote human rights.

The sym­po­sium also fea­tures a Dig­i­tal Media Dis­play of works by Transna­tional artivists.

Media Con­tact: Car­olyn Gon­za­les (505) 277‑5920; email: cgonzal@unm.edu