The Other Border Wall Project
Creative Resistance to Borders since 2017
The Other Border Wall Project, a multicultural team effort with Tereneh Idia and Leah Patgorski, continues to grow and mature. We now have a podcast, Other Border Wall, and our theme is Bridges Over Walls. We speak with incredibly interesting, talented, (and famous!!) people/artists/activists about the intersectional justice issues of immigration, borders, art and creativity. Hear us on all podcast platforms. We have received critical financial support for our ongoing efforts and upcoming planned exhibition at SPACE Gallery in Pittsburgh later this year from the
A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust Fund of The Pittsburgh Foundation, the Social Justice & Arts Grant from the Opportunity Fund, and the PNC Charitable Trust Grant.
Find us wherever you get your podcasts!
Listen on Anchor
Listen on Apple Podcasts
OTHER Recent highlights include:
The pittsburgh SOLIDARITY GUIDE
In collaboration with Asa Martinez of Brush Fire Press, we have launched the Pittsburgh Solidarity Guide. This is an online database of the organizations in Pittsburgh that are fiercely working for social justice, racial equity, and the lifting up of marginalized voices. This guide will continue to expand and grow, and will exist as its own URL site soon.
LAREDO ON THE LINE
Published interviews with the wonderful people of Laredo Texas, some of whom we met in 2018 and some whom we continue to meet and connect with online. This is how we stay on the line with Laredo, a place we hold so deeply in our hearts and one of the frontline communities in the fight against the wall. Short. personal interviews are released throughout the year at medium.com/other-border-wall as a gesture of friendship and connection.
EXHIBITION IN THE PITTSBURGH CULTURAL DISTRICT
Our 2020 initiatives were originally intended to culminate with an exhibition at 937 Gallery in Fall 2020. This is now postponed to 2021, and will feature a group show of artists from the US/MX border region curated by Laredo artist and educator Gil Rocha, a collection of propaganda from our Vote OBW 2020 campaign, and elements from our other 2020 initiatives. We look forward to sharing this with the public in a prominent art space of Pittsburgh’s Cultural District. The show will include public engagement that asks the community: what borders and bridges have you encountered in your life? In your city?
937 Gallery in downtown Pittsburgh (photo: Cultural District)
The Other Border Wall Proposals, 2017 - 2019
Working as J.M. Design Studio - Leah Patgorski, Tereneh Idia, Jenn Meridian
Phase One (Feb - April 2017): Ink drawings on paper, text, scanned and submitted as a PDF document to Customs and Border Protection
Phase Two (January - May 31, 2018): Request For Designs, website, exhibition, continued planning for the next phases, and more.
Phase Three (June 2018-June 2019): Broadside of Anita Endrezze’s poem printed by Commonwealth Press, planning for Phase 4.
About: The Other Border Wall Proposals were submitted by J.M. Design Studios on April 4, 2017 to the United States Customs and Border Protection Agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security for their "Other Border Wall" Request For Qualifications. J.M. Design Studios submitted six original ideas. The studio includes Tereneh Mosley, Leah Patgorski and myself. We are based in Pittsburgh, PA. This was Phase One of our commitment to remain in dogged step with this administration's attempts to build a wall.
Visit us here:
www.otherborderwallproject.com
@otherborderwall
Major Press Highlights from Phase One
Hyperallergic
The Verge
The Wall Street Journal
CNN Money
Time
NPR
Slate
The San Diego Union Tribune
The Guardian
The Chicago Tribune
The Verge
Business Insider
The Huffington Post
Next Pittsburgh
Public Radio International
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Alive for Football