Name: ‘We The Immigrants’ photo exhibit on Payne Avenue latest in project to elevate immigrant voices
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‘We The Immigrants’ photo exhibit on Payne Avenue latest in project to elevate immigrant voices

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By | The faces looking out from the storefront on St. Paul’s Payne Avenue say a lot. Without saying a word.Below the bright blue Café Lilla sign and on top of the building’s boarded up windows are dozens of immigrant faces. The black-and-white prints are part of the East Side’s latest outdoor art installation, “We The Immigrants.” It’s a partnership between Second Shift Studio Space and Brooklyn Rail.“” was initially started by Brooklyn Rail, an arts, culture, and politics journal from Brooklyn, N.Y. The journal’s original project organizes immigrants along with their name, country of origin and year of birth into a layout partially inspired by the layout of Zoom. On the Rail’s “about” page for the project, the site describes Zoom as “a grid that humanizes the diverse participants of our forum.”St. Paul’s Second Shift Studio Space, a nonprofit resident program and art space started by East Side residents Chris Larson and Kriss Zulkosky, connected with the Brooklyn magazine thanks to Phong Bui. Bui is the publisher and artistic director of the Brooklyn Rail and also on the board of directors for Second Shift. He reached out to Larson about starting the Minnesota version of the project.The project was spurred by a desire over the last several years to elevate immigrant voices, which are often overlooked. While Larson does not feel he has a strong personal tie to immigration, his grandfather was an Austrian immigrant, he does feel strongly about the people in the project.“As I look at these artists,” Larson said of portraits on Café Lillia, “These are all people in my circles in the Twin Cities who have made an impact on my life.”Larson hopes the project will not only raise awareness but help create a dialogue and recognize the contribution of immigrants to the community. Bui echoed this in a press release for the project saying he hopes the project will “provide common ground that immigration policy is a quintessential part of American identity.”After reaching out to friends, artists, designers, and curators for portraits, Larson, who is also a professor in the art department at the University of Minnesota, curated photos with the help of two graduate students.The photos still feature names, country of origin and birth years; but while the Brooklyn Rail’s portion of the partnerships is an ongoing online project, even featuring links to Wikipedia pages for more information on immigrants in the display, Minnesota’s version is just physical. Both Larson and the Rail’s portion of the project have no set end dates, and plan to continue adding portraits.Second Shift Studio Space’s “We the Immigrants” is available to view on the outside of Café Lilla, 1110 Payne Ave. To view Brooklyn Rail’s “We the Immigrants,” visit .We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. We reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.Sign up for Newsletters and AlertsFollow UsMost PopularClose

By | The faces looking out from the storefront on St. Paul’s Payne Avenue say a lot. Without saying a word.Below the bright blue Café Lilla sign and on top of the building’s boarded up windows are dozens of immigrant faces. The black-and-white prints are part of the East Side’s latest outdoor art installation, “We The Immigrants.” It’s a partnership between Second Shift Studio Space and Brooklyn Rail.“” was initially started by Brooklyn Rail, an arts, culture, and politics journal from Brooklyn, N.Y. The journal’s original project organizes immigrants along with their name, country of...

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Emma Chekroun

Twin Cities news, sports, politics, entertainment and business from the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Minnesota's first newspaper.

‘We The Immigrants’ photo exhibit on Payne Avenue latest in project to elevate immigrant voices

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