Waterwell Launches THE FLORES EXHIBITS: CONVERSATIONS AROUND THE COUNTRY
Conceived by Waterwell artistic director Lee Sunday Evans, The Flores Exhibits aims to effect change in our immigration system through narrative-driven advocacy.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Sep. 21, 2020
Last year, Waterwell, the celebrated New York-based company whose work grapples with the pressing social, economic and political questions of our time, created The Flores Exhibits, a collection of videos in which high-profile artists, lawyers, advocates, and immigrants read the testimonies of children held in detention facilities at the U.S. Border. Waterwell has now partnered with organizations nationwide to present The Flores Exhibits: Conversations around the Country, a series of virtual events in which the videos spark conversations about U.S. immigration policy. The project follows Waterwell's acclaimed recent production The Courtroom, which re-enacted one woman's immigration court proceedings and was described as "riveting" in The New York Times' Best Theater of 2019. Please see below for a schedule of upcoming Flores Exhibits events, which are concentrated in four key 2020 election states: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
Conceived by Waterwell artistic director Lee Sunday Evans, The Flores Exhibits aims to effect change in our immigration system through narrative-driven advocacy. Their source is a body of testimonies gathered in June 2019 by a team of lawyers visiting detention facilities as monitors for the 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement, which set limits on the length of time and conditions under which children can be held in immigration detention. (The rules were upheld by a 2017 court order in Flores v. Sessions.) The lawyers last year discovered severely detrimental conditions, including child separations from families continuing a full year after the executive order ending that policy. In response, members of the team reached out to artists, the media, and community leaders to help share the stories of the people affected and advocate for legal protections for children in government care.
In each of the videos comprising The Flores Exhibits, the reader reads strictly what is presented in one of the children's sworn testimonies. The readers include Elizabeth Rodriguez ("Orange is the New Black"), Sakina Jaffrey ("House of Cards"), Kathleen Chalfant (Wit, "The Affair"), David Schwimmer ("Friends"), Malina Weisman ("A Series of Unfortunate Events"), Arian Moayed (Waterwell Co-Founder, "Succession"), Bitta Mostofi (Commissioner of the NYC Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs), Jeffrey S. Chase (former immigration judge), David Henry Hwang (playwright, M. Butterfly, Chinglish), and Luis Mancheno (immigration lawyer and refugee from Ecuador).
The Flores Exhibits: Conversations around the Country
September 24 Milwaukee, WI University of Wisconsin
September 24 Canton, OH Bibles, Badges and Business Conference
September 30 Philadelphia, PA ACLU of Pennsylvania, state-wide event
September 30 Bowling Green, OH La Conexion
October 6 Detroit, MI Freedom House
October 6 Philadelphia, PA Drexel University Law School
October 7 Milwaukee, WI Marquette Law School
October 8 Detroit, MI University of Detroit, Mercy
October 13 Cincinnati, OH Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center
October 15 Madison, WI University of Wisconsin Law School
October 27 Grand Rapids, MI Christian Reformed Church, Social Justice Office
All videos in The Flores Exhibits can be viewed now at www.flores-exhibits.org. The site also includes more information about the Flores Settlement Agreement, tools to grow your own advocacy, and contact information for help arranging additional public events using The Flores Exhibits videos to mobilize community-organizing efforts.
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