Messages to Our Neighbors

In summer 2021, artists Aram Han Sifuentes, Sarah Kolker, and Carolina Gomez worked with high school youth in the Mural Arts Education program on Messages to Our Neighbors. This project explored the intersection of citizenship, immigration, and belonging. Sifuentes’ art practice sits at the intersection of fiber, social practice, performance, and pedagogy. She creates socially engaged and materially rich projects that are accessible to those who are disenfranchised, particularly dispossessed immigrants of color. Messages to Our Neighbors included making protest banners to uplift young people’s concerns, and the creation of citizenship test samplers, which highlight the arduous process of becoming a U.S. citizen.

Inspired by Sifuentes’s ongoing project about public demonstration and open source activism, The Protest Banner Lending Library, Messages to Our Neighbors banners were installed at The Rail Park, blocks away from the students’ summer classroom, and were translated into beautiful billboards at 28 locations throughout the city to amplify the voices of youth and immigrants, both of which often go unheard.

Some of the phrases that the students came up with include:

-Tired of Waiting for Permission to Call America Home
-You Are Cared For And Loved No Matter Where You Are From
-Imagine What Our Country Would Look Like If Our Government Didn’t Spend So Much on the Military
-You Are The Future, Don’t Repeat The Past
-Fight Ignorance, Not Immigrants

This powerful banner and billboard series was celebrated during Mural Arts Month in October 2021 to amplify the voices of immigrants.

Location Note: This was a temporary project. Banners and billboards no longer on view at these locations.