Immigration

The Voices Project: Immigration

The Voices Project: Immigration is the fifth chapter in this series that highlights stories of real people from groups that are often misunderstood.   In this year-long visual and storytelling project over 60 students interviewed first and second-generation immigrants, refugees, and DACA recipients and crafted stories representing their immigration experiences.  The project kicked off with the Voices: Immigration exhibit, curated by Dr. Lalaine Little, Director of the Pauly Friedman Art Gallery.  The exhibit which showcased multimedia work from artists from Jamaica, Laos, Phillipines, Poland, and Ecuador.  Next, students were placed in a "Learning Community" of three shared courses:  Intro to Psychology (taught by Alicia Nordstrom, Psychology Department), Literature of Immigration (taught by Patrick Hamilton, English Department) and United States History since 1865 (taught by Allan Austin, History Department).  Through the joint experience of these courses, students learned about the immigration journies, identity conflicts and societal judgments and engaged in The Voices Project assignment of interviewing a volunteer that was a first- or second-generation immigration, refugee or DACA recipient.  Students crafted stories reflecting the main themes of their interviewee's experience through podcasts, videos, short memories, poetry, letters, one-act plays, children's books and more.  The project carried over into an upper-level course Psychology course the following semester to meet the demand of volunteers who wanted to share their stories.  The storytellers represented countries around the world from North America, South America, Africa and Asia. 

The project culminated with two major storytelling performances:

1. 80 Minutes Around the World:  Immigration Stories:  created by award-winning storyteller and author, Nestor Gomez (an 81-time winner of The Moth storytelling competitions). This captivating show showcased 8 immigrantion stories told live by the actual interviewees in The Voices Project: Immigration.  The storytellers included three nationally renown performances including Nestor Gomez (Chicago), John Gebtretatose (Minneapois) and Adam Wade (NYC) as well as Kevin Amaya, Lalaine Little and Mateusz Wosik.  The show was performed at Misericordia University, the F.M. Kirby Center and the Scranton Cultural Center in April, 2022.  
    

2. The Voices Project: Immigration Documentary shares the stories of five people from The Voices Project: Immigration who told their story live as part of the 80 Minutes Around the World: Immigration show at the Scranton Cultural Center.  The documentary also includes behind-the-scenes interviews with the storytellers and is offered with Spanish captions.  The documentary aired on WVIA in honor of National Immigrants Day and was promoted with one of the most listed to ArtScene podcasts (with host Erika Funke) of the year.   The film was screened live at R/C Theatres in Wilkes-Barre as a fundraiser for the Hazleton Integration Project as well as HUGE Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  

 

 

Click on the following links to the ArtScene interview with Alicia Nordstrom and Kevin Amaya as well as The Voices Project: Immigration Documentary with Spanish captions.  

 

The project was made possible by Drs. Allan Austin, Patrick Hamilton and Lalaine Little as well as the College of Arts and Sciences, Soyka Fund for the Humanities, Lackawanna Arts Council, and filmmaker Timothy McDermott.  Special thanks also go to the Sisters of Mercy for their commitment to supporting immigrant families and to the 60-plus students who made this project possible.