AMP: Artists' Meeting Place and Resource Collective

from Franklin Furnace

BRING A SUITCASE / ARTISTS CALL

Artists in Support of Freedom of Movement!

Artists against Deportation, Incarceration and the Separation of Families!

When our friends and neighbors are deported from the United States, their loved ones are told to pack a suitcase and bring it to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The suitcase, thoroughly examined by law enforcement, can’t weigh more than 25 lbs. This is the suitcase people leave with; these are the belongings they start over with. Some of our friends and neighbors are returning to countries they left as children. Sometimes they return to a place with little opportunity, where sexual freedoms are criminalized, a place at war or in drought. Sometimes it is a place of grave danger.

What would you take? What would you leave?

What would you pack for your lover? your brother? your mother? your daughter? your neighbor? a stranger?

We invite you to create a suitcase, for a real or a fictional friend, for a real journey or a fantastic journey. We invite you to imagine and engage the political, utopian, desperate, cosmic, deadly, and transcendent realities of migration. Your suitcase can be as elaborate or minimal a work as you wish.

ACTION On Thursday July 26, at 5 pm hundreds of us will surround the Federal Building in NYC with suitcases packed for deportation. Will you pack a suitcase? Will you join us?

We need your participation. Please forward and share with your networks. In a time of epic and deadly migration we send a signal to border crossers worldwide. Bring your suitcase yourself on July 26 or deliver it to us in NYC before July 25th.

contact and info: bringasuitcase@gmail.com

#WhatWouldYoutTake #NothingButASuitcase

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