MOCA Cleveland is partnering with For Freedoms, an artist-run Super PAC founded by artists Hank Willis Thomas and Eric Gottesman, in a two-year residency focused on a series of free, quarterly Town Hall discussions. Co-produced with The City Club of Cleveland, the nation’s oldest continuous forum for free speech, these programs provide safe platforms for topical conversations that seek to encourage a more active, collaborative, inclusive, and empathic community.
Inspired by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s historic Four Freedoms speech outlining four essential human rights, the September program explores freedom from fear through the subject of migration. This event features panelists born outside of the United States who now live in this country, many of them in Cleveland. Using a method called Question Bridge, the panelists--along with anyone in the audience who self-identifies as an immigrant--will ask and respond to each other’s questions. The discussion will address both personal experiences transcending boundaries and finding community and also broader perspectives on how the movement of people influences society and culture over time. Audience members who do not self-identify as immigrants will be privileged listeners to this dialogue.
Panelists include:
Glory Brissett, Case Manager, Catholic Charities of Cleveland (Democratic Republic of Congo)
Abraham Cruzvillegas, Conceptual Artist (Mexico)
Hany ElHibir, Account Director, New Business Development, and Co-Founder, 42connect (Sudanese Croatian)
Murat Gurer, Sales & Marketing, Taazaa LLC (Turkey)
Leen Midani, Recruitment Coordinator, Alexander Mann Solutions (Syria)
Navid Tavoli, Business Intelligence Intern, The MetroHealth System (Iran)
Moderated by Jorge Sanchez, researcher at the Cesar Chavez Institute and the Center for Research on Gender and Sexuality in San Francisco.
Introductions by Hank Willis Thomas, Co-founder of For Freedoms, and Dan Moulthrop, CEO of The City Club of Cleveland.
Free and open to all