All are invited to participate in art and activism workshops from 3 to 5 p.m. on Friday April 13, and 20 at the 7th Street Studio.
DiazLewis are the inaugural Ekard Artists-in-Residence at Bucknell University through April 22. Based in Los Angeles, the duo, comprised of couple Cara Megan Lewis and Alejandro Diaz-Perera, make art together to prompt social change. Alarmed by the 2009 congressional mandate that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) should maintain a “bed quota” of no less than 34,000 detained immigrants per day in a network of 250 detention facilities, DiazLewis set out to make a pillow for every bed.
The artists construct pillows from clothing donated by undocumented immigrants, former detainees and their allies to form a collective patchwork of individual experiences.
Each object is sold for a donation of $159–the amount that the government spends daily per bed. These donations go to organizations and causes that provide alternatives to the detention system and that work to restore human dignity to those affected.