Felipe Salles' 'The New Immigrant Experience' Returns for Immigration and Citizenship Celebration
The musical event will conclude a two-day immigration and citizenship celebration hosted by UMass Amherst
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On April 4, professor of jazz studies in the department of music and dance Felipe Salles will reprise his award-winning work “The New Immigrant Experience” to conclude "Immigration, Citizenship, and Belonging: Two Days of Discussion, Debate, and Celebration," a two-day immigration and citizenship celebration hosted by UMass Amherst and the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. The event is sponsored in part by the College of Humanities and Fine Arts.
“The New Immigrant Experience” is a powerful new work inspired by the lives of “Dreamers,” the more than 3.6 million individuals currently protected by DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Written by Salles and developed with the aid of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship, the work uses speech cadences and melodic motifs based on key words as its main source of musical material. The compelling and personal stories were collected through video interviews with a representative group of Dreamers during the summer of 2018. Their personal stories, experiences of growing up bilingual and undocumented, also informed musical choices.
Prior to Salles's performance, the university will host a book talk by Suketu Mehta, author of "This Land is Our Land: An Immigrant’s Manifesto"; a discussion on immigration and citizenship by UMass scholars; art exhibitions; and a Naturalization Ceremony for approximately 200 new citizens, which is scheduled to be held on April 4 in coordination with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.