[This storytelling project has concluded]
A wife who deeply misses her husband. A son who just got home from playing basketball and wants to play with his dad. A daughter who is learning her ABCs.
These are the voices of people whose loved one — a father, a mother, a son, a daughter, a friend — is locked up in our vast immigration detention system. These are the voices you'll listen to in "Hear Together," a series of audio postcards that will play on radio stations in the Northeast to reach the ICE detention facilities in New Jersey and New York.
listen to Examples of our work
Our immigration detention system is built in such a way that it tears families and loved ones apart. Without access to legal counsel and without community support, many immigrants languish in detention, sometimes for months, sometimes for years. This is unconscionable.
By connecting families, friends, and community members on the outside with their loved ones on the inside, we hope to break the institutionalized and systemic barriers that keep people apart.
"Hear Together" is a project done in partnership with Nora Christiani and Nora Searle, who are second-year law students at New York University and student advocates with the NYU Immigrant Rights Clinic, under the supervision of Jessica Rofé, Immigrant Defense Fellow at the NYU Immigrant Rights Clinic. The project was done in collaboration with radio producer, artist, and journalist Sylvia Ryerson, who initially started sending audio postcards with families who had loved ones confined in the criminal legal system.
Pictured left: Jessica Rofé, Immigrant Defense Fellow, NYU Immigrant Rights Clinic (far left), and Janice Hoseine (far right), New Sanctuary Coalition Communications Coordinator with Anabella, General Manager of WMSC, and Frankie, at 90.3 WMSC-FM, the Voice of Montclair State, New Jersey.
Do you want to send a message?
If you are in the New York / New Jersey area: We will be working with family members of individuals detained in Orange, Hudson, Bergen and Essex Detention Centers to create 5-10 minute “Audio Postcards” from home. Each piece will capture sounds, music and messages from home, to be broadcast directly to those in detention via public radio. This project is free and no radio experience is necessary. Bilingual productions are welcome.
If you are interested in participating, or you have clients who may be interested in participating in this project, please contact us via email at voicesbeyondwalls@gmail.com or leave us a message at (732) 835-8479.
¿Quieres Transmitir un Mensaje de Audio?
Nuevo programa para familias de personas detenidas en Orange, Essex, Bergen and Hudson Centros de Detención para Inmigrantes: Una Colaboración entre Freedom for Immigrants, La Clínica de los Derechos de Inmigrantes de NYU, y Sylvia Ryerson.
Sylvia Ryerson, una premiada productora de radio, va a colaborar con Freedom for Immigrants y La Clínica de los Derechos de Inmigrantes de NYU para trabajar con familias para hacer sus propios crónicas de radio para sus seres queridos en los centros de detención de inmigración. Cada persona y/o familia va a hacer un postal de audio de 5 a 10 minutos, compartiendo sonidos, música, y mensajes de casa.
Es totalmente gratis y experiencia no es necesario.
Cada crónica de radio va a transmitir en una estación de radio local que llega a los que están detenidos en Orange, Elizabeth, Bergen y Hudson.
Para participar, mándenos un mensaje aquí: voicesbeyondwalls@gmail.com o aquí (732) 835-8479.