I am an economic migrant. I came to Boston to improve my economic circumstances. Where I lived before, I was barely scraping by, cobbling together odd jobs and taking care of family. I moved here to pursue an education. I have stayed because the job I have pays much more than a similar job would where I am from.

My story is the same as many others, and reading that paragraph you may or may not make assumptions about who I am and what I look like.

However, pieces of my identity and appearance protect me and confer privilege: I have pale skin, strawberry blonde hair, I am tall and thin. While I grew up working class, my family always valued education, and I had access to spaces with class privilege.

I was born in the US, just in a different state.

I was an immigrant.

I moved to Spain in 2005, where I stayed for a few years, just as the EU expanded its membership. For the next two years while I waited in line to renew my ID as a legal resident, the Spanish Guardia Civil officers who were managing the line harassed my colleagues along side those new immigrants. Monocultural Spanish cultural machismo or straight-up racism caused them to declare Romanian, Hungarian, Polish, and Bulgarian immigrants “undesirable.” In line with them, we were collectively insulted and hyper bureacratized in a thinly veiled effort to discourage economic migrants.

Simultaneously, African immigrants fleeing wars and conflicts provoked by post-colonial fallout and climate change laid out pirated DVD’s and knock-off Coach bags on sheets in the middle of the tourist district called Puerta del Sol. Once, I saw an officer crash his motorcycle over one of their portable sales kiosks, toppling the man holding it as he did so. The casual hatred and violence towards people just like me was chilling.

A short ten years later in 2016 similar conflicts began to erupt in the US, except with cars and greater “collateral damage.” And now, in an effort to deny entry to even legal asylum-seekers and those with TPS the current administration is following a similar imprint: harassment and mercurial hyper-bureacratization.

Since I was a “desirable” immigrant and am a “desirable” migrant, then it is my responsibility to stand up for the rights of others and advocate for solutions.

In the United States, each of us has a story of how we came to live where we do. Whether our ancestors lived here and were pushed across the country, whether they were brought against their will, or like my family came of their own accord, we have stories of resilience, joy, fear, grief, love, and hope.

Urban Ecology

For many years I have tracked nature wherever I live, and noticed subtle seasonal changes. I spent years visiting on place every Sunday, snapping photos in order to catch the trout lilies and forget-me-nots. The videos which I propose to run in a loop in this room come from a series I call “Songs of Urban Ecology.”

As the seasons change, so has the climate, and the intense weather systems– heat, cold, storms– are only likely to increase.

These changes have affected Boston and Michigan where I am from adversely, but there is still water, and even the heat is still more temperate than many other places.

Other places have more extreme impacts: wild fires, droughts, and extreme heat cause worries for health and affect economic development. Battles over water rights are surging across the southeastern United States. Los Angeles was on fire last year. As resources become scarce people migrate first for economic reasons, and then if the decline continues to flee dangerous conditions and civil conflict.

Monarch Butterflies

Monarch butterflies, which migrate from Mexico to the United States have long been used as a symbol of the beauty and richness of migration. At the center of the room, alongside the videos, I propose to have a large butterfly inspired by the beauty of migration, with wings that sparkle and shine with repurposed materials, Visitors will be encouraged to share the story of how they came to Boston and add them to the cams and rotors visible on the automaton or on the wall opposite the video.

This country is made up of the stories of how each of us has ended up where we are, and most people have moved in their lives. Please share your story with us. Stand in solidarity with migrants. La migración es hermosa y ningún ser humano es ilegal. Migration is Beautiful and No Human Being is Illegal.

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You are Invited!!!

Jamaica Plain Open Studios

Saturday and Sunday, September 26-27 11AM-6PM

PLUS Saturday Night Glow-up Installation After Party

Please come and add your voice and story to this project.

Also on display will be, Kuunkukka, to which you can add your dreams!

…and maybe Mahtava, A.K.A. the Space Creature)

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If you can’t come… You can still support me:

You can purchase designed items featuring the artwork on this site at my Contrado Store!

Or follow me on Patreon