“Music and Migration Remixed: A Conversation and Concert” explores how the arts help us frame challenges and explore solutions
Credit: Anthony Chen/Ethography for IAJS
How can people work across disciplines to support immigrant communities? Meklit Hadero, an Ethiopian American vocalist and songwriter, and six thought leaders who have made immigration a cornerstone of their work recently explored this question at “Music and Migration Remixed: A Conversation and Concert.”
The March 16 gathering – hosted by the Institute for Advancing Just Societies, and co-sponsored by the Institute for Diversity in the Arts, Stanford Arts, and the Department of Music – brought together scholars, musicians, and activists to discuss how community and relationship building can help make sense of the current moment.
“The Institute for Advancing Just Societies is built in part on the understanding that the arts help us to reflect on current conditions, help us imagine what could be, and inspire us to actually get there,” said Tomás Jiménez, IAJS founding faculty co-director and the Joan B. Ford Professor and professor in sociology in Stanford's School of Humanities and Sciences.
Celebrating wins
The first panel included Asad L. Asad, Stanford assistant professor of sociology, whose work focuses on immigrant communities, Dohee Lee, a Korean performance artist whose work includes performances, rituals, and workshops for community healing, and Cecillia Wang, national legal director of the ACLU.
Wang noted that celebrating community also means celebrating wins: in her case, legal victories for immigrant rights. The ACLU had brought 58 lawsuits, by the date of the event, against the current presidential administration and had been granted preliminary relief in 34 of them.
“Even though they are preliminary wins, they are vital, because they are a way to reaffirm our commitments to each other as members of a national community,” Wang said.
Connecting across a diaspora
The second panel included vocalist Diana Gameros; Nalan Sipar, a 2024-25 John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford; and Nunu Kidane, founding executive director of Priority Africa Network. Kidane voiced the confusion that many in the immigrant community are feeling.
“There’s a sense of incredulity in my community, asking, wait, didn’t this country fight for civil rights in 1964?” said Kidane, whose organization advocates for Black immigrant communities and fosters connections across the African diaspora. “Why are we bringing up questions of diversity and inclusion in 2025?”
Crossing boundaries
The panel discussions were followed by a performance by the Movement Immigrant Orchestra, which includes 10 immigrant musicians, among them percussionists from Panama and Italy, a ngoni player from Mali, and a South Indian classical saxophonist.
Individual musicians presented a piece, culminating in a lively number led by Obrayan Calderon, a trombonist from Cuba. He brought the entire audience to its feet to dance to a piece he wrote, “¡Dale Mambo!”
Credit: Anthony Chen/Ethography for IAJS
Diana Gamero, credit: Anthony Chen/Ethography for IAJS
Nikki Campbell, credit: Anthony Chen/Ethography for IAJS
Javi Jimenez, credit: Anthony Chen/Ethography for IAJS
Mamadou Sidibe, credit: Anthony Chen/Ethography for IAJS
Roziht Eve, credit: Anthony Chen/Ethography for IAJS
Safa Shokrai, credit: Anthony Chen/Ethography for IAJS
Marco Peris and Prasant Radhakrishnan, credit: Anthony Chen/Ethography for IAJS
Prasant Radhakrishnan, credit: Anthony Chen/Ethography for IAJS
Meklit Hadero, credit: Anthony Chen/Ethography for IAJS
Meklit Hadero and The Movement Immigrant Orchestra, Anthony Chen/Ethography for IAJS
“One thing that I firmly believe is that who we are is created by who we are around and who we interact with,” Lowery said. “And so I think one of the most important boundaries we cross is into someone else's world. When they give us the opportunity to engage with them, to understand where they came from, it allows us to expand who we are and who we can be as well.”