“Refugee Status for the Undocumented”
Collaborators’ Q&A: Artist Michele l’Heureux: I was really moved by how different the person in this poem’s life experience is from my own—that one could be so relieved or desperate to be in a new, presumably safer place that they would allow themselves to imagine all the atrocities that secure their rightful spot in a new country. Poet Jae Elim: I would love to see this broadside posted at immigration entry points and airports. I want people to think about what kind of privilege they have or do not have when they enter any geographical space.
Artist Michele l’Heureux has spent the last decade as an artist and curator, designing and building dozens of contemporary art exhibitions, which include her own work, at a range of university and nonprofit galleries. Poet Jae Elim is a scholar and artist whose work interrogates the challenges of the immigrant in the United States. Note: Jae Elim is a pseudonym that the poet feels is important to use given the current political climate.